Immigration Crisis and the Church (Allan Bevere)

Allan Bevere, a friend and pastor in Ohio, offers a fresh alternative to political wrangling. What is the church to do?, he asks.

In other words, the church that exists in America needs to say to the powers that be in Washington DC, you would be a better and more just nation if you found a place of these children. But, first and foremost, the burden of the biblical concern for the stranger and the alien and the oppressed must be borne by the people of God, the church. So, I put the following questions to the church, the only truly Christian nation in the history of humanity (1 Peter 2:9). (America is not a Christian nation; it was a nation founded in a Christendom context. There is a big difference.) I ask these question, not only to my Christian readers. I am asking myself these same questions:

First, for those of us who believe that these children should be taken in because Jesus would do so, are we willing to open up our homes to at least one child? It’s easy for us to tell others to do so, but are we willing to, as the old adage goes, “put up or shut up”? And if we are truly unable to take in a child, how much money are we willing to offer to assist someone who does? And simply saying that you are willing to pay a few more dollars in taxes isn’t good enough. Radical hospitality and extravagant generosity consist in much more.

Second, there are approximately 70,000 refugee children currently in the United States. There are approximately 350,000 Christian congregations in the United States. What if out of all those churches 70,000 of them decided to take in one refugee child to feed and clothe and educate and to offer the love of Jesus? Is anyone going to try to argue that such an endeavor would be too much of a burden? One child for each congregation?

Of course, someone might say that while it is terrible that these children are in need, we can hardly take care of our own. When I hear kind of comment I ask, what do you mean by “our own?” As followers of Jesus, as those devoted to the one who died for all people, these children are our own. They are the “least of these.” They bear the face of Jesus. Christians should never use the words “our own” in a way to suggest that there are others who are not “our own.”

By the way, neither is inaction acceptable, nor is sending these children back to the chaos of their home countries with the justification that the problem stems from dysfunctional and corrupt governments in Central America and they need to deal with the problems instead of us. Well, yes they indeed do need to get their governmental houses in order, but the Bible never, ever tells God’s people that radical hospitality and extravagant generosity is conditional. How and why these children became refugees is irrelevant to how God’s people respond.

How can the followers of Jesus turn away children who bear the face of Jesus, the one who is a stranger hoping to be invited into the warmth and love of God’s unlimited grace? How can the church, called to risk-taking mission and service, reject its responsibilities for the sake of its own comfort?

Jesus is a stranger at the border. Will we invite him into our presence and care?