I once had a colleague tell me this about public figures and their use of the Bible: “Gene, whenever you are in a public meeting and somebody stands up and says, ‘The Bible says…’ you can be sure that somebody else is about to be hurt.”
And so when Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, stood up a few days ago, and started to quote the New Testament Book of Romans, I feared that nothing good could come from it…and I was right. The Attorney General of the United States, who is also a self-proclaimed Christian, using the Bible to justify the appallingly cruel and inhumane policy of forcibly separating children from their parents at the Mexican border, literally taking young children out of their mothers’ arms. It was a reprehensible and ignorant misrepresentation of the biblical word, indeed a reprehensible and ignorant misrepresentation of the Christian faith. In one brief statement, Sessions made the Bible and people who profess a biblical faith look as cruel and insensitive as the Trump administration’s immigration policy. Little wonder I continue to hear so many people in Sonoma County, which is not exactly a stronghold of religious faith and institutions, refer to Christians as nothing but a bunch of mean-spirited hypocrites.
Would it do any good for me to tell you that Jeff Sessions and his interpretation of the Bible are not only misguided, but also completely wrong? In fact, in supporting this unsupportable policy he has actually contradicted Jesus of Nazareth who plainly said, “Let the children come to me. Do not hinder them…do not hurt them.” Would it do any good for me to tell you that people of faith are actually taking the lead in pushing against this horrendous policy? And why? Because the Bible tells us to! Yes, the Bible!
Now I am well aware that there is some pretty unpleasant, even horrific stuff in the Bible. Bloodshed and betrayal and intolerance and all manner of human ugliness…yes, it’s all there. And I know that the Bible has often been used to justify violence and inhumanity – putting children in wire enclosures, for example. Many of you can no doubt quote to me really terrible Bible verses and stories. But at its heart, and you certainly hear this in the Old Testament prophets and the teachings of Jesus, the Bible calls us again and again to justice and mercy and faith. It is relentless in its call for justice for the poor, compassion for the sick and the weak, and welcome for the stranger – the alien. The God of the Bible identifies again and again with the “least of these,” and often shows a distinct bias in favor of the poor and oppressed.
People like Jeff Sessions really do not know the Bible. Oh, they can quote it, but they don’t know it. Again, at its heart, the Bible is about inclusiveness, insisting that all God’s children have a place in the choir. It is about enlarging the human spirit, not diminishing it. Biblical faith really isn’t all that interested in trivial and divisive rules and regulations, but is all about loving our neighbor and reaching out beyond me and my needs to serve the wider human need.
I don’t really want to get into distinguishing good religion from bad…at least not in this column. All I know is that when the Bible is used to call forth the highest and best in every person, it truly is inspired. When it is used to degrade, hurt or exclude persons, then it is pretty much just another book, and not much use to anyone.
