What would Jesus say about 65 million refugees?

This week I wrote an Op Ed for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel entitled “What would Jesus say about 65 million refugees.” Here is the beginning of the article:

At a time when the world is facing the greatest refugee crisis in recorded history with more than 65 million people forcibly displaced from their homes President Donald Trump recently announced a new policy that will dramatically reduce the number of refugees admitted to the United States. As an evangelical pastor, I respect the president’s authority and am committed to praying for him. But I am very concerned by this policy change, not only for keeping refugee families apart, but also for our own social fabric as a nation.

Throughout the Bible, God commands his people over and over again to welcome, love, and seek justice for the poor, for the widow and the orphan, and for refugees and other foreigners. Words taken from the law-filled book of Leviticus bring this into sharp focus in relation to that last category: “When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God” (Leviticus 20:33-34). The call to care for the foreigner — the refugee, the immigrant, the alien — is dramatically linked with God’s identity here, God’s grace to his people in the exodus from slavery, and a reminder to put faith into practice.

[Read the rest of the article here.]