Ministry leaders helping immigrants in their communities can easily point to several verses throughout the Bible that support their work.

So, they found it unbelievable when U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions invoked a passage in the good book to justify his highly contentious "zero-tolerance" policy that has led to the current immigration crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border.

"I cannot understand how it is possible that people use their agendas to completely deface the word of God," said Pastor Bernardo Zapata, who leads the multi-ethnic ministry at Bartlett United Methodist Church.

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Zapata, an immigrant himself, does a slate of outreach work, including connecting families regardless of their legal status, to Church Health, which provides healthcare to uninsured working people.

He also serves as a bridge between an emotional support ministry at his church and Spanish-speaking immigrants dealing with trauma, like having a family member tied up in the immigration system.

An onslaught of outrage and a policy change

The recent separation of more than 2,300 children from their parents on the United States' southwestern border breaks his heart. Zapata is not alone. His criticism is part of an onslaught of pushback the Trump administration has received since it enacted the controversial policy in April.

"I cannot by any means mix politics and my faith, but I cannot under any circumstance stay silent before the injustice that is being placed upon these people," Zapata said. 

Under the "zero-tolerance policy," nearly everyone crossing the United States' southwestern border without authorization is charged with a federal misdemeanor and taken to jails and detention facilities.

Until recently, children were split up from parents and placed in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement. President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday afternoon, saying the administration would end the separation of families, which is the piece of the immigration policy that drew the most ire. 

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More: Why is Jeff Sessions quoting Romans 13 and why is the bible verse so often invoked?

Now, families detained at the border can be housed together.

Many welcomed the executive order, but others say it did not go far enough and questions remain. Zapata is thankful for that change.

"At least there is some humanity being brought into this issue," Zapata said. "At least these children are not a negotiating opportunity for the president to make his agenda happen." 

That presidential flip flop comes after the lambasting of the policy as immoral and unnecessary turned into a firestorm. 

Sessions defends 'zero-tolerance' policy with Romans 13

But before Trump changed his mind, Sessions defended the policy by invoking a Bible passage. America's top law enforcement official saw the strict rules as a deterrent to those considering entering the U.S. unlawfully. 

"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," Sessions said. "Orderly and lawful processes are good in themselves. Consistent, fair application of law is in itself a good and moral thing."

Religious leaders across the theological spectrum pushed back, not only criticizing the separation of families, but Session's use of Romans 13 as justification. 

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Conservative evangelical Franklin Graham was among those to denounce the policy in an interview with Christian Broadcasting Network, but he placed the blame on politicians who have served in recent decades and not the Trump administration. 

However, a coalition of more than 600 United Methodist clergy and lay members rebuked Sessions, a fellow Methodist, for the policy they saw as akin to child abuse as well as for what they say is a misuse of Romans 13. 

But, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, backed Sessions during a recent press briefing. 

"I can say that it is very biblical to enforce the law," Sanders said. "That is, actually, repeated a number of times throughout the Bible."

Christians push back on Session's biblical defense

But many Christian leaders say context is key when interpreting scripture and the passage Sessions refers to in Romans 13 is bookended with calls to love your neighbor and enemy, said the Rev. Judi Hoffman, who leads East End United Methodist Church in Nashville. 

"My first thought was Jesus said even Satan can quote scripture," Hoffman said. "It made me want to be very careful about wanting to quote scripture back."

She pointed out that Romans 13 has been used to defend slavery and justified the oppression of people in other moments throughout history. Despite her hesitancy to parse scripture, Hoffman believes the Bible as well as United Methodist social principals support caring for the immigrant and keeping the families together. 

Not only is support for immigrants preached from the pulpit at her Nashville church, but the congregation supports the sanctuary church movement in the city, too.

East End's facilities do not lend themselves to sheltering people, so the members add their voices to the public outcry and contact their policy makers, Hoffman said. They also assist in more tangible ways, like collecting gift cards and necessities for those in crisis, like families affected by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids, she said. 

In Romans 13:1-7, Paul more or less says that resisting the authority appointed by God is like resisting God, said James B. Wallace, a New Testament scholar and religion professor at Christian Brothers University in Memphis. 

But, Sessions disregards the context of the Bible verses he cites. He ignores the larger literary context, Wallace said. The passage is sandwiched between Paul's urging to love one another.

Consequences of citing the Bible for political support

Sessions also disregards the historical context that Paul is writing to Christ followers, a tiny group that was already facing some hostility at the time, during the reign of the autocratic Roman Empire, Wallace said. Common people had virtually no power. Today, Sessions is a person in political power applying the passage.   

"He applies it in a disingenuous and self-serving manner, he applies it without any sensitivity to the history of its use to support oppression, and he applies it without any reference to what other parts of scripture say," Wallace said. "By every rule of interpretation I know of, he applies it incorrectly."

Sessions took a risk by quoting the Bible to support the policy, wrote Mark Tooley, the president of the conservative Institute on Religion and Democracy, in a column for The Stream, a Christian publication. He added that the Bible does not directly address U.S. border laws. 

Tooley, who is a member of the United Methodist Church, suggests that Sessions may have been better served by explaining that separating families is tragic, but giving parents accompanied by children a free pass would lead to greater upheaval. 

"It's now popular in American Christianity to stress the Bible as guarantor of entitlements in defense of the 'marginalized.' That’s important," Tooley wrote. "It’s much less popular to cite the state's divinely ordained duties against disorder. But without that, there can be no pursuit of justice."

Rondell Trevino, the founder of The immigration Project in Memphis, was taken aback by Session's use of the bible given how strongly pro-family the Christian holy book is. 

Immigration issues compel some to act

The crisis at the border has compelled Trevino to act.

"It's devastating," said Trevino, whose wife is an immigrant from Guatemala. "It does compel me to go to the word, but it's not just praying, it's like compelling me to be in a healthy anger of saying, 'We've got to do something.'"

He is raising money through his organization that equips churches so they can see immigration and love the immigrant through the lens of the Bible. The funds will help buy Bibles to give to detention centers and support the mission of a church helping immigrant families on the border.  

In addition to equipping churches in Memphis and beyond, The immigrant Project also advocates for immigrants facing injustices and provides scholarships for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals students.

"We try to start there with helping people understand just because an immigrant might be undocumented and yeah, they may have broken the law, but that doesn’t mean and doesn’t give you justification to view them less than because they're made and God loves them as much as U.S. citizens," said Trevino, who also is a youth minister at Woodland Presbyterian Church in Memphis. 

A Latino woman expressing her fears at a neighborhood meeting in Memphis prompted Joni Laney,a United Methodist church member, to get involved. 

Soon after Trump's election, the woman stood up at the meeting and asked how many of those in the room would stand with them if law enforcement came to take them away. Laney was among those who pledged to be by their side.

"We were just stunned," Laney said. "I don’t think I realized the level of terror in the Latino community until she voiced it."    

Since then, Laney has tried to be a witness to immigration enforcement in her city and help her affected neighbors however she can. She belongs to a Binghampton United Methodist Mission, a small neighborhood congregation that is supportive of her advocacy for immigrants.

"We have to stand in the gap as people of faith," Laney said.   

USA TODAY contributed to this report. 


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