The joy of Facebook politics and religion is inspiring me today!
The joy of FB is the way a crazy, hard, complex amalgamations of ethics, faith in God, political policy and more are converted into something so simplistic that a cute meme can somehow clear it up for everyone.
I promise that I am not picking on anyone here, except maybe one or two atheist friends who I comment on later… but just the mass inundation on my home section of refugee memes from both sides of the conversation.
How about this: when I let someone into my home it is a complex decision involving my sense of hospitality, availability, resources, ethics, faith, wisdom, intelligence (I mean that in the military sense as well as the IQ sense) and so much more!
Some people I let into my house. Some people I don’t. Some people I give a key.
If I do not know you are coming and I don’t know who you are, especially if I am not there to greet you, you will likely find the door locked and maybe the alarm armed.
Those aren’t because I am a bad Christian (thanks, atheist friends for telling me in memes what makes for a bad or good Christian – try to remember that you think Christians are fools, deluded or worse, so trying to use your meme logic will fail on us in any case)… but because allowing someone into my house is a complex decision.
What will actually serve that person best? Helping often creates long term problems for people… How will they interpret my helping them? To what degree should I help? Am I creating yet another dependent culture on me? (ok, that one is admittedly a culture question – not just about someone coming into my house) Also, what will serve my family best?
In real life, there are often competing goals that sometimes don’t play well together.
Are you desperate and in need? That will certainly play a role in me letting you in. Of course, especially as a Christian, but just as a believer in truly objective right and wrong, I hate to see any human suffer.
I pray that an answer can be found, even in a hard complex situation like this that allows us to take care of these hundreds of thousands of hurting and desperate people.
I do imagine myself like the man to the right. If those are his children, I can fathom doing whatever it took to find safety for them. Is there a way to offer them that within this complex problem? I hope so. I also know there there are thousands of dads like that all over the world not getting the attention he is. How many can be helped? One more than now, is all I can think of.
I know that Compassion International, for example, has one more child you can help right now, if you are more than just about posting memes about how governments should help and are willing to do something with your own money right now.
(back to the refugees, I know there are Christians by the droves already 
trying to help, as they are refugees all over the world already… this isn’t a new problem… and since we are part of a Body, I am a part of that. I am hoping they know what they are doing to help these people in ways that help.
Are my resources limited? That will play a role too. How long can I help before I have doomed you and everyone I let into the house?
Is there someone out there that I know wants to kill me and has been known to disguise themselves as you? Not your fault, but it may mean more hesitation on my part to let you in.
I am not trying to relate directly letting someone into my home to letting certain refugees into the US or not… in fact, my point is that making that call must be at least hundreds of times more complex than me and my house.
Which is hundreds of times too complex to be simplified in a meme. I do not think we do anyone justice by all racing to post something this week and then move on to the meme flood of the week next week.
I look forward to the day when people can remember that life is actually complex and that rarely is it valuable to summarize your opponents’ views into something that can be posted in a little picture with some words on it.
Or at least, make sure you don’t fall into the trap of thinking that you are making a compelling point that way.
Chris, thank you for taking the time to write this. It was meaningful and convicting! Before reading this, I probably would have reposted the nativity scene meme. Haha.
I am pro America and very anti racism. I think what bothers me the most is the mentality with which many approach this topic. Though many say it isn’t a discrimination issue, there seems to be resentment towards certain cultures (Latinos, Asians, and Middle Easterners in particular).
I fully acknowledge that we need to be wise in who we let in. At the same time, I don’t believe that fear should dictate our decisions.
Yep – the hope would always be that wisdom, not fear or rhetoric or even political advantage, would be what informs our compassion.
Chris I really enjoyed this. If there are people out there who know both you and me I hope they are appreciative of the polite way you addressed this issue as opposed to the way I would address it. I would like them to know that you are a much nicer man than I am in many ways but one way is the manner in which you address, for lack of a better term, idiots. I hope they can appreciate the fact that you didn’t call them that and that I would do so to their faces in the hopes of physical retaliation. See, not nice at all. I get fed up sometimes. While I don’t hate these people, (I consider idiocy a handicap)I also don’t care if they know how I feel, as they don’t seem to care that others know how THEY feel. So far I have had the control to keep away from the idiots and not respond to them 98% of the time. Say a little prayer for me that things remain that way. I really do want to get along with others and refrain from violence. Why is it that so many people seem to want just exactly what I am so far managing to avoid? Lets have coffee and donuts together sometime soon. I think I need a refresher on niceness and maybe a course on Christian charity. Keep up the good work brother. Feel free to post this to anyone you think it might be of help to. Charles
Charles, since I know that any life invested in you is probably well-invest, I would love to do exactly that! What is your schedule generally like? Send me an email and let’s get some coffee/donut time. You had me at “donuts”… Of course there is a time for more direct confrontation, or to walk away, I always want to make some effort to impact people in a positive way if I can.