The Bible According to the Department of Homeland Security
The social media feeds of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security are mostly filled with arrest porn, like mugshots, images of immigrants being nabbed by federal agents, and conservative media articles about crimes allegedly committed by an immigrant. They also put in some glamor shots of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, including videos of her this week riding a horse in the Argentinian countryside (as she visited the country on taxpayer funds along with the man with whom she’s long been rumored to be having an affair). DHS has also been posting nostalgic art with yearnings for a White America, like a Thomas Kinkade painting and a John Gast painting glorifying “manifest destiny.”
In addition to the arrest porn, shots of “ICE Barbie,” and kitschy art, DHS has recently thrown in a couple of Bible verses to justify their militarized efforts to hunt immigrants. Such kidnappings of Scripture for dehumanizing rhetoric and the flexing of imperial power stand out as particularly grotesque abuses of the Christian faith, even amid an administration constantly pushing Christian Nationalism and attacking Christians who care for immigrants.
DHS isn’t merely taking verses out of context; they’re snatching verses that clearly don’t apply to their work as they try to frame arresting, detaining, and deporting people as the result of a divine call from God. So this issue of A Public Witness opens up DHS’s social media in one hand and an actual Bible in the other to consider the competing faiths.
Homeland Heresies
This month, DHS shared two videos that use a biblical passage along with footage of militarized forces running around looking for immigrants. Both also used audio from movies, raising questions of whether they actually had the rights to do so. DHS is already facing claims from others that they used copyrighted materials without permission, including from the estate of Kinkade which called the use of his painting “unauthorized.”
On July 7, DHS posted a video they titled “Here am I, send me” (along with an American flag emoji after that phrase). As the title suggests, they co-opted Isaiah 6, which is when the prophet Isaiah experienced a divine call that included a vision of seraphim flying around, the voice of God calling out, and a hot coal placed on his mouth before he answers for God to send him.
The DHS video starts not with flying heavenly creatures but with helicopters carrying people in military-like garb and holding weapons as they look around for people to capture. Instead of a hot coal, the agents’ faces are covered by masks (except for a cameo shot of Noem riding along where we see her whole face glowing in red light). At one point the footage switches to night-goggle vision to see not the throne of God but the people who are being hunted. Throughout the one-minute video, audio runs with the words also on the screen. Although not acknowledged, the audio was taken from the movie Fury.
“Here’s a Bible verse I think about sometimes. Many times,” we hear Shia LaBeouf say as the World War II tank gunner Boyd “Bible” Swan. “It goes: Then I heard the voice of Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send and who will go for us?’ I said, ‘Here am I, send me!’”
With the uncredited LaBeouf’s words serving as a narration for the video, it makes it seem like it’s a DHS agent answering a call from God to go and serve in a mission to hunt immigrants. Joining DHS is baptized as a divine job, protecting the nation in this holy crusade.
Adding to that, the video also featured background music that aids in elevating both the religious messaging and the glorification of militarized force: “God’s Gonna Cut You Down.” The song, which has been recorded over several decades by various artists, warns criminals that they “can run on for a long time” but “sooner or later, God’ll cut you down.” In this new context, DHS clearly sees themselves as agents of God’s retribution (as opposed to those being warned by the song). The particular version of the song used in the video was recorded by the band Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. The band responded by criticizing DHS for “improperly using” the recording and demanding the video be pulled down.
“It’s obvious that you don’t respect Copyright Law and Artist Rights any more than you respect Habeas Corpus and Due Process rights, not to mention the separation of Church and State per the U.S. Constitution,” the band added. “Oh, and go f... yourselves.”
On July 28, DHS posted another video exploiting both Scripture and immigrants. This 41-second film is also highly produced, featuring secretive agents in tactical gear and holding guns while bursting into buildings at night. At one point, a clip from a Batman movie is heard where the Dark Knight declares, “They think I’m hiding in the shadows. But I am the shadows.” That’s the voice of Robert Pattinson in the 2022 film The Batman.
Additionally, a Bible verse (in the King James translation) slowly appears on screen and then stays on for the rest of the video as agents run around pointing guns at empty spaces: “‘The wicked flee when no man pursueth; but the righteous are bold as a lion.’ -Proverbs 28:1”
Let’s put aside the poor choice of which Bruce Wayne alter ego to use (when the best is clearly Will Arnett in The Lego Batman Movie). The use of Proverbs 28:1 is even more ridiculous. Obviously, DHS thinks they are the “righteous” ones in the verse, but they must not be reading very carefully. You can’t claim to be “bold as a lion” while wearing masks, driving unmarked cars, and refusing to identify yourself. And while the wicked might flee when no one pursues them, in this case people are being pursued by DHS agents. So does that mean the people aren’t actually wicked since they’re literally being pursued?
Thus Saith the Lord
Both DHS videos clearly misuse the Bible, twisting the holy words to justify something not intended by the authors. In fact, if DHS keeps reading, they’ll instead find a much stronger case against them with a lot of verses that offer strong critiques of DHS and the Trump administration more broadly. And I don’t even mean they need to keep reading the entire Bible; they could settle for just reading the rest of the Book of Isaiah or merely just finish reading Proverbs 28.
The hermeneutical approach of Noem’s DHS is basically akin to dragging a puppy to a gravel pit and shooting it. Far from an anti-immigrant demagogue, Isaiah instead warns the ancient Israeli Department of Homeland Security that they will fail to defend the nation — not because they didn’t crack down on foreigners but partially because they didn’t welcome them!
“Hide the fugitives, do not betray the refugees,” Isaiah urged of people. “Let the Moabite fugitives stay with you; be their shelter from the destroyer. The oppressor will come to an end, and destruction will cease; the aggressor will vanish from the land.”
“Bring water for the thirsty,” he added. “Bring food for the fugitives. They flee from the sword.”
Isaiah even declared that God would refuse to accept the prayers and religious expressions of those who oppressed others, which should serve as quite a warning to someone misusing a Bible verse to justify oppressing immigrants and refugees.
“When you stretch out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood,” Isaiah wrote, offering a word from God. “Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove your evil deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do good; seek justice; rescue the oppressed; defend the orphan; plead for the widow.”
As for Proverbs 28, even this book of wisdom literature packs quite a prophetic punch that should make DHS squirm. Here are a few other lines from that chapter:
“A ruler who oppresses the poor is like a driving rain that leaves no crops.” (verse 3)
“Better the poor whose walk is blameless than the rich whose ways are perverse.” (verse 6)
“If anyone turns a deaf ear to my instruction, even their prayers are detestable.” (verse 9)
“The rich are wise in their own eyes; one who is poor and discerning sees how deluded they are.” (verse 11)
“When the righteous triumph, there is great elation; but when the wicked rise to power, people go into hiding.” (verse 12)
“Like a roaring lion or a charging bear is a wicked ruler over a helpless people.” (verse 15)
“A tyrannical ruler practices extortion.” (verse 16)
Those who give to the poor will lack nothing, but those who close their eyes to them receive many curses.” (verse 27)
With biblical passages like those, I would be tempted to hide my face too. The only problem for DHS is that God can see through the masks.
As a public witness,
Brian Kaylor
Thank you Brian for taking to time to "test the spirits". Social media continues to platform countless "false prophets" who continue to drag God's name through the mud.