Houston - You Shall Love the Stranger as Yourself: The Bible, Refugees and Asylum

YOU SHALL LOVE THE STRANGER AS YOURSELF

You Shall Love the Stranger as Yourself addresses the complex political, legal, and humanitarian challenges raised by asylum-seekers and refugees from a Biblical perspective. The book explores the themes of humanity and justice through exegesis of relevant passages in the Old and New Testaments, which are skilfully woven into accounts of contemporary refugee situations. Applying Biblical analysis to one of the most pressing humanitarian concerns of modern times, Houston creates a timely work that will be of interest to students and scholars of theology, religion, and human rights.

Fleur S. Houston is a minister of the United Reformed Church with extensive local, national, and international experience. She serves on the steering group of the Churches Refugee Network, a UK-based ecumenical body concerned with refugees and those who seek asylum.

BIBLICAL CHALLENGES IN THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD

Series Editors: J.W. Rogerson, University of Sheffield, and Mark Harris, University of Edinburgh

According to the Scriptures?

J.W. Rogerson

Justice: the Biblical challenge

Walter J. Houston

The Bible and the Environment

David G. Horrell

The City in Biblical Perspective

J.W. Rogerson and John Vincent

The Nature of Creation

Mark Harris

You Shall Love the Stranger as Yourself

Fleur S. Houston

YOU SHALL LOVE THE STRANGER AS YOURSELF

The Bible, Refugees, and Asylum

Fleur S. Houston

First published 2015

by Routledge

711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

and by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2015 Fleur S. Houston

The right of Fleur S. Houston to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Houston, Fleur S.

You shall love the stranger as yourself : the Bible, refugees and asylum / Fleur S. Houston. -- 1

[edition].

pages cm. -- (Biblical challenges in the contemporary world)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Emigration and immigration in the Bible. 2. Refugees. 3. Asylum, Right of--Religious aspects--Christianity. 4. Emigration and immigration--Religious aspects--Christianity. 5. Church work with immigrants. 6. Church work with refugees. I. Title.

BS680.E38H68 2015

261.8328--dc23

2014039884

ISBN: 9781138859302 (hbk)

ISBN: 9781138859319 (pbk)

ISBN: 9781315717388 (ebk)

IN MEMORY OF MY MOTHER AND FATHER, CHRISTINE AND ARCHIE WHITELEY, WHO FIRST TAUGHT ME TO LOVE THE STRANGER

CONTENTS

The invitation to write this book, the sixth in the Biblical Challenges in the Contemporary World series, came from the Bible and Society Group, and I would like to record my thanks to the group for entrusting me with this project.

I am grateful for this opportunity to reflect on issues with which I have been increasingly preoccupied since September 2003, when a visitor from Iran was brought by his landlady to the Church of the Holy Family, Blackbird Leys, where I was serving as a minister of the United Reformed Church. He soon became fully involved in the life of the Church, and on 11 April 2004 he was baptized. Although my colleagues and I were fully persuaded of the profound sincerity of his Christian conviction, his claim for asylum in the UK was refused on the grounds that it was not credible. The evidence of expert witnesses was disregarded. The chief basis for assessment by the Tribunal was a series of questions, more or less ludicrous, which betrayed scant knowledge of the Bible, the Church or the Christian faith. With a sense of justice outraged, I collaborated with Nicholas Coulton, canon of Christ Church, Oxford, in assembling a dossier of similar Tribunal evidence from churches of many traditions and from all over the UK. Under the auspices of the then Churches Main Committee, we met with a succession of government ministers to discuss appropriate guidelines for tribunals. On joining the steering group of the Churches Refugee Network, I became increasingly aware of the rapidly worsening plight of many refugees and asylum-seekers; the catastrophic effects of government legislation, policies, and practices; the courage shown by people in often desperate circumstances; and the commitment of individuals and organizations that seek, despite draconian financial restrictions, to bring some humanity to bear on their situation. And I also became increasingly aware of the urgent ethical and moral questions regarding asylum-seekers which are currently being raised.