A lot of Christians are arguing that our Christian principles, based in Scripture, demand that we welcome the Syrian refugees. This article shows why this is a hasty conclusion regarding the teaching of Scripture.
Surely the Scripture does not mean to say we should allow foreigners to come into our nation who intend to kill us (as if the Israelites would have let the Philistines or Babylonians into Jerusalem!). And surely those who argue that Scripture demands we accept the Syrian refugees would not cite those same passages if they knew members of ISIS or Al Qaeda were among them, but could not be identified. But here’s the thing: We know from the experience in France that terrorists are coming in with the refugees undetected, and people have been murdered as a result. Until and unless we can properly vet these refugees to determine who is a possible terrorist and who is not, how can any reasonable person say we should just let them into our country? It only takes a few terrorists to produce mass killing. 9/11 and the French attacks are proof of this.
Let me say this as strongly as I can: If you support bringing these refugees into our country without being properly vetted first and knowing the risks involved, and there are terrorists among them who end up killing Americans, then you share part of the moral blame for your fellow citizens’ deaths. A person who invites a destitute soul into their home is a kind person, but a person who invites someone into their home when there is reason to think they could be a murderer, is not a kind person but a fool. And if that individual turns out to be a murderer who does, in fact, kill their family, the individual who invited the person into their home is morally blameworthy.
The same is true on a national level. This country is our shared home, and when you support bringing a group of people into this nation that are known by experience to include small amounts of terrorists, you are a fool. Is it fair to the actual destitute seeking entry into this country to deny them entrance simply because of the few among them who are using this as an opportunity to terrorize our country? Absolutely not! But neither is it fair to our citizens to let terrorists into our country whose sole purpose is to kill us. In our attempt to be compassionate to the destitute, we are failing to be compassionate to those who are already here and citizens of this great country by unnecessarily risking their lives. Compassion is a great virtue, but not when it is exercised without wisdom. I am all for legal immigration, and I am all for accepting refugees, but we need to be wise in how we approach both.
Thinking to Believe 
November 20, 2015 at 10:53 pm
You said, “A person who invites a destitute soul into their home is a kind person, but a person who invites someone into their home when there is reason to think they could be a murderer, is not a kind person but a fool.”
So, I take it that if you a stranger sought shelter, you would deny them, since being a stranger, you’d know nothing about them?
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November 20, 2015 at 11:52 pm
stanrock, that does not follow from what I said. I said “when there is reason to think they could be a murderer,” which means you have positive evidence for the belief. What you said, “you’d know nothing about them” would mean the absence of evidence. Surely you understand the difference between absence of evidence and presence of evidence. When we have no reason to believe X, then we don’t suspect or conclude X. When we have reason to believe X, we suspect or conclude X. So if I had no reason to believe the stranger was a murderer, I might very well provide them shelter. But if I have positive evidence that they may mean me and my family harm, I would not do so.
Jason
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November 21, 2015 at 12:10 am
stanrock, in addition to your failure to distinguish between the absence of evidence and the presence of evidence, you also seem to be evading the obvious point. So let me ask you again. If you had reason to think the stranger could be dangerous and may mean your family harm, would you still invite him into your home?
Jason
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November 21, 2015 at 12:58 am
Why is everybody so sure that our vetting process doesn’t work? We already have a vetting process in place, which has been working for years. Our government and those involved in vetting refugees are not going to stop being thorough… In fact, they will now have to be more thorough than ever in their investigations because if they are not, exactly what you say might happen. They cannot afford to be wrong; therefore, they won’t be. The islamic state has purposefully sparked this refugee debate so that we put more resources into vetting refugees who are fleeing their terror. In my opinion, they’re trying to distract us from something bigger, and we’re completely allowing them to do so. I agree with you, every refugee should be thoroughly investigated before being allowed into the country… But that system is already in place, so what is the actual argument here? Whether or not it is good enough? Here is a link to a man who works with Syrian immigrants on a daily basis and has explained, in detail, the process of vetting them on his Facebook page. https://m.facebook.com/BryanScottHicks?fref=nf&ref=content_filter.
Here is an article written by The BBC about the Syrian refugee process.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-34848248
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November 21, 2015 at 4:35 am
Shannon, you fail to see the obvious. The current vetting process didn’t exactly work in the case of the Paris attack, now did it?
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November 21, 2015 at 6:51 am
We can’t keep out the terrorists. Hundreds could still get in get in by phony and legitimate passports.
The human answer, as I see it is simple. Boots on the ground. We should draft a small portion of all eligible men, including the sons of the rich and famous, including college students, and we should do so immediately.
The only Christian answer, as I see it, is very Scriptural – we must follow the New Testament and trust the Lord.
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November 21, 2015 at 5:38 pm
There is only one answer to the terrorist dilemma and when revealed it will prove more practical than prophetic.
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November 22, 2015 at 10:00 am
That a Syrian passport was found close to the body of one of the terrorists is clear; what is not clear is if the terrorist used the passport to cross via the refugee path or if the passport was actually used by the Syrian refugee and subsequently taken or stolen from the real refugee.
From news report Nov 15, 2015
see: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/15/why-syrian-refugee-passport-found-at-paris-attack-scene-must-be-treated-with-caution
Excerpt……….But there are several reasons why it’s worth waiting until all the facts are known before making too strong a link between the attacks and the refugee crisis. The first is a general one: on at least 12 occasions, Isis has actually criticised refugees for fleeing to Europe. “For those who want to blame the attacks on Paris on refugees, you might want to get your facts straight,” wrote Aaron Zelin, an analyst of jihad, in an online commentary about the 12 outbursts. “The reality is, [Isis] loathes that individuals are fleeing Syria for Europe. It undermines [Isis’s] message that its self-styled caliphate is a refuge.” It’s therefore unlikely that the vast majority of Syrians fleeing to Europe are Isis supporters, since their actions are in obvious contravention of the group’s creed.
The second reason for caution is more specific. Investigators still need to verify the Syrian passport was carried by an attacker rather than a dead bystander (one Egyptian passport-holder initially believed to be an assailant turned out to be an injured victim). They will then need to be certain that the passport’s carrier was the same as the passport’s legitimate owner.
It’s possible that it was stolen. Since the possession of a Syrian passport makes it easier to claim asylum in Europe, there is a busy trade in stolen Syrian documents. Syrians interviewed on Greece’s border with Macedonia have described how they were mugged for their passports after leaving the Greek islands as they tried to make their way north through the Balkans. Such passports can be sold on for as much as several thousand euros, in a trade that the EU’s border agency acknowledges is a growing problem. Forgeries are also common; a Dutch journalist recently had one made in the name of his prime minister……………
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November 22, 2015 at 10:31 am
I believe Shannon is implying that the U.S. vetting process is much more stringent in the U.S. than in some European countries. The suspected mastermind of the Paris attack, Abdelhamid Abaaoud and cousins were from Belgium who would not need a passport to go anywhere in Europe; the same for the wanted person Abeslam.
A Syrian Passport does not a terrorist make.
Thousands of refugees arrive on the Greek islands every day. While each has to be registered before they can make it to the Greek mainland, the process is a brief formality rather than a lengthy investigation. In registrations witnessed by the Guardian during the summer, refugees simply presented identification to the Greek authorities, before being allowed to leave minutes later without anything like a background check.
On the other hand if, in the vetting process, one does not have a criminal record there would be no reason to deny refugee status but that alone would not mean the person is not a radicalized terrorist.
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November 22, 2015 at 11:04 am
randy:
The coalition is beginning to coalesce. Conscription is not the answer. Drafting the young translates into: sending young men to their death by those willing to send them to it; a politicans nightmare.
As a matter of fact the military recruitment levels in France have tripled since the Paris attacks not unlike the American voluntary recruitment rise after 9/11.
There were a number of conscription crises in history; it is a very controversial matter and has caused great protest; indeed, crises whenever it is enacted.
The Revolt in the Vendee involved an early case of a conscription crisis in 1793 as the revolutionary government sought to conscript portions of local communities for the Revolutionary Wars. Similar events occurred in Brittany.
The New York Draft Riots of 1863 represented protests in response to President Abraham Lincoln’s Enrollment Act of Conscription to draft men to fight in the ongoing Civil War.
The Tragic Week (Catalonia) of 1909 was a series of confrontations between the Spanish army and the working classes of Catalonia (Spain), caused by the calling-up of reserve troops to be sent as reinforcements to the Second Rif War in Morocco.
The Conscription Crisis of 1917 was a political and military crisis in Canada during World War I.
In the Conscription Crisis of 1918, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland government legislated for power to extend conscription to Ireland, leading to increased support for Irish nationalism. No steps were ever taken to exercise the power to conscript in Ireland.
Other conscription crises during World War I happened in Newfoundland, Australia and New Zealand
The Conscription Crisis of 1944 was a political and military crisis in Canada during World War II.
Protests against the Vietnam War in the late 1960s and early 1970s to a large degree dealt with the issue of conscription, particularly in the United States and Australia which conscripted troops for the war (other countries, like New Zealand, did not send conscripts).
Decades later, the then popular book “IV-F” that centered on easily faked ways to be held medically unqualified for military service without any real incapacitation remains in college libraries as a reminder of how systemic resistance to the draft then was.
Over the last week, 1,000 more people a day have tried to sign up in the fight against the Islamic State, Stuart Varney said Friday.
The number of inquiries per day has since gone from 500 to 1,500, Colonel Eric de Lapresle told Le Monde.
source for military recruitment:
5/11/20/french-army-recruitment-inquiries-triple-week-after-isis-attacks
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November 22, 2015 at 11:07 am
http://insider.foxnews.com/2015/11/20/french-army-recruitment-inquiries-triple-week-after-isis-attacks
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November 22, 2015 at 11:14 am
http://www.insider.foxnews.com/2015/11/20/french-army-recruitment-inquiries-triple-week-after-isis-attacks
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November 22, 2015 at 9:05 pm
Considering the axiom, “Charity begins at home.”, Scripture teaches: But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. (1 Timothy 5:8) So every sound effort should be made in behalf of any true refugee, Syrian or otherwise, to afford them safe haven and comfort. As it will undoubtedly require varied resources worth many billions of dollars to accomplish this there should be global participation & meaningful contributions particularly from Syria’s Muslim neighbors, namely, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Iran etc.
As for America, who remains a high profile target for ISIL/ISIS/IS/DAESH amongst many other terrorists, jihadists and otherwise; we must ensure we don’t fall victim to any trojan horse.
Scripture also teaches:
“Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God He made man.” (Genesis 9:6) We’re also taught to place our trust in God/Messiah as our Avenger of Blood [Nahum 1:2-3]. The Angel of the LORD/YHWH (God the Son) proves time and again He shall stand in defense of His people; from the Exodus out of Egypt [Exodus 7-12], to the attempted Assyrian assault by Sennacherib [2 Kings 19:15-36] “For I will defend this city to save it for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.” Then it happened that night that the Angel of YAHWEH went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians; and when men rose early in the morning, behold, all of them were dead. So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home, and lived at Nineveh. (2 Kings 19:34-36) Ultimately, Messiah will return as Righteous Almighty Judge [Matthew 28:18; Revelation 2:18, 14:19-20]. From His mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty [Psalm 2]. (Revelation 19:15)
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