I re-read my own piece to make sure I didn't say what you claim I said, and I did not. I didn't say "in the debates," but "public." This took two forms. One, he said this in the primaries in discussions with a moderator. Second, he said this in his book, then in exceprts for various women's magazines.
And I, also, re-read MY post and within it I stated I heard him say Jesus, both before and after. Just not DURING the debates. I went round and round at work with folks gushing about Bush after his debate in which he 'claimed Jesus Christ as his personal savior'. They were SURE they heard it. They were wrong. I was called a liar. They heard what they WANTED to hear. He said , '...christ...', which is the same as Messiah. Considering the Jews are looking for the Messiah, and not Jesus, his choice of words, 'christ' was a generic term, and thus without reference to WHOM he considered to be The Christ. I KNOW what he meant, as did all Bible-believing Christians did. But he did not say 'JESUS..Christ'. I was disappointed that he didn't say it. I can only think of one reason why: his advisors told him not to. And for THAT reason, I'm inclined to be a little suspicious of anyone who claims he is ENTIRELY led by God. He bowed to pressure from his advisors then, during his greatest audience to date. Why not now?
Look, I'm not bashing our wonderful president, I AM saying that," to LOOK at him as being COMPLETELY LED by God", has NOT been proven to me. I consider him to be A man of God, just not THE man of God. It may be a small difference to some, but it's a big difference to me.
But, then again, who am I to point this out...
By the way, I did very much love your essay. It was well written, and pointed out many of the virtues of our president that have been missing from the previous. I'm sorry if I threw this thread 'off kilter'. My desire was to be wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove.