Safe Zones and Refugees

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MaxPC
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Re: Safe Zones and Refugees

Post by MaxPC »

Positive Solutions:
One of the solutions Australia uses is to pay other nations to take in refugees.

WWII, has a number of examples of safe zones within similar cultures. They would sometimes have to be moved via Underground Railroads.

Then there are the poor, the abused and the homeless literally in our neighborhoods here. There are also crime refugees, people fleeing or seeking to flee high crime neighborhoods in Chicago and other areas with a lot of gang violence.

Can we help to build more safe shelters for abuse refugees and the poor?

How can we work with the gangs to stop the violence?
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Re: Safe Zones and Refugees

Post by appleman2006 »

Maxpc you are asking a good question. The fact is that the US and Canada combined could not take in all the people that are in dire straits let alone all the people that would like to come to our countries, even though it could be argued that we could take in considerably more than wee do. This would be especially true if governments enforced their immigration laws as they now stand. Think how many places could be filled by truly needy people if all of the people that have simply come here illegally for a perceived better life. As I see it every illegal immigrant is actually taking the place of a potential needy refugee.
But any logical person realizes that not everyone that wants to let alone even everyone that might need to is going to be able to come. and so the question of how we can then help is a really good one. As Christians I think it is necessary that we continue to look for those answers and opportunities.
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Bootstrap
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Re: Safe Zones and Refugees

Post by Bootstrap »

appleman2006 wrote:The fact is that the US and Canada combined could not take in all the people that are in dire straits let alone all the people that would like to come to our countries, even though it could be argued that we could take in considerably more than we do.
We take in substantially fewer refugees than countries like Turkey and Lebanon, which have much smaller populations and weaker economies. 86 per cent of the refugees under UNHCR’s mandate in 2015 were in low- and middle-income countries close to situations of conflict. So helping refugees in those places is extremely important.

There's no way that we're going to take in 62.3 million refugees in the United States. And the countries that are caring for them now need help. In 2016, we took 96,874 refugees, including 15,479 from Syria, which has 4.9 million refugees. That's on hold now.
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MaxPC
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Re: Safe Zones and Refugees

Post by MaxPC »

Indeed, A-Man. I know in many areas of the country government subsidized housing is full because of lack of work.

Can we find a way to employ those who lost their jobs?

Our diocesan apartments for new legal immigrants are full in every city. I wonder if we can do a kind of joint effort (without the government) to build more that would be ecumenically run?

I believe the illegal aspect of immigration is being addressed right now. Those who are already here are holding low level jobs and living in run down conditions. More ecumenical housing initiatives?

Quite a bit of fodder for finding solutions :D
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Josh
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Re: Safe Zones and Refugees

Post by Josh »

Szdfan wrote:
Josh wrote:"Let them in" or "keep them out" are both political statements.

My job is to love my neighbour and to open my heart and home to the stranger, orphan, and alien. So that's what we should do to any we run across. Our "neighbours" are people we run into - like the Samaritan, which other people crossed the road to avoid.

The whole world isn't my neighbour and I can't welcome every alien into my home. But I can welcome whomever Caesar allows in. Ultimately God is in charge and he chooses where the different tribes, tongues, and nations will be scattered.
"The whole world isn't my neighbor" is also a political statement; or at least, it is a statement that also has political ramifications.
That's not a political statement. My neighbours are my neighbours.

Every human being on earth has value and was created by God, but not every person is my neighbour. I am not everyone else's neighbour. Neighbour means something.
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Re: Safe Zones and Refugees

Post by JimFoxvog »

Josh wrote:That's not a political statement. My neighbours are my neighbours.

Every human being on earth has value and was created by God, but not every person is my neighbour. I am not everyone else's neighbour. Neighbour means something.

Jesus was asked about the meaning of neighbor.
Luke 10.25 Just then an expert in the Law stood up to test Jesus. He asked, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 Jesus answered him, “What is written in the Law? What do you read there?”
27 He answered, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind. And you must love your neighbor as yourself.”
28 Jesus told him, “You have answered correctly. ‘Do this, and you will live.’”
29 But the man wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
It is helpful to meditate on Jesus' answer.
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Re: Safe Zones and Refugees

Post by Bootstrap »

JimFoxvog wrote:
But the man wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
It is helpful to meditate on Jesus' answer.
Amen. Especially when there's any chance that we also are trying to let ourselves off the hook in order to justify ourselves. And as human beings, that's almost all of the time.
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MaxPC
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Re: Safe Zones and Refugees

Post by MaxPC »

JimFoxvog wrote:
Josh wrote:That's not a political statement. My neighbours are my neighbours.

Every human being on earth has value and was created by God, but not every person is my neighbour. I am not everyone else's neighbour. Neighbour means something.

Jesus was asked about the meaning of neighbor.
Luke 10.25 Just then an expert in the Law stood up to test Jesus. He asked, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 Jesus answered him, “What is written in the Law? What do you read there?”
27 He answered, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind. And you must love your neighbor as yourself.”
28 Jesus told him, “You have answered correctly. ‘Do this, and you will live.’”
29 But the man wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
It is helpful to meditate on Jesus' answer.
JimFox, do you have any solutions to offer?

REMINDER: Let's keep the thread on track with the OP --> positive suggestions for actions we can do now.
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Max (Plain Catholic)
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JimFoxvog
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Re: Safe Zones and Refugees

Post by JimFoxvog »

MaxPC wrote: JimFox, do you have any solutions to offer?
I was part of Jubilee Partners, an intentional Christian service community, for about a decade. We build a number of houses for temporary housing, and welcomed thousands of refugees with friendship, short term housing, English teaching, cultural orientation, and assistance in moving on. It's great when churches can do things like this. If you can't, support those who are doing it.
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Robert
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Re: Safe Zones and Refugees

Post by Robert »

Saudi Arabia could take 500,000 to 1,000,000 right now with little effort.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mina,_Saudi_Arabia
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