The Trump administration is celebrated by many Christians for its robust defense of religious liberty. From publishing federal guidance on religious expression in public schools to directing the State Department to allocate USAID funding to international religious liberty initiatives to appointing Supreme Court justices many Christians hope will safeguard their freedom to practice their faith, the president has drawn accolades from many conservative Christians for strengthening First Amendment protections. “I’ve done so much for religion,” the president recently commented in an interview with Newsmax.
Yet research our organization recently conducted with Open Doors USA, an international religious freedom watchdog group that advocates for the persecuted church, reveals an area where the White House has fallen short. Since the time of the pilgrims, America has been proud of its legacy of opening its doors to those experiencing religious persecution. The Refugee Act of 1980 formally defined a refugee as an individual who has left their country because of a credible fear of persecution based on (among other grounds) religion and allows the president to set an annual cap for refugee resettlement. Between 1980 and 2016, the average ceiling was around 95,000 and the average number of actual arrivals was 81,000 — numbers that attest to the generosity and hospitality of the American people as well as our commitment to religious freedom for all.
Since 2016, however, those numbers have plummeted. Two years ago, Canada eclipsed the U.S. as the global leader in refugee resettlement. The cap for fiscal year 2020 was set at a mere 18,000 — and as a result of COVID-19, only around 7,600 have arrived. Given that there are only three months remaining in the fiscal year, it seems highly unlikely that admissions will even approach that cap.
These policies fail refugees fleeing persecution, including those whose persecution is on account of their faith in Christ. According to Open Doors USA, 260 million Christians worldwide live in regions where they are vulnerable to intense persecution. Almost 3,000 have been martyred and almost 9,500 churches and other Christian buildings have been attacked. But, as our new report shows, the U.S. has now largely closed its doors to persecuted Christians: from the 50 countries on Open Doors’ annual World Watch List of places where Christian experience persecution, the U.S. welcomed more than 18,000 Christian refugees in 2015. Halfway through this year, we’ve received fewer than 950, on track for a decline of 90 percent.
Of course, members of various other faiths experience persecution as well, from Jewish refugees who have fled Iran to Yezidis who have fled Iraq to Rohingya Muslims who have fled Myanmar. The number of refugees from each of these persecuted groups to be resettled this year is on track to be down by more than 90 percent compared to 2015. Our commitment to religious freedom means we must advocate for them as well as for those persecuted as fellow Christians.
American Christians must ask ourselves some tough questions. Scripture makes it clear that all believers are part of the body of Christ and that when one member suffers, the entire body suffers alongside it. Yet the policies of the elected officials chosen by most white Christians suggest that we’ve closed our ears — and our nation’s doors — to this suffering.
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SOURCE: Christian Post, Matthew Soerens
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