Henry David Thoreau famously opined, “The government that governs best, governs least.” This maxim has become enshrined in American mythology as the cowboy ethos. The image of the self-sufficient cowboy who needs nothing or no one became a national hero. The law just “fences him in.” It is, of course, bunk. As another maxim (from John Donne) reminds us “no man is an island.” To be a human being is to be connected. That explains the great value that the Bible puts on law — it shows us how to live together. Moses said: What great nation has statutes and decrees that are as just as this whole law. Jesus said: “Whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.” As another great prophet, Tina Turner, told us “we don’t need another hero.” It is not a superman who will get us out of our current mess. It is rather all of us working together, caring for one another and in particular for the most vulnerable, who will transform our world into a little closer approximation of the kingdom of God.
