Nearly a decade ago, I had a pleasant surprise. I received an email from a friend I had not seen or heard from since the late 1960s. Charles lived two doors down from us, and we spent many hours playing together, along with his younger brother. Our experience together did not include church or school because his family was Catholic, and he went to Catholic school. It was out of the blue when I received his email. How that happened is a long story for another time.
We talked on the phone and caught up on a lot. He still lived in Colorado, where we grew up, and I was glad to hear about his siblings. Over the next few years, Charles’ wife died, and he did volunteer work in Africa for several years with the Peace Corps. We kept in touch occasionally.
Terry Austin
One of the more interesting things I discovered was that he was no longer a Catholic. In fact, he now identifies as an agnostic. We talked about it, but I was confident it wasn’t my job to bring him back to the Christian fold.
Four years ago, during election season, Charles called to inform me that he would be in Dallas for a few weeks and wanted to get together. He was coming to work for Beto O’Rourke’s campaign for Texas senator. He was shocked when he parked in front of my house to see a yard sign supporting Beto. He knew my father as a Baptist preacher, so he assumed I was an evangelical Christian, which was not a good thing in his mind.
Charles already was on his way out of the church when his son announced that he was gay. After his siblings, who are now evangelical Christians, condemned his son, Charles made the final break. Who can blame him?
Before he saw my yard sign, Charles had been hesitant to tell me this part of the story. We had a great visit. It was good for him to see that I’m not an ogre even though I’m still a believer in Jesus, and it was good for me to see that he’s not an ogre even though he’s not so sure about God at all.
During his time in Africa, he became very interested in the refugee issue around the world. He set off on a project and asked for my help. We are putting together a book to help evangelical pastors (of all people) understand how they can/should help refugees. He also is working to raise funds to give the book away free to thousands of pastors.
Charles has a fascinating life, and I’m enjoying living it with him vicariously. Oh yeah, since I saw him last, he decided there was no reason to stay in Colorado, and Trump had so disgusted him that he sold his house, bought a new one in Portugal, and is now living there as a citizen.
“The truly sad thing is that Christian preachers need to be convinced to care about refugees.”
Here’s the amazing thing: An agnostic has established a massive goal of convincing Christian preachers of the need to care about refugees. That’s a wagon I’m glad to jump on. The truly sad thing is that Christian preachers need to be convinced to care about refugees. Think about that.
Those who call themselves “Christians” because their God is known as “Christ” struggle with how to relate to refugees. Did they totally miss the story and words of Jesus? In the early years of his life, Jesus was a refugee in a foreign country, Egypt. How many times did he tell us that he lived his life for the poor and outcast? It is also obvious that Jesus expects the same from us.
Many Christians understand this, and my friend’s task is not to send a book to every pastor. He plans to single out the evangelical pastors, the ones who have been clear about what they think of refugees.
I’m aware that evangelical pastors have not issued a statement as to their beliefs about refugees, but is there any doubt? I got stuck in a traffic jam yesterday, Sunday, as a church down the road was dismissing its third or fourth (who can keep track) service this weekend, and the streets were flooded with joyful evangelicals who had just done their thing. This church, with more than 20,000 attendees each weekend, is led by a man who was on Trump’s council of supporting pastors, or whatever they called it. I would be shocked if fewer than 90% of those on the street yesterday were not Republican supporters of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
We know what Abbot thinks about refugees. He and his Florida buddy and their Arizona cousin are grabbing up refugees off the streets and shipping them to liberal areas of the country. The motive seems to be that once they have scary refugees on their streets, those people will be just as disgusted and want them booted out or locked up. However, they are making the same mistake we all make at times. The mistake is to think our own shortcomings are not so bad because anyone who had our experience would feel the same way. “Walk a mile in my shoes, and you’ll hate these people also,” is what they believe.
“It seems that states with the strongest ‘right to life’ policies are the first in line when it comes to using people as pawns for their political purposes.”
Two things stand out about the recent experience of governors sweeping up refugees off the streets and shipping them to liberal parts of the country. It seems that states with the strongest “right to life” policies are the first in line when it comes to using people as pawns for their political purposes.
As I think about it, it might just be a continuation of the same political thinking. Do you really believe these strident pro-life politicians care that much about children? Probably not. They simply found a way to manipulate the unborn to gain political support. Just as they have been manipulating the unborn, now they are manipulating the already born. Both exemplify little regard for the right to life.
The second thing of note is the response of the communities that were surprised when a busload of refugees suddenly showed up in their neighborhood. They didn’t panic. They didn’t hurl blame at the government. They didn’t stuff the children in cages and put handcuffs on the adults. They went to work doing the things Jesus told us to do. They fed and clothed them, set about the task of finding shelter and sustainable work, and located resource people like attorneys and medical people.
Our book project is back on target now that Charles is settled in Portugal. He knows lots of people and clearly understands the refugees’ needs, which keeps him busy with that part of the project. He also has taken on the task of finding the money people to bring his dream to life and make this project happen.
He has much to do, but I probably have the most difficult job. My assignment is to find a way to convince evangelical preachers to listen to Jesus. I suspect I’ve bitten off more than I can chew.
Terry Austin says from his first day of life he was taught to love the church. He has lived out that passion in various ways as a pastor, church consultant, author and critic. He is currently a full-time writer and book publisher and actively engaged with house churches.
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