From a good friend and pastor in Germany who works with refugees/ immigrants there:

- Here's a personal opinion, what do you think? The situation on the Greek island of Lesvos and the refugee camp called Moria has been awful, unbearable. I have friends who are there now, they have been serving these dear people for a year. And I have been praying for several years daily that God would move upon the politicians in Europe to let these people off the island and let them come to us in Germany (like Merkel did 2012-2016), where we have resources to care for them, to rebuild their lives, and we have churches who so gladly take them in and give them help, community and a relationship to Jesus Christ. I have been praying that the EU would choose the path of mercy and that rightist politicians in Hungary, Austria, Italy etc. would cave, would open the borders...I have been praying that God send us another flood of refugees (we want them and we want them in our churches), and I think God is going to do that again. Soon. BUT if it was refugees who themselves started the fires on Moria in order to force the hand of European politicians, I feel they made a big mistake. Those "arsonists" made life for all the other refugees more miserable than it already was, while making European politicians feel like they are being manipulated to act against the good of their own countries. I can understand our interior minister when he continues to take a strong stand even though I disagree with his stand and have been praying that God get him off his high horse and open the floodgates to the refugees. I mean, who wants to act because they feel manipulated? People from a shame culture should understand that politicians will not act if they feel they are being shamed into acting! I think we need a major breakthrough from God right now, because mankind is simply making mankind's situation messier than it already was.

His German friend’s response:

I really find it cynical to call this manipulation. They were locked in this place since March. We drove them to the brink of despair by our strategy and now that they are not willing and able to be stuck there any longer we judge their actions? Like I said, that’s cynical to me.

My friend’s response:

Well, I can understand that someone would interpret my random thought about setting fire and burning down Moria as 'cynical'. And I appreciate the challenge to go back and check my motives and hidden attitude. But don't the facts speak for themselves? 6 Afghan refugees, including 2 under-age, have been taken into custody for starting the fires and politicians in the EU have hardened their stance saying, they will not let the refugees onto the continent because if they do, more refugees will use the same or similar tactics to get politicians to change their minds. Thank God, Seehofer has decided to let 1400 of the people come to Germany. I pray that thousands and thousand more can come to us. I am simply saying that arsonry and thereby making a horrible situation even more horrible is not only going to harden the stance of politicians (unfortunately) but it still is a crime. It is an unrighteous way to create righteousness. It is making a mess messier. We really need God to break through here in a big way! Let's pray!

His friend responds again:

I really wasn’t judging your motives, I am just having a really hard time with hearing this opinion, especially from Christians.

Here is how I see it: People come to the door of our house, asking for help and refuge. We open the door, then lock them up in our basement. We keep them in there for months, like animals. (Some of us secretly hoping that word would spread so less refugees would come to our door.) They end up becoming so desperate that they set the basement on fire in order to finally escape this inhumane hell. At this point to look and them and say: „Now that was not right to set the basement on fire! I feel manipulated into having to help you now, and I don’t like that.“ - if that is not cynical, I don’t know what is. And even if someone would want to go there, to take the decision of half a dozen people and project that on over 10.000, many if them minors, is not right either.

I think that Europe should shut up, hang out heads in shame, ask God to forgive us and take in all those people immediately.

Another of his friend’s responds:

Interesting conversation. I hear what both of you are saying. The biggest problem I see with such discourse, Stephen Beck, is that is relativises both actions and, by doing so, trivialises the depth and the gravity of the real problem at hand - Europe’s long standing inhumane attitude towards Moria - which is what we should really condemn, vigorously!

Now, those of us who know you, know very well this relativisation and trivialisation is not your intention. However, it is what happens in practice. In the conversations about justice, “manipulating a handful of politicians” - even if we were to accept that term - cannot be compared with of leaving thousands of people living in hellish conditions for such a long time.

There is a message that Europe has failed to hear: it has been acting inhumanly and unjustly, and for a very long time! And I, personally think - since you asked what we think 🙂 - that this is the message that we should be focusing on. And if I am not able to explain clearly my thoughts, perhaps this quote from Dr Martin Luther King will help:

"I feel that violence will only create more social problems than they will solve. So I will continue to condemn riots, and continue to say to my brothers and sisters that this is not the way. And continue to affirm that there is another way. But at the same time, it is as necessary for me to be as vigorous in condemning the conditions which cause persons to feel that they must engage in riotous activities as it is for me to condemn riots. I think America must see that riots do not develop out of thin air. Certain conditions continue to exist in our society which must be condemned as vigorously as we condemn riots. But in the final analysis, a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it that America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the plight of the Negro poor has worsened over the last few years. It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice, equality, and humanity." Martin Luther King