I would cite you to the Apostle Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans 13, to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained the government for his purposes, orderly and lawful processes are good in themselves. Consistent, fair application of the law is in itself a good and moral thing, and that protects the weak and protects the lawful.

-Jeff Sessions, Attorney General of the USA

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.

-Romans 13:1 (verse to which Sessions refers)

Love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.   

-Romans 13: 9b-10

The Attorney General recently invoked Romans 13:1 to justify another episode of state sanctioned and reprehensible cruelty. With this invocation, he joins an historic class of puppets to the imperial powers of the ages, who, terrified by the thought of losing everything they hold dear, fail to notice the Emperor has no clothes.   When British subjects in the 13 colonies began the fight for independence in the 1770s, loyalist preachers hammered the upstarts from their pulpits with select verses from Romans 13, reminding them to heed their British masters. Southern preachers derided abolitionists for defying the Fugitive Slave Act in the decade leading to the Civil War, citing the same Romans 13 slave masters had used for 200 years to justify the abduction of children from their families and the rape and torture of their parents. The Nazi’s in Germany and Afrikaners in South African quoted the same.

So on Thursday, when Attorney General Jeff Sessions stood at a lectern before a room in Fort Wayne, Indiana, to defend the Trump administration’s practice of separating children from their immigrant parents, he reached for the same quote from Romans. The Washington Post noted, “ Whether he realized it, Sessions restarted a theological debate that stretches far beyond American politics and passes through some of the darkest swamps of recent history.

But let’s cut the crap. There is no theological debate! Stephen Colbert got it right on the Late Show. He quipped,   “Jesus said, ‘Suffer the children to come unto me.’ But I’m pretty sure all Sessions saw were the words ‘children’ and ‘suffer’ and said, ‘I’m on it.’ ” All through the Bible, the bottom line is to “love and protect the widow, the orphan and stranger.” Most of us don’t have to cite some ancient text, guru or religion to see how our government is systematically creating more orphans and widows. We are becoming more estranged from each other, in a time when we dearly need to see that we are made of the same stuff and, therefore, members of one another. Our debate is not theological. This is not a matter of intellect, but of conscience. The gods are preparing a funeral for the soul of America and we didn’t yet know we were ill.

Last Monday over 1,200 of us gathered to begin what will be a long and essential protest. Reportedly, 123 men were recently transported to the federal prison in Sheridan, Oregon, 12 miles from where we live. This is Trump’s Zero Tolerance policy. They are from many countries seeking asylum from gang violence, religious persecution and genocide. Some have had children taken from them.  There was a lot of singing: This Land Is Your Land (Woody Guthrie) and Imagine (John Lennon). With the kind of lyrics Woody would’ve written for our time:

One sunny morning in the shadow of the steeple
By the Sheridan Prison I saw my people—
Locked inside cages, I stood there wondering
If this land was made for you and me.

We carried signs to magnify the messages of freedom, safety, love of neighbor, justice and real family values. We waved at the people we could see inside the wire. We chanted “Presente’, presente’ presente’!” hoping the detainees would know we are present with them and will stay present. If it had been a few days later, we’d have showed up in coats with WE DO CARE! WE REALLY DO!!! on the backs.

One of the signs that moved me most was made by a young boy, who held it high for all to see. It reads “I THOUGHT THIS WAS SUPOSSTED TO be “land OF the Free,” NOT “land of People who were imprisoned for looking for a Better life than in the country they are from.”

Debbie carried a sign quoting Martin Luther King Jr., “‘Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.’ OUR LIVES ARE JUST BEGINNING!” Tomorrow at 11am, there will be a worship service (“Road To Sheridan”) outside the barbed wire fence around the Federal Prison 12 miles from here. If it’s possible for you to be presente’ please show up. If you can’t be there in person, please use the following litany in your worship service or in your personal time of centering and pass it around. We will pray it at the prison:

>>Download the Sheridan Litany (PDF)

LOVE IS THE ONLY LAW. That truth will endure the falsehoods of the day.   And maybe that’s the better caption for the back of our jackets. AND by the way, we won’t believe anything has changed with Trump’s executive order until we see the change.