Added Friday 2nd October 2015
It is right and proper that we should contribute to the temporary expedient of caring for refugees in their camps but that is only a starting point. Politicians have believed for some years now that we are a mean spirited people who want to keep foreigners out, no matter what their reason for wishing to be among us. Before Aylan Kurdi's corpse went global, they believed that the way to stay popular was to stay immoral, to pander to our worst xenophobia, to deliberately conflate the issues of Eastern European workers, West African paupers, Eritrean victims of torture and Syrian refugees. Well, they have been found out but, in a sad way, so have we. And it is time to make amends by publicly stating that we are prepared to accept and finance the residence here of hundreds of thousands of refugees if that is how many want to come here. Grudgingly talking about fair shares is an inadequate response.
The question being asked of us is not being asked by the refugees, it is being asked by Jesus. It is time to respond by opening our arms in welcome.
Read all of Kevin Carey's sermon on the refugee crisis
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