Two weeks ago, refugees who were prepared to enter the U.S. received devastating news. After waiting for years and in some cases decades, they found out they were not allowed to enter the country because the U.S. refugee resettlement system was put on pause. There are 21.3 million refugees in the world. Fifty percent of them are children. Less than one percent of all refugees will ever be permanently resettled to a new country. Refugees are among the most persecuted people in the world. While they wait to be resettled or for their country’s situation to shift, they live in refugees camps, often with little access to school, medical resources, and employment. These are vulnerable people.
As people who are called to welcome the stranger, defend of the cause of the vulnerable, and seek justice for the oppressed, how will we respond to these life-threatening policies?
“I pledge to protect and defend vulnerable people, in the name of Jesus.” The Matthew 25 Pledge is a U.S. Christian movement formed in response to threats of American policies that will do harm to vulnerable people, particularly immigrants, Muslims, and people of color. There are certainly many other vulnerable groups in our country, but the national movement has identified these three groups as particularly vulnerable under this new administration based on promises made on the campaign trail. In the past two weeks, we’ve already seen how these groups have been targeted.
One way the Matthew 25 community stepped up last week to protect and defend vulnerable people was through advocacy. After the Executive Order on refugees and Muslims was announced, the Office of Social Justice notified the Matthew 25 signatories about what happened and how they could take action to protect and defend. We asked everyone to sign an action alert to their representative and senators asking them to speak out against the Executive Order and do everything in their power to see it reversed. So far, 830 people have contacted their elected officials! We also asked them to commit to praying for our elected officials that their hearts would shift on this issue. We gave them tools to share important facts about refugees and our resettlement process on social media. We want to equip people to respond quickly to policies that harm vulnerable communities.
We anticipate another announcement that would put millions of undocumented immigrants at higher risk of deportation and being separated from their families. Will you sign the Matthew 25 pledge to receive updates when we get more information and to learn how you can stand up for vulnerable people?
As Christians, we cannot be silent on these issues that impact the people God calls us to defend.
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