BLOG 12/17/16. IT’S CHRISTMAS, … BUT I’M OBSESSED WITH REFUGEES

It is an almost surreal experience to live in this present moment. To read the morning newspaper here in Atlanta is to be informed of all the hedonistic experiences one can enjoy in this ostensible holiday season: places to eat gourmet meals, places to be entertained, football games to watch, places to shop—how to be happy and spends tons of money, with the birth of Jesus somehow in the background as the rationale for it all.

Then to read of the chaotic political realities of this country is (as someone commented) like reading the satirical journal: The Onion. It is all so confusing and depressing, and leaves one with the sense of bewilderment and despair. What’s happening?

In the midst of it all are all the immediate realities of making a living, going through our professional routines. I sit several mornings a week in my favorite coffee shop, and with me are a couple of score of mostly young professionals with their iPhones and laptops engaging in their businesses, or scholarly pursuits, or creative writing, etc. They seem consumed with living the normal life of urban professionals, and one wonders what they all make of the world outside of their digital culture and their exceptionally good coffee.

Then, I read of four million Syrian refugees, … or of the thousands of evacuees from Aleppo, who are good, ordinary people such as you and I know here, and Aleppo has been their ancestral home, and the place of their professions as medical personnel, merchants, educators, artisans … all the normal occupations which we also engage in here in Atlanta. And suddenly they are assaulted by opposing government and rebel forces, their city is bombarded, the children are frightened, … and then a cease-fire is declared and they are ordered to be evacuated. So, with the clothes on their back and what they can carry they are herded onto busses and evacuated to some unknown destination and future, and even their evacuation is assaulted by ISIS forces.

It is surreal. Two worlds. The security of my own warm home, and my ability to function normally, and to celebrate the Word made flesh in the birth of Jesus, … and the other huge human tragedy of over sixty-three million refugees in the world. Spending money on Christmas presents seems almost obscene when there are such enormous human needs for basics among these throngs of desperate victims of circumstances beyond their control.

How do I resolve this? I have been provoked to much more generous giving to those agencies that are seeking to bring relief rather than indulge myself in fun, but un-necessary, Christmas entertainment. Jesus taught me that feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, bringing healing to the sick, and taking strangers into one’s home are those ministries by which he is honored. I look for the agencies that are engaging in such ministries among the millions of refugees. I do not care whether they are ‘Christian’ agencies or not, … only if they are effective. My readers may have their own chosen agencies, but I will commend several (which you can access on line), and which make it simple to make a single donation, or choose monthly donations. Here are my Bob Henderson suggestions:

• The United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR), which is the most immediate on-the-ground agency responsible, and well administered.
• The International Rescue Committee (IRC) founded by Albert Einstein to assist with rescuing German Jews decades ago, and very well placed and administered.
• The American Red Cross, which like the Islamic Red Crescent are always ‘Johnny on the spot’ in humanitarian concerns, but always need financial assistance.

Lord have mercy on those despairing uprooted fellow humans across the world. May I implore my readers to be both generous and compassionate, and celebrate Christmas aware of the world in which we live, what with so much that is heart-rending. Lord, have mercy!