“Persons who violate the law of our nation are subject to prosecution. I would cite you to the Apostle Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans 13 to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained them for the purpose of order,” Sessions said, according to New York magazine’s Daily Intelligencer. “Orderly and lawful processes are good in themselves and protect the weak and lawful.”

I believe at that point the entire room began to shake, and a lightning bolt struck the podium, leaving the word “Wrong” burned across the stage. But those are unconfirmed rumors.

First, we live in a secular democracy, which means I’m never happy when any elected official or representative of the government starts justifying policy on the basis of faith. Certainly not from a party that backs neo-Nazis and apparent pedophiles. More importantly, I’m not a biblical scholar, but absolute deference to the government doesn’t sound like anything I learned in my 10 years of mandated Sunday school lessons.

What Sessions said boils down to this: God has dominion over everything, and the government exists only through God’s grace, so therefore the government is an extension of God and should never be challenged. That sounds like a recipe for religious authoritarianism to me.

Which shouldn’t surprise anyone. His use of this quote puts Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III in very special company. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans 13 has been used by just about every horrible authoritarian government in history to justify any act of racism, violence or oppression.

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Hitler used Romans 13 to rebuke Christians who rejected the rise of his Nazi Party.