OPINION: Jesus was a Refugee
By Mark Ereira-Guyer, Founder Director, Civil Society Consulting CIC, with Jan and James Broad, St Mary’s Church, Suffolk
“Every human being from a Christian perspective is created in the image of God and loved by God.”
I was reminded of this straightforward Christian belief as I talked to some of the organisations we are now engaged with as part of our Nurturing Grassroots support programme, especially those helping asylum seekers (Heart4Refugees CIC) in the Wirral for example, or in Burnley with award-winning refugee support charity New Neighbours Together. We are now supporting over 70 organisations working with all types of disadvantaged people and communities from all different backgrounds, addressing their organisational development needs, mainly in Northern England, including in Middlesbrough, Newcastle, Blyth, Oldham and Blackburn.
This includes meeting with Ruth Haygarth, Chief Executive at New Neighbours Together, and she shared her experiences as the charity struggles to provide support and compassion with stretched financial resources and awaits the outcome of the charity’s National Lottery grant application. She told me that several temporary homes for asylum seekers and refugees in Burnley had been targeted by racist thugs now determined not to show them a warm welcome.
Heart4Refugees explained that a hotel for asylum seekers in Hoylake was facing a similar pattern of co-ordinated hatred. We learn that this is happening everywhere, in Epping and Diss – all orchestrated to demonise vulnerable people and ‘punching down’ to cower and frighten people and communities. Across the country, the Charity Commission has also been compelled to remove refugee charities’ trustee details amid threats and intimidation from far right racists.
Jesus fled from danger and was a refugee
However, my spirits and hopes are lifted when I read the article in the Birkenhead News where the local priest reminded us all of the story that when Jesus was born, his life was in danger from being killed by Herod so he and his family fled - and so Jesus was a refugee at his birth. This is a highly significant story shaping the Christian response to those that flee in fear of their lives – and as to the priest at St Luke’s Methodist Church in Hoylake says:
“People who follow the teachings of Jesus I think should be open to receiving people who are asylum seekers partly because Jesus was and because it’s very deeply engrained in the Christian tradition.”
But what is wrong now? Why are so many people so hostile? Why are they so easily stirred up against some of the poorest, most desperate people fleeing war, oppression, torture and climate change chaos in the Global south?
Time to stand up, speak up as Christians
The 2021 census shows that where I live in Bury St Edmunds almost half (some 48%) report being Christian, the same level as in Burnley. 55% of the local population in the Wirral are Christian. These are clear majorities – people steeped in humane traditions and open to welcoming the ‘other’. This is now the time for them to speak up. Write letters, join phone-ins, email their MP, the BBC and other media. Talk to their friends, relatives and work colleagues – explain the need for compassion and understanding.
I have many Christian friends and neighbours appalled by this contrived and ugly hatred being stirred up against refugees and asylum seekers. Like me it was instilled in us that we shouldn’t let others suffer because they belong to a different people, or to a different race, or profess a difference in beliefs or faith. This used to be a truth imprinted on our hearts. My childhood days at Sunday school and then as a teenager at King’s School in Ely were full of such extollations and warm encouragement.
In fact, my hardworking East End grandmother – who was a cleaner and school dinner lady – sang me songs about Jesus loving us all – it was all there to read in the bible! The diminution of faith in many working class communities like my grandparents in Dagenham has hollowed out the love in their hearts and allowed for the pouring in of hate. We need to reverse these poisonous trends, I don’t know about you but I want our humanity and compassion back!
Near neighbours and the power of love
My regular church-going neighbours - Jan and James Broad - reminded me of the power of love, that kind of love that feeds into our community interest company mission and giving expression to the urgent need to promote Steps to Togetherness and wider social solidarity, when they sent me an email to me over the Summer bank holiday weekend following our conversation over the plight of asylum seekers and racist protests outside hotels:
“ Many years ago we went with a missionary friend to see the film “Angela’s Ashes”. At a certain point the destitute mother of the family goes to the Jesuits to beg for food, and they slam the door in her face. My friend was deeply disturbed by this scene, and said to me afterwards, “How did it happen, that the gospel Jesus came to preach mutates into the slamming the door in the face of a hungry woman?”
As we watch crowds demonstrating violently outside asylum hotels across the country, and even setting fire to them, we may ask a similar question: how did it come to this? A once-Christian nation, centred on the two precepts of loving God and loving one’s neighbour, now being whipped up into a xenophobic fury.
And where does the answer lie to this huge dilemma? In more rigorous immigration policies, or more rigorous enforcement? In shipping illegal immigrants to an island, or another country? The Christian answer will always point not to a policy, but to a person.
To quote the former Bishop of Norwich, Graham James, commenting on the gospel of Mark: “Climate change, migration and the refugee crisis, corrupt governments and despotic rulers – such things mean the need to bring hope is urgent. Mark’s response was not to despair but to trust in Jesus Christ as the transforming agency within human history.”
It’s so important to keep this in the forefront of our minds as others simply throw petrol onto the xenophobic racist fires that are now burning much too brightly for my liking, and that of many of my neighbours and the wider communities our social enterprise seeks to support and sustain.
We urgently need to grow our 32 Steps to Togetherness movement which is bringing together, supporting and empowering community leaders who are working tirelessly to build social solidarity within and between our communities.
Help us to flood social media with stories of love, commitment and compassion being shown in our communities and drown out the negative noise – follow 32 Steps to Togetherness on Instagram and/or Facebook, like and share our stories of hope and humanity.
