Curious Christian

There’s a lot of fear in the air when it comes to immigration and multicultural Australia. Some say we’re being overrun, or that whole towns are under foreign laws. Others paint every migrant community as a threat. But as Christians, we need to be honest: that’s not the voice of faith. That’s the voice of fear.

From the very beginning, God’s people have lived among cultures and beliefs different from their own. The earliest Christians didn’t live in a “Christian nation.” They lived in the Roman Empire, surrounded by pagan worship, political violence, and moral practices they rejected. Yet their response was not to wall themselves off, or to demand everyone else assimilate. Their response was to live as a distinctive people of peace, loving the stranger, welcoming the outsider, and refusing to mirror the fear and hatred of the empire.

It’s true, Scripture warns against idolatry and syncretism. But notice: those warnings are always aimed at God’s own people, not at outsiders. The real danger isn’t that immigrants will corrupt us; the real danger is that our own hearts will harden in suspicion, resentment, and pride.

Protecting our neighbours matters. But the greatest threat to our safety isn’t people arriving on boats or planes, it’s the violence, greed, and hatred that take root in our own communities, even in our own churches.

Christ calls us to something different. He calls us to a radical hospitality that looks risky, even foolish, by the world’s standards. He calls us to love without suspicion, to see the image of God in people we’ve been told to fear, and to practice a generosity that refuses to be dictated by fear of “the other.”

So here’s the challenge for Australian Christians: let’s be known not for protecting borders, but for protecting our hearts. Let’s be known not for suspicion, but for hospitality. If we claim the cross as our identity, then we are free, free to welcome the stranger, free to listen, free to love our neighbours as Christ has loved us.