Silke Jasso
On Jan. 27, President Donald Trump signed an executive order temporarily banning travelers, migrants and refugees from seven countries and indefinitely banning refugees from Syria.
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The move sparked outrage across the country and across the world. Chaos ensued at airports across the nation as confused travelers didn’t know what to do, and protestors showed up to voice their frustration and demand the that those being detained be let in.
Numerous judges put a stay in place on Jan. 28, forcing travelers stranded at airports to be released; however, the stay did nothing to scale back President Trump’s executive order.
Now, several Evangelical Christian organizations have come together to write a letter to America’s 45th president to implore him to change his mind.
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The letter, which was released by World Vision and signed by the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, The Wesleyan Church, World Relief, Korean Churches for Community Development, the National Association of Evangelicals and Accord Network, expressed concerns about his newly enacted executive order, saying they were “deeply troubled” by it. The letter continued:
The Bible teaches us that each person – including each refugee, regardless of their country of origin, religious background, or any other qualifier – is made in the image of God, with inherent dignity and potential. Their lives matter to God, and they matter to us. While the U.S. Has in recent years received only a fraction of 1 percent of the world’s refugees annually, we believe the refugee resettlement program provides a lifeline to these uniquely vulnerable individuals and a vital opportunity for our churches to live out the biblical commands to love our neighbors.
The letter also said that the resettlement program “is already extremely thorough” and that most of those being resettled “are family reunification cases.”
Finally, they asked for President Trump to reconsider his decision, “We would ask that you reconsider these decisions, allowing for resettlement of refugees to resume immediately so that our churches can continue to live out our faith in this way.”
Read the letter in its entirety here.
