Tag: refugees
How to Love the Alien and Fight Bureaucratization: Refugees as Data
The biggest problem I’ve seen in my work to aid refugees is a lack of resources—financial, material, manpower, and willpower. The second biggest problem I’ve seen is the pervasive perversion of bureaucracy. This is one...
Relief AND Development
When reading the transcript of the meeting of the World Council of Churches in Nicosia, Cyprus, in 1969, I was struck by the idea that “relief work” in so many NGO contexts had been dissected...
Empowering Refugees to Stay Close to Home: Part II
Last week I talked about two practical actions the church can take to encourage and enable refugees to remain close to their homes and homelands. This is a continuation of that thinking. Practical Action 3:...
Empowering Refugees to Stay Close to Home: Part I
In light of the “refugee crisis” in Europe and fearful refugee policies mounting in the United States, it is not surprising that many believe the first course of action provided to refugees is resettlement. That,...
Responding to Refugeeism: A Three-Pronged Plan of Action
And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward. – Matthew...
A Theology of Refuge: How the Good Samaritan Helps Us Come Alongside Refugees
The imago Dei informs how the Church can respond to refugeeism with the eyes and fingerprint of the Father. The Spirit of Pentecost reveals how Christians are radically helped, accompanied, and sustained by the Holy...
A Theology of Refuge: Seeing Refugees in the Radical Light of Pentecost
At Pentecost, God sent his Spirit to his people—the Church—in order that they might have a helper, an ever-present companion, and a source of sustenance along their pilgrimage. Because the Spirit lit upon and within...
A Theology of Refuge: Knowing Refugees in Light of the Imago Dei
The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have...
Why the Church Needs to Care About Refugees
Through Moses, God ordered the Israelites to care for the aliens among them. The Israelites and the apostles were told to care for strangers. Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan. Every sermon you’ve...
Understanding Syria on Another Anniversary of War: A Brief Reading List
Today marks the eighth year of the war in Syria. The conflict has produced some of the worst destruction and the most displaced people of any conflict in decades. It is the worst war, for its...