Current Events

It isn't that I don't view "refugees" as I would view my own friends and neighbors. I view them exactly like my friends and neighbors. I don't particularly get along well with some of my neighbors, and many of my friends and I overlook the ever-growing gulf of religious differences, at least the ones that still call themselves my "friends" seem to. I also have an ever-growing list of friends that don't have to overlook anything to appreciate the friendship, delightful, that.

The current "refugee crisis" is a crisis of underdogs, basically. The ones that are without the most violent power are seeking refuge from the ones who are displaying the strongest shows of violent power. If some of the tables were turned and my radical, fundamental Christian friends and neighbors found themselves in a similar plight, you better believe they would get increasingly violent and make large violent displays of power, for awhile anyway, until they ran out of bullets and then they would also seek refuge and have terribly sad stories. I would probably end up seeking refuge as well,
even deer hunting season around here leaves me considering refuge elsewhere! Even though I am a pacifist and not a Christian, wherever we would find ourselves looking for a safe haven they would not be able to distinguish us and our motivations from each other, they would not be able to weigh the violence in our hearts, or lack thereof, and they would not be able to ascertain our futures. They would not know that I was raised a Christian, but have chosen a deeper, older faith. They would not know if we had something beneficial to offer their homeland, or if we were a doomsday threat. That is exactly how I view everyone, not just refugees. Everyone is a book unable to be judged by its cover. Everyone. Every single person we encounter every single day, some of them are living with extreme abuse in their personal lives and some of them will become abusers, maybe they already are, some won't. Some will justify abuse of others due to the abuse they have personally witnessed. Some will be able to let the wrongs go, probably few, but some. Some will learn to be discerning and insightful and will be the gems that the world needs to become a better place.

Suffering adjusts discernment. Sadly, abuse tends to create abusers, that is a very unpopular fact and it is not conclusive. The problem with the refugee crisis is that people see themselves. They know their own human nature and they know that given the same situation they would be a predictably unpredictable lot (like saying 80% will be violent, and 20% will be peaceful, but not knowing who falls into which category), they already are predictably unpredictable and they are very afraid of what suffering would show them about themselves.

We cannot see things in others that do not exist somewhere in ourselves. The question is, what are we cultivating and justifying?