On the News

The Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, give unto us the increase of faith, hope, and charity; and, that we may obtain that which thou dost promise, make us to love that which thou dost command; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

This past week, news agents around the world, print and television, flooded us with images of the tragic death of Alan Kurdi, a Syrian boy fleeing violence in Syria whose body washed up on the shores of Turkey. I will admit my initial reaction was jaded: “another tragic death that will be ignored.” I was wrong. Perhaps in Canada it has taken on an even greater political dimension after initial (incorrect) reports by NDP MP Fin Donnelly that he had personally delivered the refugee application package to Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander, and that it had been rejected. It was later clarified that it was another member of the Kurdi family who had had their package returned due to it being incomplete and that no application had been made on behalf of the Kurdi family members who tragically died.

Despite this clarification, and perhaps due to the ongoing Federal election, the issue has become the focus of media scrutiny and public attention throughout the country. Indeed it has caused a tonal shift in Europe which is far closer to the source of the problem. Recent weeks have seen headlines pontificating on the “Migrant” issue. Since the death of Alan Kurdi, the tone has shifted to recognition that these are not migrants seeking jobs, but rather refugees fleeing persecution. The tone is reminiscent of Madeline Albright’s fine line distinction between genocide and acts of genocide in an effort to deny legal responsibilities to intervene to stop the Rwandan Genocide in the mid-90s.

It seems now everyone is concerned about the issue of refugees. Why aren’t we doing enough? Indeed, the morning the death was reported, the Anglican Journal made the following comment on Facebook, which was later edited to include a link to the Archbishop of Canterbury’s statement:

The tragic image of three-year-old Alan Kurdi whose lifeless body washed ashore in Turkey has put a human face on the global refugee crisis. Alan is only one of an estimated 2,500 to have died crossing the Mediterranean this year. In 2014, it was estimated that 3,500 perished at sea. Is Canada doing enough for refugees? Is the church doing enough?

These questions subtly identify the problem among Canadian Anglicans and Western Christians more broadly. We are reacting to secular media when finally brought to a point where, despite reporting on the thousands of deaths caused by the Syrian Civil War or ISIL throughout the Middle East, many Christians seem only now to be waking up to the scope of the issue, and even then the focus rests largely on the matter of refugee resettlement with scant attention paid to why these refugees are fleeing the situation. Furthermore, in asking first whether or not the Government is doing enough and second whether or not the church is doing enough, it subtly attempts to shift responsibility away from the individual and onto organizations.

We have recognized that there is an issue. The problem is not that we have previously disregarded thousands upon thousands of murdered innocents, war crimes, persecution and other barbaric acts, the problem is that the Government of Canada hasn’t done enough. The problem isn’t that we are ignoring Christ’s instructions to be charitable towards others, it’s that the Anglican Church of Canada hasn’t been vocal enough in advocating action.

The Church’s activities have been laudable. Most diocese in Canada have their own diocesan refugee committee which seeks to sponsor resettlement applicants to Canada. The Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund sponsored 50 refugees last year to mark its 50th anniversary. For those who haven’t heard about it so far, Anglicans throughout Canada were no doubt greeted with announcements in their bulletins this morning announcing how to get in touch with and support the local diocesan committee.

The real question ought to be, why did it take the particular death of this boy and the tragic photographic record of it to spur us to do anything? If the Anglican Church of Canada was negligent in its duties, it wasn’t that the PWRDF only sponsored 50 refugees, it was that the state of our Christianity is such that as individual Christians we are not being taught to care about these issues. We are perfectly comfortable offloading them on secular institutions, or in some case religious charities, and washing our hands of the whole situation.

In the Bible, does it say God created the heavens and the earth and political boundaries and the rest of these rules only apply inside your particular political borders?

Instead of taking up the challenge of secular political issues, Christians more generally need to be instructed in why we ought to care. Not to take away from the evil being perpetrated in Syria and elsewhere, or the sorrow that is rightly felt for the death of Alan Kurdi, but it should not take media attention of that sort to make Christians care. What’s more, Christians care about Syria, but there has been little attention paid to refugees fleeing persecution and violence elsewhere.

The focus remains on dealing with what politicians can do at home, with no attention paid to what is happening abroad, why refugees are fleeing their native homes and why they cannot return. The United Nations uses the term ‘durable solution’ to refer to the various resettlement options available to refugees who have left their homelands. It is not referred to as a permanent solution because the resettlement of refugees fails to address what caused them to become refugees in the first place, be it persecution, violence or some other source.

As Christians, these are all issues we are called to speak out and oppose. Admittedly this is not an issue which can be resolved individually. There is little that Christians in Canada can personally do to put an end to the Syrian Civil War. Bashar al-Assad is not going to end his murderous persecution of the Syrian people just because he receives some mail. Yet, if not for this singular picture nothing would change. Governments respond to public interest.

We need to be engaged not simply with political issues—following the political news cycle of the day—but to be true disciples of Christ we must be engaged and bring these matters to public attention ourselves. In order to do that, the Church must play a role in reminding individual Christians of what their duties are. Not to follow the political news cycle of the day and respond to hot button issues, but to seek Christ in all situations.

For as long as current interest in this story lasts, Canadians will be generous. They will donate money and sponsor refugees from Syria. But the problem extends far beyond resettlement of Syrians. Who will be the advocates who will speak for the voiceless if not Christians? Archbishop Justin Welby described a moral duty to act. I would argue there is a need to emphasize a moral duty to act beyond the span of public interest. Christ’s command to love one another wasn’t contingent on secular scrutiny; so neither should Christian charity.