(3) Comprehensive Crisis Intervention Strategies - The Spiritual Perspective -

The scriptures never use the word refugee; they never refer to trafficking, people smuggling or sexual gender-based violence. The scriptures do not talk about crisis intervention, but they do speak on the broader issue extensively. Throughout the entire scripture, New Testament and Old, the Bible refers to the “sojourners,” the “foreigners,” the “strangers in the land.” God’s chosen people once could have been the subject of this research:

You will be pledged to be married to a woman, but another will take her and rape her. You will build a house, but you will not live in it. […] Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and no one will rescue them. Your sons and daughters will be given to another nation. […] A people that you do not know will eat what your land and labor produce. […] The Lord will drive you […] to a nation unknown to you or your ancestors. (NIV, 2011, pp. Deut. 28:30-36)

The Israelite women were refugees, driven out of a conflict zone, and raped. Throughout the Old and new testaments, God commands his people to care for foreigners and sojourners and reminds his people that they once experienced the same thing. It is evident that God did not mean for them to only care for the refugees, but it demonstrates the propensity in human nature to take advantage of those vulnerable among us. Except God calls us to be different. The teachings of the Bible are not only against these acts but lived out; they create a culture that is counter to what plays out in these regions.

In these regions, the women are blamed for their own rape. Hina Jilani, a women’s rights lawyer in the region,n states, “If a woman is raped but has no evidence to prove it, the very fact that she had admitted to the sexual act may lead to her own prosecution for adultery or fornication.” (Ceccherini, 2012) However, the Bible teaches in Hosea 4, “I will not punish your daughters when they turn to prostitution, […] because the men themselves consort with harlots.” (NIV, 2011, p. Hos 4:14)

The spiritual perspective on the issue is what creates the cultures surrounding it. Qur’anic teachings on gender, honor, and God’s judgment culminate in creating a culture that fosters these issues (see the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) section for more). Shame, fear, and powerlessness overwhelm women who are taught their core value is who they are to their husbands and not much else. Poverty and lack of education perpetuate traditional Islamic teachings modernized in the educated Islamic world.

 The Bible is counter to all of that. God calls us to be set apart. He calls us to care, value foreigners, and treat them respectfully. He teaches men to control themselves sexually and not exploit others. He calls men to take special care in dealing with women.

Moreover, more than that, he calls his people to reach out to the broken and the needy with love, compassion, and physical aid. His people do this because they recognize no difference between themselves and those in need. God’s children were once broken and hurting, taken advantage of and not in control, but they were rescued by grace. The people of God are also foreigners in this, waiting to get to heaven as citizens of the kingdom of God. Therefore, in all activities, Believers must remember that God’s people were once in this same situation and must strive to demonstrate the true Biblical counterculture.