English Audio Request

Evangelicals Ignore G.O.P. by Embracing Syrian Refugees
By RICHARD FAUSSET and ALAN BLINDER. The New York Times, September 6, 2016

MARIETTA, Ga. — William Stocks, a white, Alabama-born, Republican-leaning member of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, arrived at the tiny apartment of a Syrian refugee family on a Wednesday night after work. He was eager to teach yet another improvised session of English 101. Mr. Stocks, 23, had recently moved to Georgia from Alabama, states where the governors are, like him, Southern Baptists. They are also among the more than 30 Republican governors who have publicly resisted the federal government’s plan to resettle refugees from war-ravaged Syria, fearing that the refugees might bring terrorism to their states.

To Mr. Stocks, such questions belonged in the realm of politics — and he had not come that evening for political reasons. Rather, he said, he had come as a follower of Christ. “My job is to serve these people,” he said, “because they need to be served.”

But politics and faith have always had the potential to conflict in the questions about resettling Syrian refugees in the United States. And at a time when conservative politicians, many with ties to Christian religious groups, have aggressively sought to keep the Syrian newcomers out of their states, it is conservative people of faith who, in many cases, are serving as their indispensable support system.

Here in Marietta, the English lesson began around the donated kitchen table of Anwar and Daleen, two of the 10,000 Syrian refugees who have arrived in the United States in the past year only to grapple with that political reality, one as confusing as any new language. Speaking through an interpreter, Anwar, 33, and Daleen, 27, said they were aware of the American politicians who oppose the arrival of Syrians here. But the political issues, they said, they knew only from television. Their closest interactions with Americans have been largely with the members of Johnson Ferry Church, like Mr. Stocks. It was members of the church, most of whom are Republicans, who outfitted their tiny apartment and showed them how to navigate America’s cavernous grocery stores.

The arrival of the 10,000th Syrian refugee last month fulfilled a goal for the 2016 fiscal year that President Obama announced last September. Though they are a small fraction of the millions who have fled Syria, the concern among many conservative voters that the refugees could incubate domestic terrorism remains potent.

The Rev. Franklin Graham, a son of the Rev. Billy Graham, has said that he agreed with Mr. Trump’s idea of a ban on immigration by Muslims. In an interview last week, Franklin Graham said that he remained concerned about gaps in the screening process for refugees, and has argued that the United States should rely on aid efforts closer to the Middle East to help resolve the humanitarian crisis.“We’re not just leaving them on the side of the road, but we also care for this country and the people of this nation,” Mr. Graham said. “We have to put America first.”

His stance is at odds with some influential Christians, including the leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention. In June, the convention approved a resolution to “encourage Southern Baptist churches and families to welcome and adopt refugees into their churches and homes as a means to demonstrate to the nations that our God longs for every tribe, tongue and nation to be welcomed at his throne.”

Officials at the nongovernment organizations that resettle refugees say members of the Mormon Church have been particularly helpful in resettling Syrian refugees in states like Utah, Texas and Arizona. Mormons historically tend to favor Republicans, but in December, soon after Mr. Trump announced his idea for a Muslim ban, the Mormon Church issued a statement reasserting its commitment to religious liberty. On Monday, the church, responding to what it called “the global refugee crisis,” donated $2 million to two groups that help resettle refugees: the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the International Rescue Committee.

In Marietta, Mr. Stocks’s church is one of 1,055 churches that in the past year worked with World Relief, an evangelical resettlement organization, to help refugees and immigrants. The Rev. Bryant Wright, the senior pastor of Johnson Ferry, acknowledged the possibility that there could be dangers in admitting the Syrians to the United States. “I know there’s risk,” he said. “I’m not being naïve.”

But Pastor Wright said that Jesus commanded his disciples, in the Book of Matthew, to “make disciples of all nations.” He also said that there were worldly reasons to help. “Think of it from a strictly practical standpoint,” he said. “Would it be better for these people to see Americans reaching out with love, and showing them all of the blessings Americans can have? Or do we turn our backs on them, and make them more sympathetic to Islamic terrorism?”