It’s not every day that the Bible becomes the top trending topic on Twitter, but it did last week. From 5-8 p.m. on June 14, biblegateway.com, a popular Bible site, experienced a spike in traffic while Twitter was trending “Romans 13.”
Jeff Sessions gave a speech in Fort Wayne, Indiana, that set off this Bible frenzy. In it, he cited St. Paul’s letter to the Romans, which says, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God” (Rom. 13:1).
Some religious figures attacked Sessions. Johnnie Moore, spokesman of President Trump’s evangelical advisory board, said, “While Sessions may take the Bible seriously, in this situation he has demonstrated he is no theologian.” But he offered no alternate interpretation of the passage. Neither did anyone else.
It’s not that Sessions misinterpreted the passage from Romans 13. He didn’t claim that the Scriptures dictate current U.S. immigration policy. He only claimed that the authority of government comes from God and ought to be respected while we work together for better policy.
On that he’s right. Anarchy is evil. Government is from God. It’s a simple proposition that we can recognize even while striving against unjust laws. Pro-life people do this every day in their struggle to protect families and their unborn children.
In reality, the Twitter storm was engineered to shame Sessions for citing Scripture at all. The unfortunate thing, in this case, is that many religious people—both conservative and liberal—jumped on the dogpile. It is worth stepping back to see what unfolded and to learn from it.
In the days before Sessions’ remarks, Franklin Graham, the Southern Baptists and a gathering of Roman Catholic bishops, all expressed concerns about the separation of families when second-offenders are arrested at the border.
After Sessions’ speech, however, these statements were reported as though they were spoken after Sessions’ remarks. That’s fake news, but it gave many people the confused impression that conservative Christian leaders were attacking Sessions when they weren’t.
Then the misinformation got worse. Family separations that happened under previous administrations were re-reported as though they were brand new developments resulting from Sessions’ policy. Then, a staged photograph of a child-protester was strategically cropped to look like it was a real jail. Finally, the cover of Time Magazine airbrushed a child’s mother out of the picture and replaced her with a picture of President Trump.
All this fake news had its intended effect. It pitted religious people against religious people and friends against friends. Some wanted to be consistent in their compassion for families through an unqualified condemnation of President Trump. Others, pushing back against the fake news, vilified previous administrations while giving Trump a pass. Both were unwise.
Now that the fog is clearing, let’s take a moment to reaffirm friendships and learn some lessons.
First, while unmovable principles are the foundation for every policy, we must be wise enough to distinguish between the principle and its application.
In this case, the principle is that God Himself creates families through a mother and a father. These are the fundamental units of society, and “what … God has joined together, let not man separate” (Matt. 19:6). Neither the government from outside, nor the parents and children from inside, should do anything to break up families.
As individuals, we should do absolutely everything in our power to hold our own families together. As a society, we should never give government power to break families apart—whether through immigration policies, welfare policies, unjust divorce laws, surrogacy or abortion policies.
But when a family is broken by abuse or abandonment, society must step in to protect individuals who are put at risk. This requires great wisdom, restraint and reverence. It is never an ideal situation. It should not be seen as the natural state of affairs, but as a terrible and temporary exception.
Second, your enemy is Satan, not your fellow citizen. Disagreements are never an excuse to attack others personally. We should treat our neighbors as family—whether it be a stranger commenting on your page, a president making policy or anyone in between.
Civil discourse means resisting the temptation either to make personal attacks, or to interpret opposing ideas as personal attacks. Screaming harshness only breaks up the human family further.
Third, government is indeed established by God. That doesn’t mean that it is always right, but it does mean that every government official must answer to a higher authority. The same is true of every citizen who speaks and votes. This requires humility, not hubris. To be one nation means to be “under God,” because good and evil—the bedrock principles that govern our lives—are divine realities, not human constructions.
As we reason together in the public square, let us all humble ourselves before the One who created all things and all people. In this way we will gain both the wisdom of serpents and the gentleness of doves.
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