Afghan Refugees Deserve the Care of American Christians
Rice has found, broadly speaking, the plight of the Afghans is a uniting factor among American Christians of different political affiliations. However, her greater concern is that their voice reaches the ears of the president. “It’s worth noting that even among Afghans, there are Christians who are in this population,” she said. “I think it’s been disappointing to find that people who are most supportive of President Trump aren’t even moved by the plight of persecuted Christians who are among the Afghan population.”
“And I think that’s been disheartening and surprising,” she continued, “because there’s so much religious language that’s being thrown around.”
“It’s fine for religious people to support President Trump’s policies, but I just really want us to be people of a consistent ethic,” said Rice. “As believers, we should have a consistent ethic that is separate from our politics and that we then apply on to our politics.”
For safety reasons, Rice was unable to go into detail about stories of particular Afghan Christians, but she mentioned that she has heard that God is moving among Persian-speaking people groups, including Persian-speaking Afghans.
“Churches pray for their missionaries to get visas to other places,” she pointed out. “And so for me, if we’re going to do that, we need to also pray for the people that are trying to get to safety in the U.S.” Welcoming Persian-speaking Afghans, for example, “a community in which God is moving…into a place where they have greater religious freedom, is a real way of serving God’s purposes in the world.”
Regarding what the average American Christian can do about the Afghan refugee situation, Rice said that people can contact their Congress members. And if Christians voted for President Trump, it is worth them noting that fact when they call.
“Especially if they’re Trump voters,” she said, they can say, “We voted for President Trump and we agree with America First, and we think that welcoming our allies makes us stronger.” Voters can explain “how welcoming people who stood by our troops supports those convictions for how they voted.”
People can also contact the White House, meet with their Congressional leaders in their districts, go to town hall meetings, and provide volunteer and financial support to the resettlement agencies in their communities.
“And pray,” said Rice, “and talk about it.”
“Talk about it with your friends, and…seek to have respectful, curious dialogue with each other as we wrestle with these things,” she said. “The whole name-calling on all sides is not helpful.”
Rice encouraged American Christians to lead the way in caring for the most vulnerable people in the world. “We need to be leaders [in] making sure that our beliefs around caring for the widow and the orphan and the stranger are honored still in our country and our community,” she said. “And there are ways to do that, that still respect our desire to live in a safe place, that still respect our desire to be careful citizens, that still respect the desire to have a strong America.”
This article has been updated to clarify the situation of Afghan refugees and Rice’s views.
