Texas Faith Leaders Rebuke Trump administration's "zero tolerance" Policy

Churches, especially in deep-red Texas, often sit out partisan squabbles. But the issue of family separations is not a political one, some faith leaders say — it's a humanitarian and moral crisis.

Originally Posted by The Texas Tribune
Written by Emma Platoff

There’s a new road sign outside Arapaho United Methodist Church in Richardson.

“Please don’t use scripture to justify policies that harm families,” reads the sign.

The message, which was also posted to the church's Facebook page, seems directed at one person in particular: U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who this week used scripture — Romans 13 — to justify a new policy of "zero tolerance" at the country’s southern border, a strategy that has resulted in hundreds of children being separated from their parents. The text, Sessions said, says “to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained the government for his purposes.” But the word of God, many people of faith counter, instructs followers to “love thy neighbor.”

In Texas’ liberal urban centers and its quieter, more conservative corners, God has increasingly entered into an emotional debate over the Trump administration’s immigration policy, particularly as stories continue to emerge of separations that have taken a nursing child from her mother, kept a disabled teenager thousands of miles from his grandmother for almost a year and even led to a suicide.

Continue reading >>> READ FULL ARTICLE