Before Donald Trump abandoned his abhorrent policy of
separating young children from their parents at the US border, his officials
tried to justify the approach with a number of creative arguments. In one
particularly bizarre press conference, US Attorney General Jeff Sessions
claimed that it was ‘biblical’ to enforce the law, citing a verse from the Book
of Romans in the New Testament. When someone uses the Bible to justify a
controversial policy, it is easy to dismiss them as fundamentalists who take
their faith too seriously. But, as is so often the case, their problem is not
that they attach too much importance to what the Bible says, but that they
don’t know what it says.
So what does the Book of Romans say? Jeff Sessions was
referring to this part of Romans:
“Let everyone be subject to the governing
authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has
established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling
against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment
on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those
who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of
the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended.”
There’s no denying that these are difficult verses that have
divided Christians throughout history. Does this really mean that Christians
have a duty to obey everything a government says? Clearly not; the writer of
Romans, the Apostle Paul, ended up under house arrest after repeatedly ignoring
orders to stop preaching. There seem to
be other exceptions to this rule elsewhere in the Bible. In the story of Moses,
God blesses the midwives who refuse to carry out Pharaoh’s order to murder Jewish
babies. They even lied to Pharaoh when he questioned them about it. The Bible implies that disobedience was the only
option in this case; “the midwives feared God and did not do what the king of
Egypt had commanded.” If a political leader’s authority ultimately comes from
God, then it is God that you must obey when that leader does things which ask
you to break God’s law.
But whatever the practical implications of this tricky
passage for the citizen, there’s no way in which this verse can be used by
lawmakers to justify unjust acts. This is a command to a citizen, not a ruler. Jeff
Sessions seems to be advocating a sort of republican Divine Right of Kings,
whereby criticisms of a government’s policies can be silenced by the claim that
‘God is on our side’. But, as Abraham Lincoln once said, the question is not
whether God is on your side, but whether you are on his. Far from giving
governments the right to do whether they please, Romans 13 places rulers under
the authority of God, meaning that they themselves subject to a higher moral code.
And as citizens, we have every right to judge leaders by their adherence to
that moral code. *
This was something that would have all been too familiar to
the people of biblical Israel. The kings of Israel, who had been appointed by
God, were expected to rule with fairness. The book of Proverbs has this advice
for kings:
“Speak up
for those who cannot speak for themselves,
for the rights of all who are destitute.
Speak up and judge fairly;
defend the rights of the poor and needy.”
for the rights of all who are destitute.
Speak up and judge fairly;
defend the rights of the poor and needy.”
Proverbs 31:8-9
Good advice, however, often goes unheeded. Whole books of
the Old Testament are devoted to condemnations of kings who, though appointed
by God, had failed to follow him. A failure to respect the rights of the
vulnerable was almost always the result. The words of the Prophet Isaiah are typical:
“Woe to those who make unjust laws,
to those who issue oppressive decrees,
to deprive the poor of their rights
and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people,
making widows their prey
and robbing the fatherless.”
to deprive the poor of their rights
and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people,
making widows their prey
and robbing the fatherless.”
Isaiah
10:1-2
If even kings who have
been appointed by God can be condemned for their unjust treatment of poor and
the oppressed, then it is absurd for any political leader to claim that they
can act with impunity because their authority derives from God. It’s true that
no nation today shares biblical Israel’s close relationship with God, but any
leader who follows that same God is still bound by his moral standards. They should
listen to the words of the prophets when they make decisions that affect the lives
of others.
It would be overly
simplistic to assume that any restrictions on immigration are unbiblical. But
those who enforce those restrictions should so with fairness and respect. No
amount of creative theology could justify the way we have seen the US
government treat immigrants in the last few days. Even those who have broken
the law by crossing the border should be treated with dignity. And any lawmaker
who follows the God who repeatedly describes himself as the ‘father to the
fatherless’ should think twice before taking children from their parents and
putting them in cages.
*This is an excellent piece which explains why Jeff Sessions's use of these verse failed to take into account the rest of the Book of Romans, which deals with issues such as the equality between Christians of different ethnic backgrounds.
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/jeff-sessions-immigration-children-parents-separated-bible-romans-13-a8405856.html
