What is the connection between The Daily Express and a prayer meeting?
It's today's headline: "MIGRANT PROTESTS WON'T STOP US DOING WHAT IS RIGHT.' That is a quotation from James Cleverly, Home Secretary.
The variation on this high moral claim was made popular by David Cameron's banal mantra about "doing the right thing", which meant doing what the Government decides is 'the right thing.'
Then there was the prayer meeting last night where we were praying that our Government would "do the right thing."
But of course it all depends on who gets to decide what is right, what they mean by 'right', and the moral criteria used in the definition.
As a Christian, and as a member of the public, I have a different view of what 'the right thing' is when it comes to how we treat asylum seeking people.
Love you neighbour as yourself. Act justly, love mercy, walk humbly with your God. Offer support, welcome, food, safety to those whose lives depend on it. Treat people with compassion as well as fairness. Taking care of the language used to describe those who are 'other'. Making laws that comply with international law and human rights obligations. There are more, but these will do for now.
Last night at a special prayer meeting, a group of Aberdeen Christians met to pray for and with those seeking asylum in our country. These men are mostly from Iran, many of them have fled persecution, and most have little or no English.
We sang two hymns in Farsi. We prayed in English but all said Amen together. We prayed that the Rwanda policy would be withdrawn; that decision-makers would work with criteria that included compassion, justice and empathy; that those detained for deportation would be supported by good legal representation; that voices would continue to be raised in opposition to policies that harm people and rhetoric that demonises other human beings; that agencies and third sector organisations would join their voices to advocate for policies that are humane rather than punitive.
If deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda is, according to the Home Secretary, doing the right thing for the British public, were we doing the right thing in pleading with God to change hearts, change policies, and even change the holders of power who have made such laws?
So, on the one hand, a prayer meeting with asylum seekers and Scottish Christians. On the other hand a tabloid newspaper headline claiming the high moral ground for the UK Government. It's an intriguing collision of moral statements both claiming and aiming "to do the right thing". As a follower of One who stood before human courts that wanted rid of him regardless of due process, I am clear about what the right thing is.
These include, but are not limited to:
- Safe routes of travel for those seeking asylum.
- International co-operation to provide workable strategies for a global shift in migration patterns.
- Properly resourced Border Force facilities and investment in processing systems to deal with asylum applications quickly and fairly.
- An end to the rhetoric of division, demonisation and scare-mongering as a political playbook.
- An end to lying, misuse and distortion of data, using the plight of vulnerable people to stoke public fears for political advantage, and as justification for repressive policies.
That is now my prayer list. And each time I pray I have in mind multiple stories of people whose names I know, whose faces I recognise, and whose welfare is a sacred obligation conferred as a trust by Jesus: "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you did for me."
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