“Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be an immigrant living in a foreign land or a refugee fleeing from war, violence, or natural disaster? I know, for I am one. Being an immigrant and a refugee was not easy, but it has taught me many lessons. One is the importance of being in solidarity with the millions of people who are displaced all over the globe”, bagan VanThanh Nguyen, SVD in the introductory video presentation on What Does the Bible Say about Strangers, Migrants, an Refugees a new book by him.
Wordnet Productions taped eight episodes on the various chapters of this book presented by VanThanh Nguyen recently at its studios. The topics deals with the many issues that he discusses in the book; Women and Children—An Alarming and Rising Tread of Migration, Human Trafficking—A Contemporary Global Pandemic, Climate Change—The Threats of Human Dislocation, Walls and Borders—Do Good Fences Make Good Neighbors?, Refugees and Asylum Seekers—A Point of No Return?, Undocumented Immigrants—The Myths behind Anti-Immigrant Sentiments and The Bible as a Tapestry of One Great Migrant Family, to mention a few.
The shows will be edited in the coming weeks and will be available on Wordnet’s streaming channel, YouTube channel and many other social media and other platforms.
Besides this Wordnet also recorded an interview with VanTanah by Soney Sebastian highlighting the issues of migration today and the audio of the book read by VanThanh himself. It is being processed to be posted on Amazon for download as audio book where the book is also available.
This book is easy reading with a lot of life examples revealing the hardships, atrocity and exploitation that underlies with the issue of immigration. It gives the great story of God’s people wandering as strangers, migrants, and refugees providing us ample references on immigration and refugee struggles from the Bible.
It tells us how a Christian should respond in times like today, when anti-immigrant sentiments and racial tensions are rearing their ugly head. Migration today is a global phenomenon growing in scope and complexity, and affecting almost every aspect of human life. This book shows us the way, with mercy and charity.
Fr. Van Thanh is a professor of New Testament Studies and holder of the Bishop Francis X. Ford, Maryknoll, chair of Catholic Missiology at CTU. He has authored several books and numerous articles, including Stories of Early Christianity and “Acts” in The Jerome Biblical Commentary for the 21st Century.