“I’m a Christian. I enjoy the church, I believe in God. But the role of the archbishop is not actually to interfere with international migration policies.”
This remark – recently made by a political leader in response to an archbishop’s critique of immigration policy – reveals a common yet troubling misunderstanding of Christianity’s role in public life. Faith is increasingly being equated with a private therapeutic tool to help individuals get through hard times. Christian faith, while acceptable when quiet and compliant, is deemed unwelcome when it spills over into public debate and dares to speak into national issues.
But this understanding of faith is a far cry from Biblical Christianity. Dutch theologian Abraham Kuyper once wrote: “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: ‘Mine!’”
Re-examining the call to love the stranger
In 2015, one image of a three-year-old boy washed up on a beach in Turkey changed the way the world …