By Johnny Zokovitch
One would think that getting into a “quoting scripture battle” with the pope isn’t a fight most politicians would want to take on, but it seems like House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana just couldn’t help himself.
Pope Leo has been consistent in calling the Trump administration to account over its policies on immigration, in particular immigration efforts that include detention and mass deportations. The pope has made arguments both practical – why threaten and terrorize immigrants and refugees who have lived many years within US borders without causing any problems – and biblical. Speaker Johnson decided to take issue with the biblical.
The pope has often cited Matthew 25, in particular Jesus’ parable about sheep and goats, commonly referred to as “The Judgment of the Nations,” when addressing the issue of immigration. In verse 35 of the passage, Jesus commends those who welcomed the stranger, associating himself with the stranger, while condemning those who gave no welcome.
“Jesus says very clearly: At the end of the world, we’re going to be asked, you know, how did you receive the foreigner? Did you receive him and welcome him or not?” Pope Leo observed. “And I think that there’s a deep reflection that needs to be made in terms of what’s happening.”
For anyone who has ever gotten into a Scriptural throwdown before, it should come as no surprise that Speaker Johnson went straight to Paul’s letter to the Romans, chapter 13: “Let every person be subordinate to the higher authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been established by God. Therefore, whoever resists authority opposes what God has appointed, and those who oppose it will bring judgment upon themselves.”
It’s a favorite passage of those in authority when they’re trying to justify their own actions, especially actions that seem to be directly counter to everything else Jesus said and did.
Those more fluent in Scripture and theology were quick to respond.
Writing for Religion News Service, Rev. Michael DeLashmutt took Johnson’s biblical bonafides to task, arguing that he was ignoring the Bible’s stance on power and ignorant of Paul’s strategy in Romans.
“Paul is writing to fragile house churches living under imperial surveillance, not to Christians wielding state power, and his concern is pastoral and pragmatic: how believers survive under empire without inviting unnecessary repression. It is not a blueprint for Christian governance, nor a timeless endorsement of every policy enacted in the name of law and order.”
Archbishop John Wester of Santa Fe challenged Johnson’s statements, saying that it is “deeply concerning when theological language and sacred texts are used to diminish the fundamental dignity of human beings created in the image of God.”
“The Gospel is not a collection of sound bites for political advantage; it is the call to love our neighbors as ourselves, to defend the defenseless, and to remember that every human being bears the imprint of God,” the archbishop writes. “Reducing Scripture to a political tool undermines its transformative power and our shared humanity.”
To be fair, Pope Leo stands in a line of figures throughout Scripture that are sometimes called “wilderness prophets,” often fiery critics of political and religious leaders who trample down the lives and dignity of the common people. Figures like Elijah and Amos, Jeremiah and John the Baptist – and, of course, Jesus, all claiming to speak for God and delivering God’s complaint against the powers that be.
Opposite the wilderness prophets were the “court prophets” – religious professionals who occupied respected positions and offered political counsel to those in power. They too claimed to speak for God, but their main function seemed to be as “yes-men” for the king, telling him whatever he wanted to hear and offering religious justification for policies that are, in fact, neither religious nor just. We have figures today who stand firmly in that tradition too.
Like, for instance, House Speaker Mike Johnson.
Johnny Zokovitch is the former executive director of Pax Christi USA. He currently serves on the board of thePax Christi International Fund for Peace and is in pastoral leadership atSt. Cronan Catholic Church in St. Louis. Read more from Johnny at https://johnnyzokovitch.substack.com/and sign up there to receive his articles directly to your email inbox.
Johnny, so true. And many paid with their very lives to speak truth to power.
Thank you!