What part of “love mercy and walk humbly”
    would you like me to explain more carefully, Mr. Bush?

The Prophet Micah is shrill.

A reader reflects on the gap between BushCo religiosity and BushCo arrogance, and on a means of emphasizing that gap:

There is a verse in Micah that really deserves more publicity than it gets these days of self-righteous religious tub-thumping. “It hath been told thee, O man, what is good, and what the Lord doth require of thee: Only to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.”

I’d like to see people in stadiums hold up signs that say “Micah 6:8” and wave them at the cameras.

My reader would put the stress on “walking humbly with God,” which certainly means, among other things, accepting that facts are facts rather than pretending they aren’t there. I’d make more out of “loving mercy,” when Bush in particular exhibits such delight when he has a good excuse to be cruel.

Either way, I love the idea, and I’m depressed at how unlikely it is to be acted on. Most of the people most active against Bush would feel it somehow wrong to quote chapter and verse, even in a good cause.

Author: Mark Kleiman

Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out. Books: Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken) When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993) Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989) UCLA Homepage Curriculum Vitae Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com

3 thoughts on “What part of “love mercy and walk humbly”
    would you like me to explain more carefully, Mr. Bush?”

  1. Micah 6:8

    The Recursive One quotes scripture, but worries that others won't. Well, I have, at least five times, and I will continue to do so. Wisdom is where you find it. Of course, Mark may not realize that liberals quoting scripture will hear the FCR answer wi…

  3. Sunday Ruminations and an Idea

    In my own journey out of the evangelical world, I have been asked time and again if I still believe in God and if so, what I believe. My standard reply, honed over the years and truly reflective of what

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