How can we help?

As we hunker down in our warm cosy houses this winter, awaiting the latest episode of The Simpsons to start, with that delicious smell of dinner bubbling away on the stove, it may be easy to forget that somewhere out there, there are over 10 million refugees waiting to be settled (http://www.unhcr.org/pages/4a0174156.html). Some of them will be curled up in cardboard boxes, others may be snug as sardines (120 men in a building the size of a tennis court is pretty snug), with thousands more living in tent cities without any sort of plumbing, running water, electricity or even (shudder) the internet (which apparently is a human right these days: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2386456,00.asp). According to another report from the Left, if we were to put them all in an orderly queue for resettlement, it could take up to 135 years to clear (http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/47533).

While on one hand we may think that sending asylum seekers to Malaysia (Amnesty International has more interesting things to say of the issue here: http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/report/refugees-malaysia-arrested-abused-and-denied-right-work-2010-06-16) is a bad idea, on the other hand, we also have to be practical. How many Australia can take in? How much does it take to support a refugee in the country before they can stand on their own feet and join society? Where is that funding going to come from? It is interesting that there is lots of debate on what to do with refugees but not much about how many we can afford to help.

 As Christians, we should help as many as we can. God demands it (Exodus 22:21, Leviticus 19:33-34, Psalm 146:9) and Jesus Himself was a refugee (Matthew 2:13-16) so He knows what it’s like to flee to another country for fear of being killed.

While many people would say that Australia is no longer a Christian country, it is still a country where Christian values play a big part in most decision making and our expectations of behaviour. Compassion, charity, human dignity and value of life are all reasons why people have heard this is a good place to be. How can we help them in the best way possible?