Editorial: Putting Syrian refugee 'issue' in human terms
The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
-- Psalm 19:2
(Painted on wall at World Relief Atlanta)
The appalling humanitarian crisis of refugees from the war-wrought devastation that is Syria has dominated the news -- and, sadly, much of American politics and policy -- for several weeks now.
When somebody quietly takes that tragedy out of the realm of politics and puts it instead in the context of our common humanity, it's a very different picture.
Just such a thing happened right here in Georgia a month ago. It drew relatively little attention, because that's how good works are supposed to ... well, work. A couple of weeks before Christmas, Johnson Ferry Baptist Church in Marietta confirmed that the congregation was helping to resettle the first Syrian refugee family to arrive in Georgia. A church family invited the husband and wife and their four-year-old son -- Sunni Muslims -- to live as guests in their home until the church found them an Atlanta apartment.
The church's pastor, Bryant Wright, is a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention and host of the "Right from the Heart" broadcast ministry. In talking to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about his church's role in helping the family, he tiptoed diplomatically around the political sinkholes. He disagreed, he said, with Gov. Nathan Deal's executive order to ban resettlement of Syrians in the state (since rescinded after an attorney general's opinion), but added that he understands that "his responsibility as governor is different from mine."
Rather, Wright, who with his wife has visited Syrian refugees in Jordan and Lebanan, focused on what he sees as a biblical mandate to help people who are displaced -- as, he said, Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus once were.
The Syrian refugee family is now learning English and other practical American life skills at the World Relief Atlanta refugee settlement center in Stone Mountain, and Johnson Ferry Baptist is covering their expenses.
This is the Syria refugee crisis at ground level, and in human terms of the most blessed kind.
Across the pond ...
In the wake of Donald Trump's absurd proposal to ban Muslims from entering the U.S., more than 560,000 of the good people from whom we are divided by an ocean and a common language signed a petition to ban The Donald from setting foot (or yacht, or Learjet, or whatever) in the U.K.
A petition with more than 100,000 signatures requires a parliamentary debate. So, come Jan. 18, a debate there shall be.
Of course, such a ban is no more legally feasible there than Trump's proposed one is here. But that day's Parliament should at least be entertaining.
This story was originally published January 7, 2016 at 4:33 PM with the headline "Editorial: Putting Syrian refugee 'issue' in human terms."