In yet another sign of conservative politicians and clergy attempting to discredit and eliminate the month of June as LGBTQ Pride Month, Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis released a proclamation declaring June as “Faith and Family Month.” In the proclamation, DeSantis declared that “the Biblical family unit became the initial God-ordained earthly institution providing the model for a thriving society.”

DeSantis’ proclamation smacks of hypocrisy at best since he violates many “Biblical” decrees on a daily basis.

For example, the Bibles (Hebrew Bible and Christian Testaments) command us to treat the stranger as oneself. This is rooted in the Hebrew Bible regarding the treatment of outsiders. It is connected specifically to the Golden Rule and echoed by Jesus in the Christian testaments.

Leviticus 19:33-34: “When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.”

As governor, Ron DeSantis led the charge to pass the nation’s strictest and most aggressive state-level crackdowns on undocumented immigrants by deputizing state and local law enforcement officers and allocating hundreds of millions of dollars for rounding them up, incarcerating them, and deporting them out of the United States.

I don’t think his actions would be considered “Biblical” in the loosest sense.

And regarding the Bible’s command to “take care of the least among you” stemming from Jesus’ teaching on the final judgment in the Book of Matthew explaining that serving marginalized people and communities is equal to serving Jesus directly:

Matthew 25:40: “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.'”

The least among us, in Biblical contexts, referred to people who are hungry,........

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