As Farai Chideya noted in her Aug. 26 column, George W. Bush's actions
vis-a-vis drugs do matter. I'm not talking about the logical conflict
between any alleged cocaine use and his enactment of severe drug laws
as a Texas governor. It's a more basic moral disconnect that bothers
me.

Bush claims to be a devout Christian. The moral disconnect I see is
this: Bush's claim of being a faithful Christian versus his endorsing
laws of disproportionate severity, in violation of Christian doctrine.

Early Judaism distinguished itself from the surrounding pagan world by
adopting a simple but profound moral principle: "an eye for an eye,
and a tooth for a tooth," which means that a society may mete out
punishments only on the basis of tangible harms (not to make symbolic
statements, and not for vulgar vengeance), and only in proportion to
the degree of harm the individual lawbreaker actually caused.
Christianity says punishments more severe than this are immoral.

Draconian drug laws like those enacted by Bush violate this
fundamental principle. And the lives of very real people have been
ruined as a result (see www.november.org/wall.html).

It's worse, of course, if Bush has done that for which he wants others
punished so severely. But it's bad either way. Flannery O'Connor's
colorful Southern character Haze Motes offered a fitting response to
such religious hypocrisy: "If you're redeemed, I don't wanna be." Just
so, Mr. Bush.

Paul M. Bischke
St. Paul