I recently observed to a friend that when it comes to antisemitism we seem to find ourselves compelled to defend and reason rather than simply call out the racism for what it is.
However, I’ve realised that actually that isn’t so unique to antisemitism within Evsngelical Christian circles. Rather, the same pressures are there as soon as we talk about current immigrants, particularly asylum seekers and especially Muslims.
I find that conversations go along the following lines. First someone will announce confidently that we are facing an invasion that will lead to a take over of our country and enslave us. Oh and by the way, we are also in danger of violent crime specifically and solely because of this.
And we then feel the pressure to respond, not by confronting this evil for what it is, serious sin but fo politely respond. So we point out the facts which show that most asylum seekers win their cases, that they have come from countries where we know that there are genuine threats of oppression, persecution and violent injustice due to tyranny and corruption. Often these conversations are via social media but you get the feeling that the people you are talking to are looking back at you with a mixture of pity and bewilderment.
“How could you be so naive?”
They ask. Then they offer a link to a blog post, You Tube video or Instagram reel which apparently will enlighten you. When you respond to explain that you have spent much of your life knowing Muslims and much of your ministry seeking to share the good news with Muslims so that you have therefore taken time to research Islam, that you’ve engaged the Islamic evangelists face to face in debate (I’ve frequently engaged the Quran stalls in Birmingham but I also found myself debating one of the leading Islamists in my university days) and so you are not coming from a place of naivety, they still do the online equivalent of staring at you blankly. And yet, we still feel compelled to keep reasoning gently and to justify ourselves.
But here is the thing, all the time we attempt to reason, we are doing so with people who are being deliberately unreasonable. I’m talking specifically about Christians here. Let me show why. The Bible is very clear about how we as God’s people are meant to treat immigrants.
First, we know that all people are made in God’s image, not some people. All people. That gives them a value and dignity so that we are not to dehumanize them. When we treat a group of people as a homogeneous mass and use language that others and demonises them, that so often views them as at best parasites we are disobeying what God’s word has to say about our fellow human beings.
Secondly, Jesus taught that the greatest two commandments are that we are to love God and love our neighbour. For the Israelites, they were meant to care for the foreigners in their midst. No, this doesn’t provide a prescriptive instruction on immigration and border matters but it does set a principle for God’s people about to treat others and note that it was rooted in their own historical experience. Their ancestor, Abraham had been a wandering Aramean and they had found themselves ill treated and enslaved when sojourning in Egypt. Jesus when asked “who is my neighbour” tells a story where the good neighbour is not just any foreigner but a Samaritan, the most despised and hated of all foreigners.
Thirdly, we are commanded to go and make disciples. I know that some people are busy reinterpreting the Bible so we can keep ourselves away from real people by fighting some kind of air war to disciple nations rather than make disciples from the nations but that requires quite the misreading of Scripture. We are not just to love our neighbours who happen to be around us but to go and make neighbours out of those who are far off.
So surely it is time to be blunt. Those who demonise immigrants and asylum seekers, those who seek to stoke fear are not only doing the opposite of what God’s word tells us to do but are putting stumbling blocks in the way if others (and Luke 17 has strong words to say to those who do that).
So perhaps it is time to move beyond gentle reasoning. Maybe it is time to directly rebuke the sin.
Faithroots 