Program Success 5 June 2018
History of People Using Romans 13 to Justify White Supremacy Michael Harriot Tampa , Florida Summer 2018
A Brief History of People Using Romans 13 to Justify White Supremacy
Around A . D . 49 , the Roman emperor Claudius expelled the Jews from the city of Rome because Claudius did not want them holding office or bringing in more immigrants . Instead , he wrote that the Jews “ should rest content with what belongs to them by right and enjoy an abundance of all good things in a city which is not theirs . The Jews , according to Claudius , were running in gangs , opening the borders and taking the good jobs from the true Romans . Sound familiar ?
As this was happening , one of the early Jewish leaders of a new sect called “ Christianity ” was composing a letter to his church . In the epistle , he told his oppressed minority of followers to avoid causing trouble with the most powerful government in the world . He wrote : Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers . For there is no power but of God : the powers that be are ordained of God . Whosoever therefore resisteth the power , resisteth the ordinance of God : and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation . For rulers are not a terror to good works , but to the evil . Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power ? Do that which is good , and thou shalt have praise of the same .
- A Letter to the Roman Church from the Apostle Paul , Romans : Chapter 13 , Verses 1-3
If you have ever wondered why slaves adopted the religious philosophy of their slave masters , Romans 13 is your answer . If you wanted to know why slaves , who often outnumbered slave masters , rebelled so rarely , the answer lies in Romans 13 . To understand why the Bible was the only book many slaves were allowed to own , read that verse again .
Christianity was adopted by people , rulers and governments all around the globe because it tells its followers to comply . It boasts of a benevolent God who knows best ; even when you are the subject of brutality , the Bible tells you that this is what God wants . At the root of Romans 13 is an edict to obey authority .
The 13th chapter of Romans is white supremacy , explained . Almost 2,000 years after Paul ’ s letter , the 13th chapter of Paul ’ s instruction to the Romans is still being used to silence , warn and squash minority populations . When U . S . Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III quoted the verse Thursday to explain the Trump administration ’ s gestapo-like policy of ripping babies from the arms of their mothers and throwing the children into internment camps , he was simply the latest in a long line of white people who used that verse to justify white supremacy .
During the civil rights movement , Paul ’ s admonition echoed through white , Southern churches , especially those that split from their larger denominations to hold on to segregation . In their opinion , sit-ins , protests and civil disobedience as a whole were explicitly against Paul ’ s instructions to Christians . Rosa Parks , the Freedom Riders and even participants in the Children ’ s March were all sinners in the eyes of an angry white God , according to Romans 13 . God is even given as a reason why black people should stop resisting when they are shot by corrupt cops . Recently , Romans , chapter 13 , was used to disparage the Black Lives Matter movement .
White supremacists love Romans 13 . They used it to justify apartheid , but surprisingly , they also used it to justify why they hated Barack Obama . Hitler used it to justify the Holocaust .
Excerts from an article titled by Michael Harriot , Guest Columnist and World-renowned wypipologist . Getter and doer of “ it .”
Program Success 5 June 2018