Syria and Abraham, a perspective

I've been following the Syrian refuge crisis, as many of us have. My heart has broken again and again as I've seen photos of babies the same age as my son washed up dead on the shores and footage of one of those refuges helping perpetrate mass murder in the streets of Paris. So much death.

Now people who once called for countries to take in those poor refugees are petitioning their governors to keep them out of the US. How could we possibly take in 10,000 Syrians? Even if 99.9% of them were the nicest people on earth and only one-tenth of one percent were radicals or at high risk of being radicalized, that's 10 potentials terrorists on American soil. By any measure of National Security, that's not smart.

Since the Paris attacks, I've scrolled through social media and seen the reaction, and counter-reaction, and over-reaction. And I've seen the idiotic memes gleefully rooting for Russia to nuke Syria off the map.

More death will not heal the pain of death.

I've been thinking about wars, and terror, and babies. And also, a little bit about Abraham, father of us all - Muslims, Christians and Jews alike.

Then Abraham approached [the Lord] and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in [Sodom]? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”

The Lord said, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”

Then Abraham spoke up again... “What if only forty are found there..What if only thirty...twenty...what if only ten can be found there?”

He answered, “For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.”

Genesis 18:23-26, 32b

I know, it's not the same. No one from Sodom or Gomorrah was scribbling Jihaddist messages on Abraham's tent wall. But I can't help but notice that for 10 good people, he was willing to let thousands of bad men keep on being very bad. And for the posibility of 10 potential threats, we're willing to let thousands be destroyed. 

I understand why Americans don't want "those people" here. Believe me, I get that it's not necesarily in our nation's best interests. But I also know that for Christians, our primary allegience isn't to the USA. As Saint Paul said to the Philippeans, "Our citizenship is in heaven." It is from there we await someone to save us. This nation we belong to does not put its hopes in the latest and greatest military advancements; it trusts in the name of the Lord. Our duty as citizens is to love our neighbors as ourselves no matter who moves in next to us.

Instead of letting our pain and anger propell us to rachet up the atroceties in the name of vengance, maybe we could instead fight hate with the only thing that ever works: radical and fearless love. 

Let us treat people with compassion no matter their nationality or religion. Let us mourn with all the mothers who have lost children to this insidious hatred. And let us, like Abraham, be the voice that pleads for life.