Churches Challenged to Resist 'Xenophobic' Legislation
Episcopal News Service. March 7, 1997 [97-1709FF]
(ENI One of the world's leading ecumenical figures recently made an outspoken appeal to churches to resist legislation being introduced -- particularly in industrialized countries -- against refugees and asylum seekers. Dr. Konrad Raiser. general secretary of the World Council of Churches, warned that "xenophobia" was becoming the "accepted basis for public legislation." He made his appeal during an ecumenical service at the WCC's Geneva headquarters to mark the launch of the Ecumenical Year of Churches in Solidarity with Uprooted People. "Churches cannot but protest, as recently in France, when xenophobia becomes the accepted basis for public legislation," Raiser said in his sermon. In recent weeks, there has been a series of major demonstrations in France to protest restrictive immigration laws which are being planned. He warned that "growing xenophobia" had also affected many of the churches, and called on churches and Christians to confess their own "complicity in the structures and systems that make people strangers." The suspicion and fear of "those who are different, and the longing for security among people who are, think and believe like us, is deeply rooted also among Christians," Raiser said, adding that in all churches there were also communities who took risks "in protecting uprooted people." The Ecumenical Year of Churches in Solidarity with Uprooted People is being launched by the WCC to support the efforts of churches around the world to demonstrate solidarity with uprooted people -- refugees, migrants and displaced people.