2
   

Bush: Drawing on the divine

 
 
Reply Wed 5 Mar, 2003 12:45 pm
"It would be dangerous for a president to take a particular theology like that and apply it to world events," says Charles Colson, an evangelical commentator and former Nixon aide."
---------------------------------------
Drawing on the divine
USA Today - 3/10/03

Listening to President Bush's religious rhetoric, some Americans may wonder if they elected a president or a pastor. Critics describe his use of explicitly Christian language and imagery as divisive and exclusionary. But many who share Bush's evangelical brand of Christianity point out that presidents throughout history have given voice to their faith, some far more pointedly. Evangelical leaders see a man who not only talks the talk but walks the walk. "President Bush is comfortable using the language of faith," says Richard Land, head of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, "because it's who he is."

It wasn't always so. Raised an Episcopalian, Bush became a mainline Methodist when he married but underwent a "born-again" conversion in the 1980s after talking with Billy Graham. He gave up drinking and adopted a daily regimen of prayer and Bible reading. The story resonates with evangelicals. Says the Rev. D. James Kennedy, a televangelist and head of Coral Ridge Ministries in Florida: "I'm personally convinced the man has been changed by an encounter with God."

Taking sides. By large margins, evangelical leaders say Bush is right on Iraq. Most say a pre-emptive strike would meet the traditional Christian criteria of a just war, a view from which the nation's Roman Catholic bishops and leaders of mainline Protestant denominations sharply dissent. "The question, as Lincoln said during the Civil War, is not whether God is on our side, but are we on God's?" says Richard Cizik, vice president of the National Association of Evangelicals. "I think President Bush is doing his best to be on God's side."

Still, some wonder if the president might be influenced by evangelical teachings that envision an end-of-the-world battle between Israel and its enemies. "It would be dangerous for a president to take a particular theology like that and apply it to world events," says Charles Colson, an evangelical commentator and former Nixon aide. "I have no reason to believe President Bush has done that." White House spokesman Ari Fleischer has emphasized that Bush makes his judgments on Iraq and other issues as a "secular leader." Even so, Bush's religious allies say they're comforted knowing he seeks divine wisdom. "I sleep more peacefully at night," says Cizik, "knowing that the president is a man who trusts in the Lord." - Jeffery L. Sheler

-----------------------------------------------
Other articles:

The peak of political power: Born-Again Agenda. (12/23/02)

Faith in America: It's as important as ever, no matter what you believe. (5/6/02)

The First Holy War: During the Crusades, East and West first met--on the battlefield. (4/8/02)
  • Topic Stats
  • Top Replies
  • Link to this Topic
Type: Discussion • Score: 2 • Views: 1,147 • Replies: 9
No top replies

 
Dartagnan
 
  1  
Reply Wed 5 Mar, 2003 12:52 pm
I'm glad someone sleeps well right now. God is on our side, eh? Good grief...
0 Replies
 
BumbleBeeBoogie
 
  1  
Reply Wed 5 Mar, 2003 01:00 pm
Bushs: Crusader Babbitt
Crusader Babbitt
by Gene Lyons

"[W]ith relation to the Mind or Understanding, 'tis manifest what mighty Advantages Fiction has over Truth; and the Reason is just at our Elbow, because Imagination can build nobler Scenes, and produce more wonderful Revolutions than Fortune or Nature will be at Expence to furnish... How fading and insipid do all Objects accost us that are not convey'd in the Vehicle of Delusion?"
--Swift, "A Digression Concerning Madness," 1704

Hypocrisy in a politician is universally held to be a very bad thing, religious hypocrisy worst of all. Alas, to Americans holding post-enlightenment world-views, it has come down to this: either we must earnestly pray that George W. Bush is a cunning opportunist merely throwing hay to the great flowing herd of pious cattle who confuse the evening news with the Book of Revelation, or face the prospect that the United States has embarked upon a faith-based foreign policy as distant from reality as the ranting of Osama bin Laden.

Many commentators have noticed that Bush has repeatedly cast the conflict with al Qaeda and Iraq in purely biblical terms--good against evil, "the forces of darkness" against the forces of light, etc. In a speech on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, as Bruce Nolan's article in Sunday's Democrat-Gazette noted, Bush hinted that God was stage-managing the "war on terrorism" for divine purposes. "I believe there is a reason that history has matched this nation with this time," Bush said.

According to Bob Woodward's book, "Bush at War" even in one-on-one interviews "[t]he President was casting his mission and that of the country in the grand vision of God's Master Plan." This observation followed Bush's pronouncement that "[w]e will export death and violence to the four corners of the earth in defense of this great country and rid the world of evil."

Conquering evil is bin Laden's plan too. Even fighting beside the "socialist infidel" Saddam Hussein, he hinted in a taped statement Feb. 11, was permissible "to establish the rule of God on earth." Quoting the Koran, he assured his followers that "'those who believe fight in the cause of Allah, and those who reject faith fight in the cause of evil.' So fight ye against the friends of Satan: feeble indeed is the cunning of Satan."

So have we really been transported back to the 12th century A.D. with Bush as Richard the Lionhearted and Osama/Saddam as Saladin, in a replay of the Third Holy Crusade? We'd better hope not, because although medieval prophets convinced Richard that recapturing Jerusalem from the Muslims would bring about the Second Coming and usher in the millennium, he dragged back to England defeated in 1192.

To bin Laden, who rails against American "crusaders," this happened the day before yesterday. Bush only plays into his hands with statements like the closing line of his 2003 State of the Union speech contending that "the liberty we prize is not America's gift to the world, it is God's gift to humanity."

To Saddam Hussein, a garden variety criminal psychopath and reportedly a big fan of the "Godfather" movies, it's unlikely this signifies much. As grandiose as Stalin, Saddam gives no sign of confusing himself with the deity.

The origins of Bush's flirtation with End Times rhetoric, however, are no more remote than the New York Times Best Seller List, specifically the prophetic novels of Hal Lindsey ("Blood Moon") and Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins' "Left Behind" series. Selling in the millions, these books are a florid updating of a 19th century school of bible-based soothsaying called "premillenial dispensationalism." Radio and TV evangelists, including the ubiquitous Jerry Falwell peddle this gibberish to millions.

Adepts believe, writes historian Paul S. Boyer, that a series of last day signs including "wars, natural disasters, rampant immorality, the rise of a world political and economic order, and the return of the Jews to the land promised by God to Abraham" will signal the Rapture. True Believers will be magically whisked off to heaven, the Antichrist will seize world power--through the United Nations, naturally--thus ushering in the Second Coming, Armageddon and the Millenium.

Ironically, the incomprehensible imagery in Revelation was borrowed from Babylonian (Iraqi) and Zoroastrian (Iranian) myth in the first place. Bush's flirtation with End Times rhetoric makes some suspect that he actually perceives himself as God's instrument. Many Europeans fear they're trapped between rival fundamentalist zealots whose messianic delusions threaten World War III.

Call me naïve, but I hold with hypocrisy. Everything known about Bush apart from his political rhetoric suggests belief in a conventional rich man's God. His idea of paradise is a country club golf course. His public religiosity is precisely calculated to enthrall fundamentalist Christians whose failure to turn out in 1992 led to his father's defeat--the only Armageddon Junior seriously anticipates.
0 Replies
 
au1929
 
  1  
Reply Wed 5 Mar, 2003 04:40 pm
Watching
0 Replies
 
BillW
 
  1  
Reply Wed 5 Mar, 2003 04:46 pm
The fact that Bush is sleeping well, IMHO, points to exactly how erratic this man is!
0 Replies
 
au1929
 
  1  
Reply Sun 9 Mar, 2003 03:20 pm
Maybe he should convert. His God seems to be telling it to him all wrong. Laughing Laughing Laughing
0 Replies
 
PDiddie
 
  1  
Reply Sun 9 Mar, 2003 08:54 pm
As war with Iraq draws inexorably closer, President Bush is described by friends as not just determined, but surprisingly serene about the most profound decision he will likely ever make.

--New York Daily News

People who have met with Mr. Bush have been struck by his tranquillity. "You would never have known that he was sitting on a powder keg," said Don Hewitt, the executive producer of "60 Minutes," who recently spent 15 minutes with Mr. Bush in the Oval Office. "He was amazingly calm and wanted to talk about Harry Truman and not Saddam Hussein."

--New York Times

"You may find this curious." Chilton took a strip of EKG tape from a drawer and unrolled it on his desk. He traced the spiky line with his forefinger. "Here, he's resting on the examining table. Pulse seventy-two. Here, he grabs the nurse's head and pulls her down to him. Here, he is subdued by the attendant. He didn't resist, by the way, though the attendant dislocated his shoulder. Do you notice the strange thing. His pulse never got over eighty-five. Even when he tore out her tongue."

--Thomas Harris, from Red Dragon, the first novel about Hannibal Lecter
0 Replies
 
snood
 
  1  
Reply Sun 9 Mar, 2003 08:58 pm
Interesting trio of references, diddie. Jeez, I hope this guy is smarter than he looks. We're going to war next week, in all liklihood.
0 Replies
 
BillW
 
  1  
Reply Mon 10 Mar, 2003 10:43 am
I think he is a psychopath - for sure!
0 Replies
 
PDiddie
 
  1  
Reply Mon 10 Mar, 2003 07:11 pm
Candidly, when it comes time to decide whether to launch an attack that will likely lead to the deaths of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, I don't want a leader who is "serene" about it.

That just tells me he doesn't appreciate the gravity of the decision he's making.
0 Replies
 
 

Related Topics

Obama '08? - Discussion by sozobe
Let's get rid of the Electoral College - Discussion by Robert Gentel
McCain's VP: - Discussion by Cycloptichorn
Food Stamp Turkeys - Discussion by H2O MAN
The 2008 Democrat Convention - Discussion by Lash
McCain is blowing his election chances. - Discussion by McGentrix
Snowdon is a dummy - Discussion by cicerone imposter
TEA PARTY TO AMERICA: NOW WHAT?! - Discussion by farmerman
 
  1. Forums
  2. » Bush: Drawing on the divine
Copyright © 2025 MadLab, LLC :: Terms of Service :: Privacy Policy :: Page generated in 0.03 seconds on 01/06/2025 at 04:40:45