Man's inhumanity to man

Try and imagine the scene. Europe is in crisis as it is experiencing an influx of migrants and refugees on a scale never seen before because of poverty, instability and the many different wars taking place in the Middle East. You find yourself on a small boat, built to normally accommodate a dozen or so people, floating helplessly like a bottle cap in the midst of a huge and dangerous Mediterranean Sea. The rickety old boat is listing to one side and then to the other as hundreds of desperate people try and hang on for dear life and the chances of the boat capsizing at any moment is perilously high.

As you look around the boat and the ensuing mayhem you notice a young couple huddled together. Their names you later discover are Mary?m and Yusuf. The eyes of this young Arabian couple say it all. They are terribly afraid after fleeing their hometown of Aleppo, Syria, and yet a common purpose binds them together. The bond is undoubtedly stronger as Mary?m is, in fact, expecting her first child. You are drawn to them and want to say something to them. Yusuf turns to you and beckons you over. He explains that they are concerned as Mary?m is expecting their first baby to be born anytime soon, and if they do not get the medical help they need, he feared she and the child may both die.

I am uneasy with this chaotic scene of an overcrowded boat and a helpless couple desperate for help. My heart sinks and I feel an overwhelming sense of powerlessness. I imagine what awaits these people if they reach the relative safety of European soil. Together with the United States of America, it could be argued, that Europe bears some considerable responsibility for causing the instability that so many in the Middle East are fleeing from in the first place. As I see it Europe has a moral obligation to help, support and accept these people and to try to use their considerable influence to stop these endless wars breaking out in the Middle East, and to help rebuild these countries to become sustainable and peaceful homelands to live in once more. I think of the reluctance of some affluent countries to shelter these people and how shameful it is and it angers me.

As I sit there in the boat beside Mary?m and Yusuf I am confused, helpless, powerless, afraid and angry in equal measure and I think back to a recent statement from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. He warned all ‘European Christians’ that these refugees, most of whom are Muslim, threaten Europe's Christian identity. His warning also posed a challenging question, as he said,

"Is it not already, and in itself, alarming that Europe's Christian culture is barely able to uphold Europe's own Christian values?"

Orban is right you know but he is also wrong. He is right that the huge influx of migrants and refugees to European shores is a challenge to Christians. The moral challenge is certainly to overcome religious prejudice, selfishness, and fear. We only have to look back on a relatively recent historical precedent where in the 1930s Jews who were fleeing persecution in Nazi Germany were denied refuge throughout many countries in Europe. In other words we have been here before. This is nothing new. The question that defies logic though is whether we have learned from these gruesome past mistakes or not?

Orban is wrong when he associates Christian values and Christian identity with appeals to the religious elite and to elitist behaviour that condones callous excuses for selfishness, heartlessness and lack of compassion. It strikes me that something is terribly wrong with our definition of Christianity were compassion is absent.

“No room at the inn.” As Christians, these words should never enter our minds, our hearts or pass our lips. It is a shameful fact and a sad reflection on society’s values that many of the richest countries in Europe are still the ones most unwilling to take these desperate people in and give them shelter.

The boat suddenly jolts and we have hit a sand bank just off shore. All aboard become very excitable. I am afraid we may capsize at any moment. But I need not worry. We are only a few feet from land. We are greeted on land by a sea of people on a small, beautiful but otherwise impoverished Greek island. The people greet us with garlands, food, drink and warm embraces. They flood us with tears of joy and are beaming from ear to ear with happiness. They are made up of doctors, nurses, and volunteers from all walks of society. Their welcome is breathtakingly beautiful. Their compassion and generosity is infectious. Everybody is smiling and happy. It is a great day to be alive. I stop to take it all in. I am smiling because as I had imagined the world and the intolerance of many countries and their citizens and the deplorable building of visible and invisible walls, I had forgotten one special ingredient that will counter and conquer any religious intolerance or the betrayal of any Christian value or ideal. I had forgotten that God is with us always, even in all the messiness that life can throw up. He is in the midst of this scene and he is the people on the boat and the people on the shore. He was there on the shore that day welcoming us in. He was the ‘good’ innkeeper.

In the excitement to disembark from the boat that day, I lost sight of Mary?m and Yusuf. I am now writing this account some days after the event, in a warm room, surrounded by loving and caring people and my thoughts are with this young couple, and the new baby that surely is now born unto them and I wonder what lies in store for them all. Will they be accepted or rejected? Will the doors be opened or slammed in their faces? I hope and pray that they will be made feel very welcome. I will try and do my small part and look out for them and keep my door always open for them.