Sclerosis of the Kiwi Heart?

The news of the increasing refugee crisis and catastrophe that is emanating from Europe and Australia, as well as the hardening of heart that is represented by the Trump campaign in the USA, should be interpreted by Christians as deeply demonic.

The Hebrew and Christian Scriptures make plain the responsibility of God’s people to open radical love and hospitality to strangers and wayfarers, the refugees and homeless. It is not an optional extra but an imperative deep from the heart of the embracing, welcoming creator God. Across the Ditch the attitude of the Australian Federal Government, incarcerating human beings on off-shore islands in a complex and costly (just fiscally, let alone in terms of  human costs) campaign of “not my problem” should have every Christian in that country bearing placards in revolt, initiating non-violent protest at every possible opportunity. Some are; it was heart-warming to see the Dean of Hobart amongst those risking arrest in a protest staged in that city.

Across the hemisphere the Christian communities are being put to shame. Iceland, one of the top 10% atheistic nations in the world, has just seen radical subversive action shaming its government: when the Icelandic Government announced it would take 50 refugees from Syria, activist Bryndis Bjorgvinsdottir began a Facebook campaign to encourage her fellow citizens to raise their game. Last time I checked 11,000 Icelanders had offered to open their homes. Statistically around 10% of those attend church regularly.

I was in Australia when the Howard Government there perpetrated its lies about “children overboard,”  and later turned the Tampa away from its waters on the stated basis that it was carrying 438 mainly Afghani refugees (this despite the wonderful impact Afghanis had had on the history of Australia). I was deeply proud of Aotearoa New Zealand, when we accepted over 150 of those refugees. Perhaps, like Britain’s Battle of Britain, it was our finest hour?

Because, despite the obscenity of Australia’s policies of off-shore processing, and the growing refusal there to allow media reporting on the shameful abuse of those behind razor wire, the rape, suicide and depression that are pandemic in the camps, nevertheless Australia rates more highly than New Zealand on proportionate intake of the world’s most desperate. Believe it or not, “Australia aims to host 4.7 times as many refugees per capita as New Zealand” [from a 2014 article by Murdoch Stephens, who leads Doing Our Bit, a campaign to double New Zealand's refugee quota and funding].
As a Christian community we should be  gnawing the ears of both (all) sides of parliament.

As a Christian community  we should be making conspicuous noise about the most vulnerable on God’s earth.  Though I am no organiser or politician I am hoping to get involved in action on this front in coming weeks.