Quoting Romans 13: When the Bible Is Misused to Silence Christians (Paul and Politics Special Episode)

Voxology

Religion & Spirituality, Philosophy, Society & Culture

4.7 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 15 June 2018

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

How misinterpreting Romans 13 distorts Christian witness and enables injustice. In a special midweek commentary episode, Mike Erre breaks down Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ and Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ use of Romans 13 to justify controversial immigration policies—specifically, the separation of families at the border. Mike dives deep into scripture, unpacking why proof-texting Romans 13 is both theologically inaccurate and spiritually dangerous. This episode is part of our ongoing Paul and Politics series.

Key Takeaways:
• Quoting Scripture Out of Context — Mike critiques how Romans 13 has been misused historically to justify slavery, apartheid, and now immigration policies.
• Biblical Foundation for Immigrant Care — The Bible overwhelmingly supports the care of the foreigner, stranger, and refugee, from Leviticus to the teachings of Jesus.
• The Context of Romans 13 — Mike explains how Romans 12 and 13 are a single thought, revealing Paul’s deeper message about vengeance, government, and Christian witness.
• Civil Disobedience in Scripture — From Daniel and Rahab to the disciples in Acts, the Bible includes many examples of resisting unjust laws for the sake of God’s justice.
• Christian Responsibility in a Polarized Culture — Why Christians should resist policies and ideologies that conflict with Jesus’ call to love strangers and pursue justice.

Resources Mentioned:
• Preston Sprinkle – Website
• “Welcoming the Stranger” by Matthew Soerens – Amazon
• “The Myth of a Christian Nation” by Gregory Boyd – Amazon
• Ben Witherington’s commentary on Romans
• N.T. Wright on Romans
• Tim Gombis – “Faith Improvised” podcast

Join the Voxology community as we untangle faith from politics and seek a more faithful witness to Jesus. Be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and connect with us on your favorite platform.

As always, we encourage and would love discussion as we pursue. Feel free to email in questions to [email protected], and to engage the conversation on Facebook and Instagram.

We're on YouTube (if you're into that kinda thing): VOXOLOGY TV

Our Merch Store! ETSY

Learn more about the Voxology Podcast

Subscribe on iTunes or Spotify

Support the Voxology Podcast on Patreon

The Voxology Spotify channel can be found here: Voxology Radio

Follow Mike on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mikeerre

Music in this episode by Timothy John Stafford
Instagram & Twitter: @GoneTimothy

As always, we encourage and would love discussion as we pursue. Feel free to email in questions to [email protected], and to engage the conversation on Facebook and Instagram.

We're on YouTube (if you're into that kinda thing): VOXOLOGY TV.

Our Merch Store! ETSY

Learn more about the Voxology Podcast

Subscribe on iTunes or Spotify

Support the Voxology Podcast on Patreon

The Voxology Spotify channel can be found here: Voxology Radio

Follow Mike on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mikeerre

Music in this episode by Timothy John Stafford

Instagram & Twitter: @GoneTimothy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey everybody, Mike here. Let's talk about Romans 13, shall we? A special midweek breaking news
0:08.7	edition of the Vox podcast. As many of you will already know, yesterday, at least when I'm
0:19.1	recording this, our Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, was talking
0:23.5	about immigration policy.
0:25.2	And there's been a lot of misinformation about parents separating, being separated from
0:31.1	their children.
0:32.1	And that is happening, but it's a bit cloudy in terms of when it started, and there's been some exaggeration
0:40.4	of this, but still a horrific, horrific thing, regardless of, you know, even if it were just one
0:47.8	family, this is just awful. And so Sessions was, I think he was giving a speech or something
0:53.6	making a statement about this policy.
0:56.1	And here was his full quote.
0:58.5	He said, let me take an aside to discuss concerns raised by our church friends about separating families.
1:06.5	So, hallelujah, that our church friends are raising concerns about this.
1:11.2	He says, many of the criticism raised in recent days are not fair or logical and some are contrary to law.
1:17.4	First, a legal entry into the United States is a crime as it should be.
1:22.9	Persons who violate the law of our nation are subject to prosecution.
1:27.1	I would cite you to the apostle
1:29.3	Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans 13 to obey the laws of government because God has
1:36.9	ordained them for the purpose of order. Order, he continues, orderly and lawful processes are good in themselves and protect the weak and lawful
1:46.7	our policies that can result in short-term separation of families those are not unusual or
1:53.6	unjustified american citizens that are jailed do not usually take their children to jail with them
1:59.5	and non-citizens who cross our borders unlawfully between our ports of entry with children
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Voxology, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Voxology and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.