Women and children locked up in detention permanently incarcerated behind barbed wire – men cut off from the world slowly going crazy – despairing young people harming themselves with some going on to commit suicide – families traumatized because nobody wants them. It’s a horrible, sickening situation. Indeed, it’s a scenario we would never tolerate.

But its happening right here in this city!

Meanwhile, to our north, the recent riots on Manus Island remind us of the plight of 1300 displaced people who have fled the hell of Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan and the north of Sri Lanka to hit a merciless, hardhearted, dead-end in a makeshift camp off the coast of PNG.

Names like “illegals” and statements like “smashing the people smuggler’s business model”, help to distance us from the issue. They tend to “justify” what we are doing.

But I am constantly challenged with the question: it is right that people are treated this way?

As a church, our commitment is first and foremost to Christ. The idea of national interest or political allegiance ought to take a long second place.

Jesus calls on us to “love one another as I have loved you”, and Paul summons us “to bear one another’s burdens”. This is the way of grace, mercy and love. It is to bear witness to, and participate in, God’s radical new community of justice, peace and compassion.

People fleeing persecution and arriving, or attempting to arrive, here in Australia in rickety old fishing boats may create some angst, anxiety and concern. But our response ought to bear in mind the example of Christ. What we do about it should always be shaped by that poignant question: “is it right”?

What’s going on in Villawood, Manus Island and Nauru should concern us.

Ask yourself the question – is it right?

The way of Jesus clearly suggests it is not.

John Barr