By Michael Brenner
On a whim over the July 4 holiday, I wrote to a cross-section of our leaders and celebrities requesting that they tell us what passage of the BIBLE they find most moving and touches their lives most directly. The response was remarkable – all except 1 replied. Jill Biden emailed that, unfortunately, Joe was using the long weekend to catch up on his napping. She did call attention to what she knew were his favorite verses. A few people replied by citing their favorite quote from Shakespeare. It is comforting to see that the persons who shape the world we live in spend their free time immersed in the Good Book to draw spiritual uplift and inspiration to guide them in their future labors on our behalf.
“He that endureth to the end shall be saved.” Joe BIDEN
“Be ye angry and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath.” Donald TRUMP
“For we walk by faith, not by sight” Tony BLINKEN
“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much” Kamala HARRIS
“The Truth will make you free” Boris JOHNSON
“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” Michael COHEN
“Let someone else praise you, and not your own mouth; an outsider, and not your own lips” Emmanuel MACRON
“Why hast Thou foresaken me?” Volodymyr ZELENSKY
“Seek – and ye will find” EXXONMobil CEO Darren WOODS
“Do not wear yourself out to get rich; do not trust your own cleverness” Klaus SCHWAB (DAVOS)
“Ask – and you shall be given” General Lloyd AUSTIN (To Zelensky)
“Before honor is humility” RONALDO
“Calumnies are answered best with silence” MESSI
“There’s place and means for everyman alive” Olof SCHULZ
“A kind of excellent dumb discourse” Justin TRUDEAU
“The Meek shall inherit the Earth” Merrick GARLAND
“Judge not, and ye shall not be judged” Robert MUELLER
“Forgive them; for they know not what they do” William BARR
“Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” Hillary CLINTON
“To sin is human, to forgive is Divine” Ghislaine MAXWELL
“Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might.” Victoria NULAND
“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.” Ursula (Bonaparte)von der LEYEN
“Better to be lowly in spirit along with the oppressed than to share plunder with the proud” Jeremy CORBYN
“If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves”
“He shall rule them with a rod of iron” Keir (33%) STARMER
“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed.” BIDEN (NATO Summit)
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you” Jens STOLTENBERG (To Moldovans)
“Except ye become as little children, ye will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” Mark ZUCKERBERG
“Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it” Marine LePEN/Sue Ellen BRAVERMAN
“In the beginning, there was darkness” Ted LAKE Chairman, Texas Public Utility Commission
“Let there be light!” Greg ABBOTT to Ted Lake
“Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image” Taylor SWIFT
“It is more blessed to give than to receive” Jerome POWELL, Chairman U.S. Federal Reserve Bank
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law; I have not come to abolish it but to fulfill it.” John ROBERTS
“Guilty is a word unspoken except where innocence dares to pleas” Judge Aileen CANNON
“He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.” Barack OBAMA
“The last shall be first, and the first shall be last” Christopher JOHNSON Owner of the New York Jets
“Put not your trust in princes.” Julien ASSANGE
“Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient” Samuel ALITO
‘And he gathered them together in a place called Armageddon” J.D. VANCE
“Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge” Jack SMITH
“Set your minds on things above, not Earthly things” Eldon MUSK
“I have sinned, for I have betrayed innocent blood” Abu ABBAS
“With Faith, everything is possible” MEGHAN MARKLE
“And a child shall lead them” Gabriel ATTAL (Fr)
“He who lives by the sword, shall die by the sword” Yoav GALLANT
“They devoted the city to the Lord and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys….Cursed before the Lord is the one who undertakes to rebuild this city” Benjamin NETANYAHU
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Michael Brenner
Michael Brenner is Professor Emeritus of International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh and a Fellow of the Center for Transatlantic Relations at SAIS/Johns Hopkins. He was the Director of the International Relations & Global Studies Program at the University of Texas. Brenner is the author of numerous books, and over 80 articles and published papers. His most recent works are: Democracy Promotion and Islam; Fear and Dread In The Middle East; Toward A More Independent Europe ; Narcissistic Public Personalities & Our Times. His writings include books with Cambridge University Press (Nuclear Power and Non-Proliferation), the Center For International Affairs at Harvard University (The Politics of International Monetary Reform), and the Brookings Institution (Reconcilable Differences, US-French Relations In The New Era).