The Compassionate Community

I had high hopes for The Compassionate Community. The book was written by Jonathan Miller, Democratic State Treasurer of Kentucky. His purpose in writing this book was to find ten values that people on both sides of the aisle should agree on, particularly if they are religious. Miller himself is Jewish (Orthodox) and passionately believes in God. He works in a predominantly Christian state, so he is also very familiar with the teachings of Christianity.

Miller's 10 values are as follows:
-Opportunity
-Responsibility
-Work
-Family
-Freedom
-Faith
-Justice
-Peace
-Respect
-Life

He partners each value with an Old Testament figure and story. I thought this had a lot of potential.

At times, this book is excellent. The Biblical comparisons are right on, and Miller really is well versed in the New Testament as well, and includes a quite a lot of insight for Christians and Jews. He's considerably lighter when it comes to other faiths, however, and perhaps would have been better off making a Judeo-Christian appeal rather than the across-the-board approach he uses in the book. Still, I found these insights enriching.

The problem is when Miller gets down to talking policy. It seems like he may have been campaigning for another role in 2006. He describes a lot of potential bills and regulations but they aren't always well lined up with the value. For example, under freedom, he spends his time arguing for veteran benefits - when his Biblical parallel was about personal freedom (Moses and the Israelites). Under respect, he argues for campaign finance reform, which seems to come out of nowhere. Typically he zeroes in on one particular aspect of each value and describes his plan, rather than looking at several different aspects of each value. This created some moments where I scratched my head in confusion. Why this issue? How did he get to this point?

Still, this book is an interesting read, and I would encourage Christians and Jews who are interested in politics to read this book. I think there's a lot of good material and some decent starting points for common talking points. However, if you are non-religious or non-political, don't bother.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars


39 books, 144 days...at this rate I'll read 99 books