What if news was full of Jesus’ cries?

While a presidential executive order may have halted the heartbreaking separation of immigrant families at the southern border of our country, we must not allow ourselves to believe this episode in our nation’s history is over. What will happen to the children and families that have already been separated? Will families now be detained together indefinitely? What steps are we taking to ensure that people are treated with justice and humanity?

Religious leaders as different as Pope Francis and Franklin Graham have spoken out in protest. Pulpits in synagogues and churches and mosques have been filled in recent weeks with people of faith speaking from their traditions to the horror of what is being done in our country. Many presidents of religious denominations have penned open letters denouncing what is happening and calling for immediate change.

With so much agreement among people of faith, it is perhaps surprising that U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions recently referenced the Bible in justification of atrocities at our border. He said, “Persons who violate the law of our nation are subject to prosecution. 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 them for the purpose of order.”

Given the history of how this particular passage has been used, it is less surprising that Sessions would choose it. Romans 13 also was used by loyalists opposed to the American Revolution to demand obedience to England. It was deployed in defense of apartheid in South Africa. It was a favorite of those trying to use the Bible to defend slavery. The notion that “it’s biblical to follow the law” (White House press secretary Sarah Sanders) echoes sentiments used by Adolf Eichmann and other Nazi officers in justifying their cruel actions by appealing to law, to following orders, to obeying authority. Colonization was legal. Slavery was legal. Beating one’s wife and children was legal. Segregation was legal. The deplorable actions of the Nazi regime were legal. Internment camps were given the imprimatur of legality in World War II. Neither morality nor justice begins or ends with obedience to the law.

Perhaps far more important than the past use or misuse of Romans 13 is the context of Romans. If people are willing to take one verse or a few verses out of context, they can prove or disprove almost anything with the Bible.

When we read the whole chapter and the chapters before and after the one quoted, we come to a fuller understanding of what the Apostle Paul seems to be trying to communicate: “Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor” (Romans 12:9-10); “Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality (hospitality here is the Greek work philoxenia which literally means “love of the stranger” Romans 12:13); “Live in harmony with one another … live at peace with everyone” (Romans 12:16, 18); “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink” (Romans 12:20); “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21); “Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet’; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’ ” (Romans 13: 8-19).

Paul was once a persecutor of Christians. He upheld the law by imprisoning Christians until his own conversion. Once he became a Christian he had time to write so many letters, like the one he wrote to the church in Rome, because he was so often in prison for breaking the lawffl The Apostle Paul is not suggesting we uphold immoral, unjust lawsffl Paul is suggesting “Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law” (Romans 13:10).

The Bible has a lot to say about how God’s people should respond to refugees, immigrants and other displaced people. In fact the Hebrew word ger — translated into English variously as foreigner, sojourner, stranger or immigrant —appears 92 times just in the First Testament, almost always in the context of God commanding the people to love and welcome those who came as foreigners into their land. Consider Leviticus 19:34: “The foreigner who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the foreigner as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.” Or Deuteronomy 10:19: “You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”

For you were strangers … the Bible is a collection of the stories of displaced people. The Bible tells story after story of those leaving what they have known by choice or by force and relying on the hospitality of a new land and an unknown people — Adam and Eve; Cain, Noah, Abraham and Sarah; Jacob, Esau, Joseph, Moses and the Hebrew people; Jesus, Mary and Joseph; members of the early church, Philip and Peter and John. Our sacred stories are the stories of displaced people — forced to leave by famine, by war and violence, by persecution and oppression.

If the sacred stories of the Bible are clear about anything, they are clear about how we must treat the stranger, the refugee, the migrant, the immigrant —these stories exhort us to welcome, they inspire us to hospitality, they compel us to care.

When Jesus is asked in Matthew 25 about who will inherit the kingdom of God, Jesus offers these criteria: “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you took me in.” This is not hypothetical for Jesus. Jesus was a refugee with his mother and father in Egypt as they fled the tyrant Herod. Imagine if Jesus were born now and fled into our country; imagine if Mary and Joseph were arrested and infant Jesus were sent away all by himself to be thrown into a cell with other children separated from their families. What if the holy family were kept together but held indefinitely? What if the news was full of Jesus’ cries?

“Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law” (Romans 13:10). In these weeks, as I have read to my two boys and tucked them in bed I have thought of the children whose parents could not comfort them, could not care for them, did not even know where they had been taken. I have thought of the pictures: a small child crying as her mother is arrested, the cages where huddled children weep, of a little girl pulled from her mother’s leg. It is Christ we are seeing and hearing: “Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.” (Matthew 25).

However we move forward from these days of horror, our country is forever marked by our treatment of thousands of innocent children who were used as political pawns. However we move forward, the Bible has been misused yet again to justify injustice and oppression. However we move forward, we must refuse to do so silently. However we move forward, we must remain vigilant, caring for the least of these, working for justice and living into the law of love.

Rev. Laura Mayo is senior minister of Covenant Church: an ecumenical, liberal, Baptist congregation in Houston; covenanthouston.org.