Coming to grips with decisions that harm others

As human beings and Christians, we live with this sobering reality: Sometimes the decisions we support, and potentially make ourselves, have devastating consequences for others. Or at least we should come to grips with this reality.

The decisions may be made with right and noble purposes. The consequences may be totally unintended. Nonetheless, such decisions can still result in great harm.

Take the invasion of Iraq in 2003, a military action many evangelical Christians and other Americans supported. The United States swiftly defeated the Iraqis and overturned Saddam Hussein's regime. In the aftermath, however, strife between Muslim groups arose, and eventually the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) moved into the country to inflict its genocidal campaign.

The effect on members of Christian and other religious minority communities in Iraq has been catastrophic. Since 2003, the number of professing Christians in Iraq has sunk from about 1.4 million to less than 300,000, according to estimates. The decision by President George W. Bush to depose a murderous dictator set in motion the dynamics that have resulted so far in the death or displacement of nearly 80 percent of the Christian population in Iraq.

Or take a recent decision, President Trump's executive order to halt temporarily the refugee resettlement program. If it ever goes into full effect, the White House's effort to make certain our country is more secure in the face of terrorist threats will leave some of those who have fled oppression, persecution or war unable to relocate to our country -- at least for a time. For now, courts have blocked both versions of the order from implementation. In addition, the administration plans to cut in half this year the number of refugees, many of them women and children.

This post is not intended to be an argument for or against either the invasion of Iraq or the order halting refugee resettlement. Instead, it is an appeal to followers of Jesus to acknowledge, not ignore, this reality that comes with living in a world deeply infected by sin: Decisions we think are helpful to our safety or flourishing may be harmful, devastatingly so, to our brothers and sisters in Christ, as well as other image bearers of God.

If we rejoice in the government order to pause refugee resettlement, for instance, because we believe it will make us safer but refuse to at least weigh in our own souls its effect on others who are seeking safety and peace, it seems to me we are not following well our Savior who grieved over human loss in His public ministry. May we open our hearts to lament when fellow image bearers suffer -- including when decisions that appear to benefit our lives wreck the lives of others.