Russell Moore to Trump: 'Our Responsibility Is to Care for and Serve Refugees'

Russell Moore, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, has called for Donald Trump to reconsider his recent ban on refugees, reports the Washington Post.

“In June 2016, the Southern Baptist Convention reaffirmed its decades-long commitment to care for and minister to refugees,” Moore wrote, in a letter addressed to President Trump and Vice President Pence. The letter was also sent to House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

“Indeed, as our country recalled on [Jan. 27], one of our nation’s darkest chapters was our refusal to allow European Jews fleeing the Third Reich to find safe harbor on American soil ... Achieving the right balance between compassion toward refugees—one of the most vulnerable groups of people around us—and protection of Americans is crucial if the United States is to remain a model for freedom around the world.”

Moore continued:

“Affirm your administration’s commitment to religious freedom and the inalienable human dignity of persecuted people whether Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Yazidi, or other … Southern Baptists know that our responsibility is to care for and serve refugees here in the United States and around the world, and we remain committed to that mission.”

Moore is a conservative who has been critical of Trump throughout the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. He has also been critical of the suggestion that Muslims don't deserve the same religious freedom as other people of faith.

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