“Mr. Sessions, Could We Talk Over Coffee?”
As the outrage increases toward the Trump Government’s child separation policy, people of faith are starting to speak out in different ways against Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ use of Bible in his attempt to justify the policy:
Dear Mr. Jeffrey Sessions,
I am a Evangelical Christian. Please do not confuse me with an extreme fundamentalist. As I understand it, you claim also to be a Christian. Could we sit down and have a safe, sane conversation over coffee?
There is some confusion that I have over some things that you said and I would appreciate the opportunity to understand a statement you made during a news conference.
In referring to the U.S. government separating Central American children from their families at our southern border you stated,” Illegal entry into the United States is a crime. It should be. It must be. I would cite you to the Apostle Paul in his clear and wise command in Romans 13. To obey the laws of the government because God has ordained the government for his purposes.” You were referring to Romans 13:1 in that statement.
Mr. Sessions it would seem to me that you have been attending church long enough to know that a good Christian never takes one statement in scripture and applies a definitive interpretation all by itself. All good theologians know you must read before and after any one scripture to gain context and often one must cross reference with other scriptures to get a theme in the writings. Perhaps if you would read the rest of that chapter in Romans out loud you could help us all to get a bigger picture of what Paul was saying.
Paul writes in Romans 13:10 ,”Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.” Aren’t little children from Central America our neighbors? According to the American Psychological Association there are decades of research demonstrating that family separation can lead to anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder, among other conditions. Doesn’t that constitute harm?
The Apostle Paul, as you know, had a life changing encounter with Jesus. Afterward Paul dedicated his life to teaching others about Jesus and his message of love. I am sure you know Jesus’ quote from the Gospel of Luke 6:31,”Do to others as you would have them do to you.” In the Gospel of Matthew 22:37-39 Jesus says,”Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.” Mr. Sessions are you and this White House administration treating these children the way you would want to be treated if you were in their situation? Are you loving these innocent children and their families as you love yourself?
Do you remember Mr. Sessions another young , poor family who lived in the Roman territory of Judea about 2000 years ago. They had to flee due to a law that the client king of Rome named Herod had decreed. He decreed the killing of all baby boys under the age of two in the City of Bethlehem and the surrounding area. Was that law just and ordained by God or just corrupt? This refugee family had to flee to Egypt for political asylum. Perhaps you have heard of this family. Their names were Mary, Joseph, and Jesus. I am so glad that family was not separated. Aren’t you?
When you have a moment, let’s have that coffee.
In His Love,
Ed Ness
Leadership Team Member,
Oak Life Church, Oakland.
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POSTED BY Melanie Nathan
@MelanieNathan1
O-blog-dee-o-blog-da 
The church law charges being brought by UMC clergy and members may bring a certain, small degree of shame to Beauregard, but the bottom line is that he is a minion of djt and will never NEVER budge on his position unless forced by Congress or SCOTUS. We might as well nuke Lady Liberty. She is an enemy to the current administration.
The rules against child abuse are about your personal life, NOT your work enforcing the law. Note that the cideos of children being separated from their parents all come FROM THE OBAMA ERA.
The children are kept segregated from adults, housed and fed three meals and two snacks a day.
According to the Left, that’s better than what they had. How is that child abuse?
LOL seriously ? Child abuse can occur anywhere anyhow and yes its deeply personal for those who suffer its impact. Merely grabbing a kid from a parents arms, without any relative to take that kid, is CHILD ABUSE. Any way you look at it. And I side with the professionals on that one. Research the term “mortal wound.” No, separation is not Obama fault. DITCH those Republican talking points. They are lies. Anything so dramatically out of context is a lie. This comes from failed immigration system taken to a new height by the zero tolerance policy of trump and his fundamentalist way of interpreting law and add to the box the Republican party’s failure to do an Immigration reform over the past decades. They always got in the way. And now what is in the way is this repugnant Trump holding these kids hostage to a billion dollar wall.
Melanie,
You missed my point. I’m not attacking or blaming President Obama for anything: he was correctly following the law. Why would I criticize him, but praise President Trump?
No: I am criticizing you and the rest of the liberal media and “advocates” for being intentionally dishonest and for creating a double standard to manufacture propaganda for the Democratic Party. Please stay on point.
Let’s take the dishonesty, first: you, and everyone else in the liberal media spent the past 14 days calling this “Trump’s policy of separating children,” but that is completely dishonest.
Yesterday, in the Washington Post, Glenn Beck stated he told news outlets about the rumor of these separations in 2014 and asked them to investigate, but got no takers. Your own preferred candidate, Dianne Feinstein said that she “just didn’t know how the Obama Administration treated the children.” https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/Melanie-Rater/SEN-Dianne-Feinstein-I-didn’t-really-know-how-Obama-administration-treated. You’d blast any Republican for that ignorance.
This was the policy under Presidents Bush and Obama, so it is not “Trump’s policy,” or a new policy. You are using it as a smokescreen to cover up what you really object to: ANY detention of anyone illegally crossing our borders. That’s how propaganda works, NOT “news.” And when people like me see that, it undermines any legitimate point you have to make. Don’t blame me for being unpersuaded.
That also sums up the double standard: you ignore what Dems do, yet blast Republicans for it, as if you don’t dare attack “a fellow countryman Meade, laboring among the proletariat.” I have treated Presidents Obama and Trump the same way.
And today we learn the Honduran child whose photo has become a symbol of this problem WAS NEVER TAKEN AWAY FROM HER MOTHER! https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-Canada-44578339. More lies, more Fake News.
The rest of your response to me was an attempt to justify the dishonesty and double standard of the Left and complain that ‘Republicans do it to, and we’more NEVER to Blame because it’s the system’s fault.’
No: you are responsible to get your facts straight, to be honest in your true, unpopular position of “Open Borders,” and to be a Woman if Principle and not a Woman of Politics.
I do not hav time to answer your entire comment BUT what you do not understand and where your big lie plops – is DONALD TRUMP INSTITUTED A POLICY OF ZERO TOLERANCE – He Ordered ARRESTS of moms for misdemeanor crossing border to justify taking kids. He went further and through ZERO TOLERANCE policy in effect ordered children taken away even at legitimate entry points. SO he created the mess we are now seeing. This has nothing to do with Obama. He also has done nothing to fix immigration except hold anyone and everyone at every opportunity hostage to his failed promise of a wall to be paid by Mexico. Obama had a wave of problems. He did not do it right. But Trumps current wave is Trumps own doing and is in NO WAY justified by the Obama era errors. This is a humanity crisis now. Obama somehow did not have such a crisis – WHY? Because he did not have a zero tolerance policy. SO!
PS. Watch me on the Joy Reid Show on Sunday morning… 24th June….
Melanie,
If you criticize President Trump’s Zero Tolerance” policy, fine. But your headlines and comments criticize “Trump’s family separation policy.” It is not his policy. That is what I regard as Untrue and Fake News.
I look forward to seeing you on the Joy Reid show.
– Jim
Zero Tolerance = Family Separation. It was an intended consequence so it is POLICY. He actually said , as did his surrogates, that he hoped the taking of kids would discourage others from coming to the border. THAT, my friend is indeed a Family Separation Policy! I stand by my header…..
Melanie,
Would these be the same evangelicals who condemn gays and lesbians like you and me to hell? Why should I care?
– Jim
Actually no its written by a Gay evangelical
Melanie,
LoL! Well, you have me, there.
For me, the scripture in question comes from the story of an encounter between Jesus and a Cannanite woman who came to Jesus for help to heal her daughter in Matthew 15:25-27.
Jesus replied and said, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”
The point is not that Jesus or the Jews of his day were racist against the Cannanites, but they had other obligations to consider and other needy people.
For a self-described globalist, you have never acknowledged the pain and suffering you cause, when you take a job away from an American worker and give it to someone else.
Doesn’t “globalism” include caring for American citizens, too?
Wish we had more jobs, but we don’t: we exported them to the Maciadores districts and to China.
– Jim
I am not going to try and talk about the Christian Bible. However I care deeply about the American worker. Its and outright Republican talking point LIE to say American workers are hurt by immigration. American workers are hurt by lousy USA education. American workers are hurt by their own laziness. American workers are hurt by Trump and the Republicans and their ilk who have created an economy that serves only the rich. So that said the lie is failing to note that immigrants boost our economy , they work hard, pay taxes, empty people, do work Americans refuse to do, make the number gap in migrants work, etc etc… AND creatively provide a diversity of culture that is rich and magnificent…