Refugees in Christmas

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John’s Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today’s edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith. In his Christmas Message, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Michael Curry, drew our attention to a campaign that our church put out in the late 1930s. Refugees were fleeing tyranny, evil, injustice, bigotry, and hatred in Europe in the lead-up to World War II. Our church, alongside of other Christians and Jewish people in the United States, worked to save as many refugees as they could—though history is clear that we failed in doing as much as was needed. To generate support for the work, our church created a poster of the Holy Family. Mary is holding the baby Jesus in her arms while riding a donkey, with Joseph walking with them. The line at the bottom of the poster said, “In the name of these refugees, aid all refugees.” With that in mind, I thought this special Christmas Mythbusters would be a good time to try to break through some of the sentimentality of Christmas to get at the heart of the matter—particularly as it relates to refugees. After all, Christians often forget that the Holy Family was indeed a refugee family. They lived under an oppressive and violent regime and fled across borders to Egypt in the hope of finding safety from the murderous rage of King Herod. Our Lord told us, once he grew up, that what we do for the least of these we do for him, which means our faithfulness as disciples of Jesus rests, in part, in our ability to perceive Christ in the vulnerable, oppressed, and marginalized, and to do something about it. The United Nations Refugee agency has tracked 82.4 million people around the world who have been forced to flee their home, with 26.5 million of them being identified as refugees. Of that number, about half are children under the age of 18. Eighty-six percent of all refugees are hosted in developing countries and sixty-eight percent of all refugees come from just five countries: the Syrian Arab Republic, Venezuela, Afghanistan, South Sudan, and Myanmar. Before the Trump Administration, our country was a leader in responding to refugees around the world, offering refuge to more people than all other nations combined. However, the previous administration drastically reduced those numbers and imposed new security vetting which leaves many refugees in dangerous situations for prolonged periods of time as they wait for their applications to be processed. President Biden increased the cap that President Trump had set, moving it from 15,000 refugees to 62,500 refugees. In September, he pledged to increase that cap to 125,000 refugees. However, President Biden has not yet reformed the policies and practices of our refugee system, nor has he dedicated significant resources and personnel to streamline the application process. For that reason, only 7,500 refugees have been resettled under his administration as of this past fall, far below his initial cap of 62,500. As we consider the celebration of our Lord’s Nativity on Christmas, we would do well to reflect upon the point of the incarnation. In the Christ-child, God chose not only to take on human nature, but also to located himself among the vulnerable. And throughout his ministry, when Jesus encountered injustice and marginalization, he acted. He told an oppressed people that when somebody smacks you on the cheek, you stand up and offer the other cheek, claiming your own humanity and dignity against those who would demean you. He sent the religious away in shame when they tried to make him complicit in the stoning of a woman caught in adultery (notice, they didn’t bother bringing the man). Jesus cleansed the temple when the Court of the Gentiles was turned into a marketplace, insisting it should be a house of prayer for all nations. As we celebrate a holy family who lived as refugees, I hope that Christians of all traditions will find themselves inspired to work anew for the plight of refugees in our world today. After all, Democrats do like to campaign on moral issues like these, but it will take the will of the people pushing them hard to get those in leadership to make substantive changes to the systems that contribute to the current refugee crisis. In the name of these refugees—Joseph, Mary, and Jesus—let us aid all refugees. And if you’d like to take some time right now to make a difference in the life of refugees you can go to episcopalmigrationministries.org and find a variety of ways that you can take action and make a difference. Thanks for being with me. To find out more about my parish, you can go to sjegh.com. Until next time, remember, protest like Jesus, love recklessly, and live your faith out in a community that accepts you but also challenges you to be better tomorrow than you are today.