Recently I shared on my congregation's Facebook page a snippet from the Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's (ELCA) pastoral message in response to President Trump's travel ban targeting seven Muslim countries. In the pastoral message, Bishop Elizabeth Eaton expressed concern about the impact the ban would have on refugees fleeing their countries and coming to the United States. More focused on the pastoral and theological assessment, I underestimated the political intensity of the quote. Within a few hours a member of the congregation objected to the post.
At first the objection infuriated me as I tried to explain that the quote was based on Matthew 25:35, "I was a stranger and you welcomed me." While I do not think the person understood the quote came from the Presiding Bishop, thus representing the ELCA's response to the ban, I realized that unlike many members of the national church body would have a deeper understanding and appreciation of the Lutheran Church's (from the ELCA to its predecessor bodies) long history of caring for refugees.
A decade ago I worked at Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services during my year with Lutheran Volunteer Corps. During the last third of the year I spent most of my time doing research on different Lutheran organizations' policy statements and history advocating for refugees and helping to resettle them in many states throughout the country. The information I gathered and shared served as the foundation for the ELCA's social message on immigration and refugees.
As I reflect upon my initial outrage, I wish I had taken the time to calmly craft a better response instead of engaging in argument and ultimately deleting the post from Facebook. As people of faith, we are called to be active and engaged members of society, to be politically involved and to strive for justice. In reading the different statements and messages by the ELCA on different social issues, I love how the statements offer a variety of perspectives and acknowledges that in our fallen world that life is messy and sometimes the laws are not as clear cut as we desire. The messages and statements illustrate our struggle to be faithful in a sinful world.
Do I think the quote from Bishop Eaton had political undertones? By all means! However, I did not view it as an attack against a particular political group/official or a refusal to acknowledge countries have a right to decide who to let cross their borders and who cannot enter. Rather, I viewed the entire pastoral message as a passionate call for us to care for the most vulnerable, to welcome the stranger. Our country's screening process in partnership with the United Nations entails checks by more than 14 federal agencies and often takes at least two years to complete.
Refugees by nature are fleeing their homeland because they can never return to their native country and live safely. When they have lost hope because all they once knew has been destroyed, we can offer a new life where they can flourish and be who God intended them to be. We have nothing to fear. In addition, Christians, as descendants of the Jewish people, come from the line of Abraham, who left his country and became a stranger in a foreign land at God's command. Having experienced what it means to be a stranger allows us to empathize with refugees coming to a new country to live among and with us. Our call to welcome refugees is political, but more importantly it is theological and based on God's unconditional love for all people.
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