The social justice preached by Jesus Christ has been forgotten by many of his followers, I see this every day in the cruel drama of the refugees, most of whom have seen the doors of our country slammed closed to them for the first time in our modern history.

In our time, Christianity – I am not a Christian, but an admirer of Christ’s writing and ideas – has become comfortably entwined itself with the rich, with consumer capitalism, with the very people Christ tried to run out of the Temple. Many have simply become an adjunct to a political party, hiding  behind Christ’s name.

They have simply taken the name and corrupted it,  promoting their own economic welfare at the expense of the poor and the vulnerable. The definition of sacrilege is the violation or profanation of something sacred or held  sacred.

In fact the early Christians passion for social justice might come as a shock to those of us shaking our heads in sorrow at the religious politicians of today, mostly identity thieves drunk on greed and power. On Memorial Day, I honor the lost ideals of Jesus Christ.

From the first days of Christianity, the duty to care for the poor and the vulnerable was at the center of the gospel – you can read St. Augustine, John Chrysostom, and Basil the Great, or the Apostles.

Jesus told his followers to live a life free of possessions, the very first Church in Jerusalem abolished private property, and the early apostles warned against privilege and wealth and the political manipulations of the rich.

“Fling wide your doors; give your wealth free passage everywhere,” wrote Saint Basil the Great (330-379 AD). “As a great river flows by a thousand channels through fertile country, so let your wealth run through many conduits to the homes of the poor.”

Can you imagine our political preachers all over the news today, dining with the powerful,  opening their wealth to the poor, or even acknowledging their needs?

This week, we hope to spend much of it opening the doors to Hawah and Omranaso, two refugees whose lives were shattered and who fled to American for refuge and safety.

So far, neither has found much of either. Last week, we opened the doors for Hawah, a refugee from the Libyan civil war with a dying husband and a desperate need for a home. She fled  her country with her husband Hassan to keep her sons from being drafted into the Libyan army. Today, she would not be permitted to come to America.

We found her an apartment that she and her children loves, we paid a deposit and the first month’s rent.

We are flinging open the doors for her, we will be helping her pay the shortfall she encountered when her monthly rent subsidy was cut by $150 by the county government because her husband was hospitalized and taken to a nursing home, where he is dying of spinal cancer.

She was quickly and ruthlessly evicted from her apartment, which was locked suddenly with all of her belongings inside and she then found herself in a homeless shelter she called “the filthiest place on the earth.”

She has a safe and comfortable home, she is secure there for the better part of a year.

We hope to do the same for Omranaso this coming week, her husband abandoned her in Syria to join ISIS, she was ordered to take a number of different husbands, she fled from her tormentors and was captured by the Syrian Army, which tortured her for months and brought in her mother to see her hanging naked from the ceiling of a torture cell and warned she would meet the same fate unless Omranaso confessed to crimes she did not commit.

Her mother’s bribes – gold jewelry – got her released, and she fled to Turkey where she nearly perished from exposure after her long walk over the mountains. The Turkish authorities contacted human rights workers who got her to a U.N. refugee camp where she spent five years before coming to the United States a year ago, something she could not do today.

She has been abandoned her by a government that is trying to close the doors shut, not to fling them open.

She lost everything, her family siblings, husband and mother and any money she once had. She is living in a hostile one-room apartment, we are contacting landlords to find her a one bedroom or studio apartment, she is alone now and wishes to stay alone for the near future.

We are close.

Omranaso has just gotten a job working in a dress shop folding clothes for the minimum wage.

She has a car for work that needs repairs and insurance payments. She also faces, like so many others,  the growing attacks on refugees and the politicizing of their blameless need.

This is not what Christianity was ever about. Just ask Pope Francis.

“When a man strips another of his clothes, he is called a thief,” preached Jesus. “Should not a man who has the power to clothe the naked but  does not do so be called the same?”

The founders of Christianity did not divide into a right and a left, and argue their purpose.

They were quite unified on the idea of social justice. They had no tolerance for people who neglect the poor.

“If a poor man comes to you asking for bread,” wrote Saint John Chrysostom, ” there is no  end of complaints and reproaches and charges of idleness; you upbraid him, insult him, jeer at him. You fail to realize that you too are idle and yet god grands you gifts. You charge the poor with idleness, I charge you with corrupt behavior.”

A group of religious leaders across many different theological lines are seeking to reclaim Jesus. You can read their powerful words here.

So this week, the mission is to fling open the doors of our country to Omranaso, to find her a safe and comfortable home for her to live in, her first home since she lost her own more than six years ago. The goal is for her to be secure while she starts her new life.

We also  hope to help a young Afghan woman whose husband was killed by the Taliban.

Her father and mother, following local religious law,  ordered to marry her dead husband’s father,  she was now his property, they said. Instead, she fled to America, looking for the freedom to marry whoever she wished.  Her life was in great danger, her parents refuse to speak with her.

She needs help. Today, she would no longer be permitted to flee to America, our doors would be closed to her..

I like the idea of flinging open doors, that is good work to have to do.

We appreciate your help in this work,  you can contribute  by sending a donation to The Gus Fund, Post Office Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816, or [email protected]. If you wish the money to help these women, please mark “refugee women” on your donation, or write “Hawah” Or “Omranaso” on your payment.