Attorney General Jeff Sessions recently quoted the Bible in an attempt to argue that the U.S. separating migrant children from their parents at the border is something that God would support, saying, “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.â€
During last night’s Late Show, however, longtime Sunday school teacher Stephen Colbert was having none of it. “Hey, don’t bring God into this! First of all, I don’t think God picked you because I don’t worship Vladimir Putin. And the only thing in the Bible close to this is a king threatening to cut a baby in two, and he was joking!†Colbert said. “But I will give Sessions this: That is what Romans 13:1 says — you gotta have laws. But if he just read a little bit further into Romans 13:10, it says ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.’ I’m not surprised Sessions didn’t read the whole thing. After all, Jesus said ‘Suffer the children to come unto me,’ but I’m pretty sure all Sessions saw was the words ‘children’ and ‘suffer’ and said ‘I’m on it!’†Let this be a lesson to other politicians out there thinking of throwing out Bible quotes to defend cruel immigration policies: Colbert knows a thing or two about that book, so you better be prepared for when he throws them back at you.