Faith, fear and refugees — what’s the Christian thing to do?

This Sunday, the Rev. Matthew Aston, pastor of Olivet Baptist Church, plans to preach about the Syrophoenician woman who turned to Jesus for help and whose story is in the Gospel of Mark.

Syrophoenicia was once a Roman province of Syria, a country that today has 4.8 million refugees and 6.1 million displaced people due to civil war, according to numbers from World Vision. Syria is also the country from which President Trump has indefinitely blocked all refugees, in an executive order signed last week.

“We’re walking through the Gospel of Mark, so it’s not like I’m just trying to take a hot-button topic and preach on it,” Aston said. The Gospel describes how Jesus performed an exorcism on the Syrophoenician woman’s daughter.

The Bible is “sprinkled” with stories of immigrants, refugees and outsiders, said Aston, whose church is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention.

“Throughout the Old and New Testament, you see God’s heart for the nations, God’s compassion regardless of the language they speak, their ethnic background, skin color,” Aston said. “We’re to love people from all nations, and that would be the starting point for the discussion about refugees.”

Nationwide, religious leaders have spoken out against Trump’s executive order suspending immigration for at least 90 days to anyone from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, all Muslim-majority nations. The order also bans all refugees for at least 120 days and all Syrian refugees until further notice, although on Tuesday, the administration granted waivers allowing 872 refugees into the United States.

In Wichita, some religious leaders see a conflict between Trump’s order and biblical commands to care for the “alien,” or stranger.

That’s despite the fact that majorities of white evangelical Protestants (54 percent) and white mainline Protestants (53 percent) supported passing a law preventing Syrians from entering the country, according to data from the 2016 Public Religion Research Institute immigration survey. White Catholics were divided, with 49 percent supporting the law and 51 percent opposing it. Fewer than half of Hispanic Catholics (45 percent) and black Protestants (36 percent) supported the ban.

Those who supported a ban on Syrian refugees were motivated by fears of terrorism, according to the data.

In contrast, 67 percent of religiously unaffiliated Americans and 73 percent of Americans of non-Christian faiths opposed a ban on Syrian refugees.

Modern framework

The Rev. Catherine Neelly Burton, senior pastor of Grace Presbyterian Church, said the Old Testament makes it clear that God’s people should provide hospitality. Her church is part of the Presbyterian Church (USA) denomination.

She cited several passages in the Bible that give guidance about refugees, including when Jesus judges the nations by saying, “I was a stranger and you invited me in. … Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”

“I think our understanding of how we treat refugees is rooted there, although it’s far more complex,” Burton said. “I think those instructions are really important to heed within a modern framework. Although I don’t think we can let every refugee in the world into the United States, I think Christian churches in particular have a responsibility to act on behalf of refugees.”

Condemning ban

National leaders from a variety of denominations have spoken out since Trump issued his executive order.

Those include the Rev. J. Herbert Nelson, the top official in the Presbyterian Church (USA), Trump’s childhood church; Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops; Russell Moore, head of the Southern Baptist Convention’s public policy arm; and Bishop Bruce Ough, president of the United Methodist Council of Bishops.

Closer to home, Bishop Roger Gustafson of the Central States Synod, which includes Kansas and Missouri, of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America said the action calls for protest because it is “profoundly un-Christian.”

Gustafson’s statement referred to Deuteronomy 10:19: “You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”

Religious divide

Those who have supported Trump’s refugee ban have done so citing national security, including religious leaders such as the Rev. Franklin Graham, son of evangelist Billy Graham.

“Some are also criticizing Christians who support the president’s position on immigration – and I’m one of those being criticized,” Graham said in a statement on Facebook. “But we have to realize that the president’s job is not the same as the job of the church.”

About 44 percent of Protestant pastors believe there is a sense of fear in their churches about refugees coming to the United States, according to a survey conducted by Lifeway Research, an evangelical polling group.

“I think his (Trump’s) appeal bypasses the people in leadership and goes straight to the people in the pews who are afraid, who are angry with this country’s economic struggles,” said the Rev. Tom Harder, co-pastor at Lorraine Avenue Mennonite Church in Wichita.

The work

David Osio, director of immigration services at Catholic Charities in Wichita, said his work is rooted in his Christian faith.

“We have a heart for refugees and for immigrants,” Osio said. “We don’t care if they are documented or undocumented – if we can find a way to help them, we find it.”

Danny Krug, director of Hispanic ministries for the Catholic Diocese of Wichita, said immigration will always be in the news, and the church will always be there to be an advocate.

“There are regulations and things that should be done, but it should be based on human life and what is best for the person,” Krug said. “When someone is creating new policies, they have to look beyond papers, what is the need of the family, what is the need of the people in the case.”

Lorraine Avenue Mennonite Church partners with the International Rescue Committee to help refugees settling in the Wichita area with emergency housing and basic items.

Two signs decorate the yard outside Lorraine Avenue. One of them includes the words “We’re glad you’re our neighbor” in a variety of languages, including Arabic, while the other says, “Immigrants and refugees welcome.” The second sign depicts Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus traveling, referring to the story of when they fled as refugees to Egypt, Harder said.

“We definitely consider it part of our mission to advocate for the immigrant, for the alien,” Harder said. “The Bible calls us over and over again, both Old Testament and New Testament, to care for those who are otherwise being oppressed or downtrodden or disadvantaged in any way.”

This story was originally published January 31, 2017 at 7:43 PM with the headline "Faith, fear and refugees — what’s the Christian thing to do?."