Book excerpt: "Go and Do Likewise" by Andy Beshear

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In "Go and Do Likewise: How We Heal a Broken Country" (to be published Tuesday by St. Martin's Press), Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, a Democrat, writes about how the language of faith, which he believes has been co-opted by some politicians, can be used to bridge the nation's partisan divide – and how the parable of the Good Samaritan can be viewed as an instruction to show kindness, not cruelty, to one another.

Read an excerpt below, and don't miss Robert Costa's interview with Andy Beshear on "CBS Sunday Morning" September 20!

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Like almost any guy who came of age in the '80s and '90s, I watched the Indiana Jones movies. The movies are mostly fun adventure stories, but every once in a while, you can find a life lesson. Looking back at it now, I think of a classic scene in the third movie, "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," that to me offers a true understanding of the meaning of faith. At a crucial moment in the film, Dr. Jones is given one chance to select from a large assortment of goblets to find the Holy Grail, the sacred cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper. Before Jones are a multitude of chalices of incredible splendor—bejeweled, golden cups that seemingly would befit the King of Kings. Another character makes her selection on that basis—she chooses the richest and most splendid and her companion pays the price. But Jones homes in on a very different cup to be the Grail, one that he feels would be used by a carpenter—plain, humble, and simple. The knight who serves as the guardian of the Grail famously tells him, "You have chosen wisely."

We all know what goblet Donald Trump would have chosen in that circumstance—the gaudier and more self-aggrandizing, the better. Today, he's turned the Oval Office into a gilded and grotesque cage of excess and bulldozed the historic East Wing of the White House for his ballroom. The president's adult children hawk gold cell phones, and he is willing to take a corrupt gift so he can sit in a luxury 747 that is a "palace in the sky." All while he hurts the struggling middle class, as well as the poor and vulnerable, with his tariffs and big, ugly healthcare cuts. He even goes to court to stop SNAP benefits because he believes that starving Americans is "good leverage" for his political fights.

It is unthinkable that we as a country and the Democratic Party in particular have all but ceded faith and basic morality to a modern-day Pharisee, who condemns those who are different and who says his favorite verse of Scripture (when he can remember any at all) is "an eye for an eye." That's how he sees the world. Vengeful and angry. But that's not how I see it.

As the grandson and great-grandson of Baptist lay ministers, I was taught the parable of the Good Samaritan. It's a wonderful story, and you don't need to be a religious person to appreciate its wisdom. In the story, a man walking from Jerusalem to Jericho is ambushed, stripped, beaten, robbed, and left half-dead on the side of the road.