Benjamin Shryock practices immigration law in Wisconsin, blogs on the migrant experience, culture, and religion. He is a 2008 graduate of Marquette University law school and a 2004 graduate of Duke Divinity School.

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What the Refugee Church Can Teach the West

by Benjamin Shryock 08-28-2015

Image via /Shutterstock

When one of the U.K.’s most beloved religious programs took the opportunity to profile a group of Ethiopian and Eritrean Christians and document the church they built within the “jungle” of Calais, you can imagine the resulting shock.

Some sources, such as the U.K.’s Daily Expresslabeled the profile a propaganda piece, called for punitive measures against the BBC, and claimed the BBC was a politically biased institution out of touch with the concerns of the common tax payer.

But what the story revealed was this: that at the borders of one of the largest and most influential national churches in the world, this flimsy construction of tarps and plywood reflected the endurance of faith, the tenacity of hope, and the beauty of grace with more elegance and majesty than Europe’s empty cathedrals.