Kristi Noem's Department of Homeland Security has made shocking "confessions" with its new ad blitz, according to Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons, vice president of programs and strategy at Interfaith Alliance.
In an opinion piece for MSNBC, Graves-Fitzsimmons wrote Monday evening that DHS’s "bible-quoting" recruitment videos are "a confession of moral bankruptcy."
He pointed to the Trump administration defending its draconian mass deportation operation by using Bible verses. That includes a pair of videos in the last month, including one that "bastardized" Isaiah 6, he said.
"As images of helicopters and tactical agents ominously scroll, the narrator says: 'Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I; send me.'"
In another video, DHS shares "dark images" of militaristic immigration enforcement actions, "paired with Proverbs 28: 'The wicked flee when no man pursueth; but the righteous are bold as a lion.'"
In a post on social media, meanwhile, DHS shared the painting "American Progress" — a famous Manifest Destiny image — with the caption, "A Heritage to be proud of, a Homeland worth Defending."
Graves-Fitzsimmons questioned why the administration has resorted to using Bible references while it militarizes an immigration crackdown and "creates a concentration camp in Florida." He suggested that the Trump administration may be feeling it needs to resort to "religious fervor" to get the rank and file behind its "brutal cruelty and injustice."
"A government confident that its policies are just wouldn’t need to borrow God’s authority to sell them. By wrapping itself in scripture, the Trump administration has only confirmed what its critics, including many devout believers, have been saying all along: This deportation crackdown isn’t a divine mandate, it’s a national disgrace, and faith communities will not be fooled into blessing it," he concluded.