The dictionary defines the word “refugee” as follows: “a person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster.” There are millions of refugees around the world who live in horrible conditions as they struggle to find a safe place to live. Many of them spend years in refugee camps waiting to be relocated to a nation that will accept them.The majority of refugees around the world are people of color. Under the Trump administration’s America first agenda, receiving refugees into our nation has been nearly eliminated with one notable exception. A group of about 50 white Afrikaners recently arrived in the US as refugees under an executive order claiming that they were escaping racial persecution and a white genocide in their home nation of South Africa. There has been no evidence supporting these claims. In fact most white Afrikaners characterize such claims as misinformation. The first two videos posted below feature white South Africans who reject the notion of being classified as refugees. Near the end of the second video, listen for the reasons why this unfounded notion of white refugees may have actually been a form of retaliation agains the government of South Africa for opposing positions taken by the Trump administration. It is also blatantly obvious that race is central to both eliminating previous refugee resettlement programs and suddenly initiating the acceptance of white Afrikaners as refugees. Within our own nation, there is rising opposition to these unfair and racist policies. The third video posted below focuses on a decision made by the Episcopal Church to end its longstanding cooperation with the US government related to refugee resettlement. This decision is not about neglecting refugees. Rather it is about honoring the image of God in all people and resisting the restrictive race based policies of the Trump administration. I am grateful for this witness of the Episcopal Church and call all followers of Jesus to resist racial injustice in any form and to lift up the value and gifts of actual refugees who need a safe place to live the lives that God desires for them.
