Ep. 447 Matthew Soerens & Issam Smeir - There are 120 Million Forcibly Displaced People Around the World, How Should We Respond?

In this episode with Matthew Soerens and Issam Smeir, we touch on something that has shaped my faith - sitting across a table from refugees until a statistic became a person with a name. A decade after the first edition of Seeking Refuge, the number of forcibly displaced people has doubled to roughly 120 million, yet care for the vulnerable has become one of the most politicized issues in American culture and the American church. We work to untangle fear and misinformation from biblical conviction, dig into the parable of the Good Samaritan, and ask what it looks like to stop, come closer, and respond.

Matthew Soerens is the Vice President of Advocacy and Policy for World Relief. Dr. Issam Smeir is a psychologist focused on trauma treatment for victims of persecution and torture who also works at World Relief. They're coauthors, along with Stephan Bauman, of the newly updated book Seeking Refuge: The Human Face of the Global Refugee Crisis (Moody Publishers, 2026).

Matthew and Issam's Book:

Seeking Refuge

Matthew's Recommendation:

The Faithful Innkeeper

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