Christian conservatives have a history of picking and choosing when to actually espouse the Christian value of compassion, but many faith-based organizations are wisely choosing to do so on the issue of Syrian refugees. They seem shocked to learn, however, that Republican politicians—after years of demagoguing hate and derision on issues like LGBT rights, among others—are political opportunists rather than actual adherents to anything that would resemble the Golden Rule.

More than two dozen GOP governors have said Syrian refugees aren't welcome in their state—never mind the fact that they don't actually get to decide. Ted Cruz doesn't care who's fleeing the crisis or how desperate they are, he's introducing legislation to ban them from the U.S. if they're Muslim. And Chris Christie is worried that orphan toddlers aren't being properly vetted.

“I don’t think orphans under 5 are being, you know, should be admitted into the United States at this point.”

The near unanimous overt display of hostility toward our fellow humanity has dismayed Christian groups working on refugee issues, reports Nahal Toosi.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops released a statement expressing distress over calls by elected officials to halt the resettlement program. "These refugees are fleeing terror themselves — violence like we have witnessed in Paris," said the statement by Bishop Eusebio Elizondo, chairman of the conference's committee on migration. "Instead of using this tragedy to scapegoat all refugees, I call upon our public officials to work together to end the Syrian conflict peacefully so the close to 4 million Syrian refugees can return to their country and rebuild their homes. Until that goal is achieved, we must work with the world community to provide safe haven to vulnerable and deserving refugees who are simply attempting to survive."

The National Association of Evangelicals also joined the call for empathy.

“Of course we want to keep terrorists out of our country, but let’s not punish the victims of ISIS for the sins of ISIS,” said Leith Anderson, NAE president.

The groups also point out that the rhetoric of candidates like Ted Cruz and Mike Huckabee, who are supposedly appealing to Evangelical voters, isn't in keeping with their Christian constituencies.

A push by Republican presidential candidates to ban Syrian refugees "does not reflect what we've been hearing from our constituencies, which are evangelical churches across the country," said Jenny Yang, vice president for advocacy at World Relief, an evangelical organization that helps resettle refugees. "Most of the people have been saying we want to continue to work with refugees, that what happened in Paris ... doesn’t reflect who refugees are."

The crisis may not reflect who the refugees are but it's saying a hell of a lot about Republican politicians.