An Oppressed African Refugee

While reading an advent book for Christmas, entitled Christmas Is Not Your Birthday by Mike Slaughter, I noticed that the author described Jesus as an oppressed African refugee. It seemed so appropriate since the Gospels speak of the time shortly after Jesus' birth where He and his family had to flee to Egypt in order to escape the wrath of King Herod. Africa was a place of refuge for Christ until the time came when He could be safely brought back to Nazareth.

In the conservative Christian community, we sometimes turn a blind eye to the needs of the African people. We typically use the excuse that there are so many needs in America to concentrate on--certainly not those in Darfur. I have probably been guilty of this type of thinking as well. Being able to picture Jesus, however, as an oppressed African refugee somehow changes the scenario for me.

Yes, we still have to be careful about the charities we send our donations to since there is sometimes corruption associated with them. We need to research those we choose to send our money to in order to ensure that the money will be used well.