Xenophobia is the
fear and hatred of foreign people and Christianity has always been about
knocking down xenophobic tendencies in community and bringing people together. In the racism argument we saw how it has been God’s commands that are contrary to the
‘survival of the fittest’ and like racism, xenophobia likewise was something
practiced by Charles Darwin himself when he judged other cultures as being
primitive and the foreigners as being less evolutionary advanced than the
British.
With the influx of
immigrants, xenophobia has become even more of a problem than it was in Charles
Darwin’s day. Nowdays we have more
reason to be suspect of foreigners entering our countries as competition for
jobs, land prices and culture values are in constant fluctuation. Regardless of this it has always been the
message from God to love all people the same and a direct command to Christians:
love thy neighbour. When Jesus was
challenged by the question: Who is my neighbour? Our Lord
specifically chose a Samaritan, who was a foreigner, despised by the Jews of
his day as an example (Luke 10:29-37).
This is what we know as the ‘Good Samaritan’ parable and it is about as
anti-xenophobic as you can get.
The gospel has not
been about trying to replace a culture but it’s about bringing new life to
it. It’s not as if Jesus is a culture in
which to be exchanged for other cultures.
Christians appreciate other cultural expressions of God but also want to
share the love of Jesus. To do so we
must embrace the foreigner. It’s like
Paul said, “To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made
all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.” Therefore when missionaries go to a certain
country they often adopt the clothing, speech and customs in order to not
appear so “foreign” as if they were bringing their western customs to the
people. Jesus is not a western custom,
Jesus is a person and God.
I myself was the
subject of a mild form of xenophobia in China.
Even though the meaning of xenophobia has changed, many take it as merely a rejection of the foreigner instead of just a hate which is what I experienced. People are suspicious of foreigners in China (often more in the smaller
towns) as it has been closed off for so long.
Even now with it opening up they have a mistrust and sometimes even
dislike of people with different skin or features. Usually people will be friendly but they can
say things when they think you don’t understand their language and many will
strongly object to their family marrying an “outsider” (foreigner).
However even though
I was met with all these barriers because of my skin and hair color, I found
that I when I would come across Chinese Christians that any xenophobia or
biased ideas about foreigners disintegrated.
I would be taken in and treated as family, not treated with mere
hospitality as that is common, be treated as if I wasn’t some kind of a
freak. Treated as if I was a real human
being made in the image of God. And
that’s where the argument comes in. Real
Christian love goes beyond xenophobia, it breaks down xenophobia.
It is the chance we
have to unite in harmony under a common banner – not patriotism but the love of
God and Imago Dei – being made
in his image.
