The History Of Biblical Verse In Politics

This week more than 600 members of the United Methodist Church issued a formal complaint against U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a fellow church member, for the Trump administration's "zero-tolerance" immigration policy that separated families crossing the border illegally.

Sessions defended the policy last week, citing Romans 13, saying people should "obey the laws of the government because God has ordained them for the purpose of order."

He is not the only politician to use Biblical scripture in politics. Here & Now's Jeremy Hobson and Femi Oke take a look at that history with historians Ed Ayers (@edward_l_ayers) and Joanne Freeman (@jbf1755), co-hosts of the podcast "BackStory," which is produced at Virginia Humanities.