Migration

Humans migrate. They always have. Refugees from the Syrian Civil War number about 11 million. About half of those are displaced inside Syria, and most of the remainder are residing in neighboring countries. Some have returned home, but less than half have access to water or health services. Some have become displaced a second time.

When faced with a refugee crisis, what should we do? Do we have a moral obligation to do anything? Is it a moral act to turn them away? Is it a moral act to send them home when they are fleeing threats to their lives?

The U.S. played an inadvertent role in creating the refugee crisis on its southern border. The MS-13 gang was founded in Los Angeles. When these gang members were caught by police, they were deported by the thousands to Central American countries such as El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. There, the transplanted gangsters created new and powerful gangs. The gangs obtain money through criminal activity and by threatening to kill people unless they pay the gangs. People who cannot pay or refuse to pay are killed in some brutal manner, such as being hacked to death or burned alive.

In Richmond, Virginia, Amanda Morales-Guerra, 30, and her two children ages 11 and 2, have sought sanctuary at a church instead of reporting to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation. She said the father of her child left behind in Honduras has threatened to kill her and her other children. If she returns to Honduras, she will have to leave her children behind. This scene is playing out in churches across America.

Do we have a responsibility to open our doors to these desperate people? For Jews and Christians, the Bible has relevant verses:

You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. (Ex.22:20)

You shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the soul of the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. (Ex.23:9)

The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. (Lev.19:34).

Turning our backs on people in dire need has consequences for us. Giving them refuge also has consequences. If we have to choose, let's choose consequences that flow from an act of compassion rather than consequences that flow from an act of indifference.