Dear Attorney General Sessions:

Hang on to your day job at the Justice Department. I don't believe you have much future as a theologian or Sunday school Bible study writer. I'm not sure whether Huntingdon College required you to take a New Testament course, but Samford University did require it in 1958 when I was a freshman.

Among the most important principles of Biblical interpretation was to avoid quoting Scripture out of context for your own purposes. That is what you did when quoting Romans 13: 1: "Everyone must submit himself to the government authorities for there is no authority except that which God has established."

The historical context for that chapter from Paul's most brilliant exposition of the Gospel was the Roman government's belief that Christianity was a dangerous religious sect that might undermine Emperor worship and primary allegiance to the secular government. So, Paul wrote both to urge Christians to act as good citizens and to reassure Rome they did not seek to overthrow the government. But Paul never intended to substitute obedience to the state for obedience to God. That was Hitler's interpretation of the verse, not Paul's.

Furthermore, in Romans and all his other epistles, Paul argued that keeping the law justified no one before God. Only faith and God's love for flawed humanity could accomplish our salvation ("You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law?"--Romans 2:23--is the way Paul phrased it).

When I was writing my history of Alabama Baptists, I ran across many planters and preachers from your region of the Black Belt who preached the very text you quoted to congregations of mainly slaves. Unless the state conveys the purposes of God, we ALWAYS should obey moral conscience rather than national law, though hopefully they will correspond closely enough to save us from Paul's fate.

The standard Southern Baptist Bible commentary of the time (1970) explained the meaning of Romans 13 this way: "The state as God's servant should promote the positive good of society and use punishment of evil as the last resort. The wrath of the state should be in harmony with the wrath of God, and it is in a just state." But then a just state does not strip nine month old babies from their mothers!

Furthermore you were politically selective in the Scripture you quoted. How about these alternatives from Romans you could have chosen: "This [obedience to law] is also why you pay taxes" (Romans 13:6). Perhaps that might include the taxes Trump saved by contributing money to the Trump "Charitable" Foundation, which then spent $10,000 on a portrait of himself which he "donated" to hang in his sports bar? Would you consider me to have honored Paul's requirement to pay my rightful taxes if I had done that?

And here is another passage from Romans 13: 9: "Do not commit adultery." I bet you won't quote that one to the BOSS! Verse 10 of that same chapter could be a useful guideline to the entire administration, yourself included: "Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." And don't forget Jesus final exam question after we all die and stand before God for judgment: "Depart from me you cursed, . . . . for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me" (Matthew 25:42-43).

In conclusion, if you are making a list of "followers of the way," as Christians were first called, who have no intention of obeying immoral laws of this administration, add my name to the list (that's FLYNT with a "Y").

If a terrified, undocumented woman with a baby or toddler fleeing rape or murder in Honduras, El Salvador, or Guatamala, makes it to Auburn, I will NOT notify you of that fact, and I will try to help her. So will a LOT of other Auburnites.

If you are prepared to imprison a near 80-year-old Baptist preacher and Alabama historian for not obeying that law, at least I will be in good Biblical company. No one logged more time in Roman jails as a matter of moral conscience than the apostle you quoted. He obeyed Roman law when he could, and obeyed Jesus when he could not. The Romans lynched him anyway. But I doubt Christ turned him away from heaven.