I Kings 3:16-27 One day two women came to King Solomon, and one said:

“Your Majesty, this woman and I live in the same house. Not long ago my baby was born at home, and three days later her baby was born. Nobody else was there with us. One night while we were asleep, she rolled over on her baby, and he died. Then while I was still asleep, she got up and took my son out of my bed. She put him in her bed, then she put her dead baby next to me.

In the morning when I got up to feed my son, I saw he was dead. But when I looked at him in the light, I knew he was not my son.”

“No!” the other woman shouted. “He was your son. My baby is alive!”

“The dead baby is your,” the first woman yelled. “Mine is alive.”

They argued back and forth in front of Solomon, until he finally said, “Both of you say this live baby is yours. Someone bring me a sword.”

A sword was brought, and Solomon ordered, “Cut the baby in half! That way each of you can have a part of him.”

“Please do not kill my son,” the baby’s mother screamed.  “Your Majesty, I love him very much, but give him to her. Just don’t kill him.”

The other woman shouted, “Go ahead and cut him in half. Then neither of us will have the baby.”

Solomon said, “Do not kill the baby.” Then he pointed to the first woman, “She is his real mother. Give the baby to her.”

With the impasse in Congress and perhaps the sad state of American politics in general, I can not but help think of this passage.