are we loving immigrants and refugees like God loves us?

Unless you’ve been living under a rock and totally without access to any type of news media (including your social media where people post about what’s going on in the world, and their opinions about it) for the past few years, you’ve heard both sides of the arguments about immigration and refugees. Both sides and everything in between. And the battle gets pretty heated with one extreme suggesting that anyone who wants to come to our country should be allowed in, and on the other extreme, the group that would refuse entry to just about everyone.  Of course there has to be a center-ground, since except for the 100% Native American, none of us would be allowed to live here if the one extreme had their way.

In the midst of the rancorous and bitter arguments, comes a voice of reason. Kent Annan, has written a book which confronts fear mongering with facts, and presents a Biblical point of view on how we are to treat, and receive those who would like to be a part of the population of the U.S., and those who would prefer to return to their homes, but are prevented from doing so by war, famine, drought, or other things which most of us can’t even begin to imagine.

You Welcomed Me: Loving Refugees and Immigrants Because God First Loved Us (InterVarsisty Press) has a scheduled release date of Nov 2018. Annan tackles the tough topics like why people are so against welcoming people from other places. He suggests that in many cases it’s because of fear. They’re nervous, they’re concerned about safety, and they don’t want people around who are intent on hurting others. But statistics show that these newcomers of whom we are so afraid are rarely the ones who commit the crimes.

This is a very readable book, with narratives of stories that Kent has experienced with people in or from many different places. And they are stories that should touch even the hardest hearts. But it goes beyond telling stories. There are reactions to those stories, there are personal experiences, there are statistics, and throughout are the reminders that we should be loving others as God loves us.

And above all this is a cry for justice. Justice God-style, rather than what often passes for justice in our 21^st century society. Justice which means that everyone is treated fairly, and given opportunities that are so frequently denied to those who don’t look like us, talk like us, or share a common culture.

At the end of each chapter is a “practice” exercise. These exercises invite us to learn to listen to the stories of our neighbors, learn to listen, learn to hear, and use those stories to help us get to know the people with whom we come in contact.

Although the practices are especially geared towards immigrants and refugees, for many of us, in our hundreds-of-friends-on-social-media-but none-in-real-life society, we could use the exercises to get to know the people in our neighborhoods who do look and talk like us, and who do share that common culture.

As we run our race called life, we can all use the reminder that life on earth is practice for eternal life in heaven where according to the Apostle John, there was “ a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. (Revelation 7:9. NIV

            I received an advanced readers copy from the publisher.

            5/5