Sessions’ own church rips AG
Among the critics of the Trump administration’s policy to separate families who cross the border illegally are 640 members of the United Methodist Church — the same congregation where Attorney General Jeff Sessions worships.
Churchgoers and clergy signed a letter on Monday claiming Sessions, who announced the “zero tolerance” policy in April, violated the denomination’s Book of Discipline.
They accuse him of child abuse, immorality, racial discrimination and “dissemination of doctrines contrary to the established standards of doctrines” of the United Methodist Church.
The doctrine charge refers to Sessions’ “misuse” of Romans 13 about obeying the government because it is ordained by God to justify the policy.
The “misuse” of the passage “is in stark contrast to Disciplinary commitments to supporting freedom of conscience and resistance to unjust laws,” the letter says.
The letter also notes that Sessions belongs to the Ashland Place United Methodist Church in Mobile, Ala., and the Clarendon United Methodist Church in Alexandria, Va.
“While other individuals and areas of the federal government are implicated in each of these examples, Mr. Sessions — as a longterm United Methodist in a tremendously powerful, public position — is particularly accountable to us, his church,” the letter said.
“He is ours, and we are his. As his denomination, we have an ethical obligation to speak boldly when one of our members is engaged in causing significant harm in matters contrary to the Discipline on the global stage.”
A report by the United Methodist Church said some individual worshipers have contacted Sessions’ pastor to intervene.
The Rev. Valerie Nagel Vogt, associate pastor of Travis Park United Methodist Church in San Antonio, Texas, sent a letter last Friday hoping to spark a discussion between Sessions and his pastor.
“I believe it is in community that we learn, grow and become more like Jesus,” she said. “There is abounding grace and an ongoing need for all of us who claim to follow Jesus to ask for forgiveness.”
The Book of Discipline allows for a church trial and the expulsion of a lay member, but church leadership said that was unlikely to happen.