The last time I was in Damascus I bought an inexpensive piece of local art from the artist himself at his little shop in the covered suq (market). Afterwards, feeling very happy with my purchase, I strolled on up the narrow, sheltered street, enjoying the colorful store windows and being part of the noisy, motley crowd that moved in all directions like bees in a beehive. Shopkeepers tried to lure me in, smiling, calling out in English, “No charge for looking.”
I was some distance up the street when a I heard a voice, “Madam, Madam,” and turned to see a boy, maybe fourteen or fifteen years old, running toward me, holding my purse in front of him. My purse! I had no idea that I had left it behind on the counter in the art shop. (I had seen the boy there; he was the son of the artist and had served us tea while we shopped.) I was so embarrassed, but he was beaming with satisfaction.
I thought of this boy yesterday, his face happy because he had found me, as I was pondering how to respond to the hysterical opposition to offering Syrian refugees a place to live in safety. Today, once again, I have released publicly a statement objecting to the stance of Franklin Graham. The release contains the text below.
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Franklin Graham is wrong again. According to Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra in Christianity Today, Graham opposes opening the country’s doors to Syrian refugees, saying, “We cannot allow Muslim immigrants to come across our borders unchecked while we are fighting this war on terror.”
Graham is wrong, because he is ignoring the facts. Immigrants do not get here without passing through extensive interviewing, screening and security clearances. They don’t even get to choose what country they will go to but must be referred by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Then they must be cleared by six different government agencies including the Department of Homeland Security. The process, according to immigration lawyer Scott Hicks, is difficult to get through and “most people languish in camps for months or years while their story is evaluated and checked.”
This information is attested to by Matthew Soerens, US director of church mobilization for World Relief, which opposes the decisions of thirty-one US governors to ban Syrian refugees from their states. Soerens, also quoted by Zylstra, says that since the 1970s the US has received three million refugees and “No one from that program has attacked anyone.” Refusing Syrian refugees will, in Soerens’ words, “punish the victims of ISIS for the sins of ISIS.”
Franklin Graham is wrong also because his attitude is unchristian. He is responding not to a great humanitarian need but to fear. Fear is totally self-centered. Security is important; putting it above compassion is selfish and not the way of Jesus.
Graham is dangerous, because he is both influential and wrong.
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This is the second time I have spoken out in an effort to ameliorate the harshness of Graham’s attitude. In fact, numerous politicians have made more outrageous statements than his, yet I choose to direct my response toward Graham, for a reason. He is a high profile Christian whose political statements seem devoid of spiritual content. I am convinced that they are politically dangerous, because they encourage our leaders to give ISIS what it wants: distrust and hatred for Muslims who do not agree with ISIS’ theology, and dissension within countries that are trying to live with diversity. But I care even more that they present a false testimony, a misrepresentation of Jesus, the Prince of Peace and Savior of the whole world.
Frankly, I feel also that someone else should be saying this, not me. But I have accepted a duty to share, to the extent of my ability, the human face of the Middle East. I am speaking for that talented and humble artist, making a living from his modest shop in the covered suq, and for the teenager who dashed up the street, weaving as quickly as he could between shoppers, to return the purse which I had not yet missed. That kid should be a grown man now with children of his own. I have no idea what has become of him, but there is a high probability that he is now running through Europe with his family, looking for a place to sleep, walking the streets seeking work in Beirut, or in Jordan facing winter in a tent in a camp of thousands of tents.
In a truly just world, I would be running throug that camp, looking for him.
The least I can do is remember and tell Franklin Graham that he is wrong.