Well, that’s just according to Jeff Sessions:

This, folks, is called proof-texting. Take one sentence, one verse, and extrapolating an ideology, worldview or entire theological framework… i.e. “permanently separating kids from their families is ok”… I know Jeff is saying it’s temporary, I know people are arguing that we are a nation of laws and we have to do this…

I wholeheartedly disagree…

This is wrong. I’m sorry, I cannot sit silently by when children are being separated from parents who were trying to bring them into the “land of opportunity” where we have a statue that says “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” I guess we should see if we can’t get that removed…

If Jeff would have just read a little further, or even a verse before, he would have a better understanding of what Paul was saying instead of proof-texting.

Romans 12:1 says “Don’t be defeated by evil, but defeat evil with good.

It is followed by Romans 13:1 which says “Every person should place themselves under the authority of the government. There isn’t any authority unless it comes from God, and the authorities that are there have been put in place by God.” Seems something oddly self-serving for a person to quote when they, in fact, are the authority/government. Actually, it’s something many terrible leaders have done, including Hitler.g

I digress…

If only Jeff would have continued reading this chapter. In Romans 13:9-10, Paul wraps up his thoughts on government, saying “The commandments, Don’t commit adultery, don’t murder, don’t steal, don’t desire what others have, and any other commandments, are all summed up in one word: You must love your neighbor as yourself. 10 Love doesn’t do anything wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is what fulfills the Law.

All summed up, all the laws, the government’s authority summed up in one word: love your neighbor as yourself.

Loving

It is unloving to separate a mother from her children for no other reason than her attempt to enter this country.

It is unloving to keep that child from her mother, for any amount of time, just because they sought to make a better life for themselves.

It is unloving to enact legal orders to act as a deterrent, to intentionally set a precedent, to scare away future families by making examples of the ones who have already had the misfortune of falling into the care of the United States of America.

It is beyond unloving, it is incredulous, to not only enact these laws but to defend them with the Bible…

In this man’s humble opinion…

 

Are we really ok with this? This is ok now? Where does it stop? How will it end? How much more devaluation of human life are we ok with?

So Mr. Sessions, I will continue to oppose this, and if you continue to quote the Bible, then I will do my best to hold you to what it says…

Words like Jesus’ when he said: “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” (Matthew 19:14) He never said anything about their parents passing background checks, or that they needed to make it through border security. There was no immigration status in the kingdom Jesus was talking about either.

Jesus shared a parable about the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25. In this parable, Jesus tells a story describing how the sheep, or his followers, treat others with love. For comparison, he continues the story by explaining the unloving goats, who treat others poorly. In this parable, Jesus says when we treat others lovingly, we are showing love to God, but when we are unloving to others, we are unloving to God.

God loves those children that the border patrol mercilessly separated from their children. God created them, knows their names, and gave them parents that love them enough to try for a better life. What did they get in return?

Treated like the least of these… Or as Jesus would say “‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” (Matthew 25:45-46)

Mr. Sessions, stop making the Bible support your political agenda… Sarah Huckabee Sanders said today “I can say that it is very biblical to enforce the law” and I would like to close with a response:

Sure… They are breaking a law. This law and how it has recently been enforced is bad. So how do we deal with bad laws? How do we deal with laws that devalue human life? What did the church do under Nazi Germany? How does the church in China cope with human rites violations?

Is it really as black and white as “the Bible said to obey the law, so I can legally separate children from their parents?”

What if we simply denied them entry? What if we allowed them entry and put them through a process to legally be here? What if we stop meddling in all the countries that refugees were coming from so that there wouldn’t be civil unrest in their native countries to begin with? Just a thought…

Until next time…

Peace out!

#Blessed

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