The Caravan: "I Was A Stranger and You Welcomed Me."

There is a group of people - a large portion being women with their children - about 4,000 of them, on the road from Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua.

They have left their respective countries and are headed towards the US border with Mexico because they are fleeing rampant poverty, gang violence and political instability. Not because they want to invade the United States.

What they are asking for is to be granted legal asslyum. They are not trying to crash the border and enter the US and do anyone harm.

As they travel through Mexico, they have been helped by a variety of sources. Including the Mexican government, which has offered aslyum, granting 2,697 temporary visas to cover the 45-day application process for more permanent status.

There has been lots of coverage of the caravan and it members, but a good portion of the coverage hasn't been accurate.

Our own president has tweeted that there are members of the infamous gang MS-13 and ISIS mixed in among the group. Other ultra-right wingers have fabricated tales of the migrants bringing in serious diseases.

None of this is true.

If you're interested in a factual analysis, the AP has written an updated release which gives a very accurate account of where things stand.

Meanwhile the US president has deployed about 5,000 members of the US armed forces to the Mexican border to keep the members of the caravan out. Inhibiting their ability to apply for aslym legally. He has also said he would like to take away "birth right" citizenship (which is currently protected in the US Constitution). 

Most recently he threatened to shut down the federal government if Congress doesn't give him a minimum of $5 billion in the next fiscal year to help build his wall, as part of a projected total cost of $20 billion. (The president initially promised that the Mexican government would pay for the wall. To date, funding that has been earmarked for the wall has come from US taxpayers. A June Gallop poll revealed that fifty-seven percent of Americans opposed strengthening the wall.)

What's important to remember is that the migrant caravan is part of a worldwide challenge. It includes about 700,000 Rohingyan refugees fleeing for their lives from Myanmar. As well as Syrian refugees and refugees from African nations.

According to the United Nations High Commission on Refugees, there are 68.5 million individuals who have been forcibly displaced worldwide. That includes 25.4 million refugees - half of whom are under eighteen years of age.

Interestingly, the top refugee-hosting countries are: Turkey (3.5 million), Uganda (1.4 million), Pakistan (1.4 million) and Lebanon (1 million). None of these countries has a strong economy, but they are reaching out to help others in need.

As this crisis continues, the US has responded by cutting its refugee quota by half in FY2018, when only 22,491 refugees were admitted. That was one-quarter of the number admitted in FY2016. Only in 1977 did the US admit a lower number of refugees.

My thoughts lean towards what a moral/spiritual response, on our part, towards the caravan headed towards the Mexican border, could look like.

. Instead of threatening a government shutdown over $5 billion for a wall, how about using that same amount of funding to provide aid to the caravan members? 

. Instead of sending 5,000 US military troops to the border to keep the caravan members out, how about sending 2,500 social workers to help the thousands of families already held in detention centers across the US? Along with providing 2,500 immigrant lawyers/judges to handle the severe backlog of cases involving immigration that already exist?

. Instead of continuing to cut the number of refugees allowed into the US, how about reversing the process so that the US at least keeps pace with Uganda, Pakistan or Lebanon? Each of these countries has admitted over a million refugees, and their economies are not nearly as strong as the US.

Spiritually speaking, I could think of lots of scriptures that point to helping out the stranger among us.

In Matthew, Chapter 23 Jesus speaks to the religious leaders of his day, calling them hypocrites, snakes and sons of vipers.

He then offers a couple of stories (the parable of the ten bridesmaids and the parable of the three servants/slaves) before winding up with his version of the final judgment.

Starting with Matthew 25:31 Jesus lays out a situation where he has come back to earth. He's sitting on the throne and everyone else ("all the nations") of the earth stand before him. Then Jesus separates the people "as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats."

And Jesus says to the sheep: "Come you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you... For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me."

The sheep ask Jesus, "Lord, when did we ever feed you, or give you a drink, or show you hospitality, or give you clothing or see you sick or in prison and visit you?"

And Jesus replies: "When you did these things to the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!"

It's quite astonishing that Jesus would base entrance into heaven upon this singular criteria - actively helping "the least of these."

Jesus wasn't alone in insisting upon paying attention to those in need. The Muslim and Jewish faiths contain similar emphasis. Buddhists believe in karma, recognizing suffering and helping to alleviate it.

I wonder what it would look like if we saw the caravan members inching towards the Mexican border as an opportunity to bring the kingdom of God onto our little portion of the earth?

Photo Credits: #1 Johan Ordonez AFP/Getty Images; #2 Spencer Platt, Getty Images; #3,4,5,6 Nick Oza USA Today Network/Arizona Republic