Help! The refugee crisis: What’s the Christian way to reduce terrorism?

Should the government move to restrict egress based on nothing but “what might happen,” especially refugees seeking asylum are fleeing home-grown wars, then there is only one proper Christian response: “Bring them to me. I will care for them.”

Dear Thoughtful Pastor: “Is there a better, more Christian way to minimize terrorism threats in the long run from immigrants coming to the U.S. from Muslim majority nations than to ban them outright until extreme vetting is completed?”

Let me start with a story: One of my daughters-in-law is from Colombia. At the time she was seeking her Green Card and eventual US citizenship, the State Department has classified Colombia as a terrorist country. I got to witness at close hand just how complicated it is to come to the US, especially after 9/11.

For my highly educated daughter-in-law, the process took five years, several appeals to US Senators, multiple interviews with the Department of Homeland Security and significant amounts of money for attorneys. The problem for her was that my son had worked and lived overseas for most of their marriage. Both of their sons were born outside the US.

The uniqueness of their situation played havoc with the usual rules. Nonetheless, even the most straightforward of paths to citizenship twists and turns with laborious complexity.

I watched proudly on the day as she and 147 others stood and took the oath of allegiance.

“I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the armed forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.”

When they finished the oath, every single one of the newest citizens of the US had tears streaming down their faces. So did I.

We already have extreme vetting for refugees

The truth: We already have in place the “extreme vetting” needed to keep the US reasonably safe. The processes are long and complicated, both for more run-of-the-mill immigrants AND refugees.

Furthermore, most of the terrorist acts done in the US since 2001 have been brought about by people born in the US. Keeping out refugees guarantees that the most vulnerable will take the hardest hits.

Also, the more “safe” we want to be (depending on how we define safety), the fewer civil rights all of us will have.

Should the government move to restrict egress based on nothing but “what might happen,” especially refugees seeking asylum are fleeing home-grown wars, then there is only one proper Christian response: “Bring them to me. I will care for them.”

In this uniquely religious nation, we started on an equally unique basis: everyone is welcome. Except for the few left with a direct line to Native Americans, every one of us comes from immigrant stock. Many of us have ancestors that were fleeing oppressive regimes. We live today because the US let them in yesterday.

Migrants have also always caused tensions.

Sometimes people are welcomed that we regret later. Sometimes we get hurt by them. It doesn’t happen often. The horrors of 9/11 led to correcting mistakes in immigration laws.  We have a right to protect ourselves. We do so admirably well already.

But when we retreat to suspicion, fear, and high walls and non-welcome, we violate the foundation of Christianity.

As religious people, especially when calling ourselves Christian, we own a set of duties far past citizenship responsibilities. The core of our faith centers on the hospitality of God. We, strangers to God by our nature, find welcome without prejudice into the kingdom of heaven.

The ethos of hospitality to the stranger informs the earliest stories of faith development in the deserts of the Middle East. The theme of God’s embrace of all continued through the final biblical stories. The mandate to care for the oppressed and helpless anchors our faith firmly to its holy base.

When we choose safety as the primary driver, we exclude God in our lives.

Let’s be good, not tame

I have long remembered one of the final scenes in the movie, The Chronicles of Narnia.

Mr. Tumnus: After all, he’s not a tame lion

Lucy Pevensie: No… but he is good.

The two spoke of Aslan, the great lion who inhabits Narnia and who shows up periodically, generally to bring right a situation of great injustice. Lucy Pevensie, the smallest of the four Pevensie children, recognizes that while Aslan is not a tame lion, he is good.

Good people take risks for the sake of the oppressed. Tame people try to stay safe and let the oppressed suffer unsolaced.

Let’s be good, not tame. That’s how we reduce terrorism.

[Note: a version of this column is scheduled to run in the February 3, 2017, edition of the Denton Record-Chronicle. The Thoughtful Pastor, AKA Christy Thomas, welcomes all questions for the column. Although the questioner will not be identified, I do need a name and verifiable contact information in case the newspaper editor has need of it. You may use this link to email questions.]