Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84Plough Quarterly • Autumn 2016 75 Rally of the populist move- ment PEGIDA (Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the Occident) in Dresden (February 2016). How can we apply these principles to the refugee crisis? A sizable number of German voters (and even bigger percentages elsewhere in Europe) believe that the forced acceptance of so many refugees and migrants is endangering the healthy functioning of their country. This viewpoint expresses itself through increased polarization, rising rates of violence, and voting results that have given populist parties political influence (even while leaving them outside national or regional governments). Such a polarized environment allows the logic of exclusion to start determining political reality. In an ugly symmetry, exclusion of immigrants on the one side mirrors the exclu- sion of right-wingers on the other. To be sure, we must welcome our fellow citi- zens’ renewed engagement in political affairs, coming as it does after a long period of execu- tive and technocratic domination of political life. Yet there are dangers. Political passions can easily undermine social solidarity, lead to exclusionary politics, and threaten the healthy functioning of the political community. The Christian church must vigorously oppose both kinds of exclusion, whether from the left or the right. Our task as the body of Christ is summed up well in the saying: “You are in the world but not of the world” (John 17). In other words, the church must act out of a deep commitment to care for the vulnerable by showing mercy – and yet at the same time, it must concern itself with the health of the political community to which it belongs with a commitment that is almost (!) equally deep. The ethic of mercy and the ethic of steward- ship are both in their own way anchored in the heart of the gospel. Both need to be reflected and balanced in the public witness and practi- cal actions of the body of Christ. At the end of the day, however, the political realm will have passed away, bearing as it does the mark of the transitory. What will remain is mercy.  Translated from German by Peter Mommsen and Dr. Andries Conradie. Photograph: EPD