Posted on 10/27/2001 4:03:19 PM PDT by Pokey78
Everyone who knows him will tell you the same thing. George W Bush is a deeply religious man. That's not to say he's pious. His easy nicknames for journalists, his tangled baseball analogies, his constant outbursts of chuckles do not connote a man of solemn devotion. Compared with the ostentatious sanctimony of Jimmy Carter, Bush seems urbane, even sassy.
But this shouldn't fool you. Bush believes that he was personally saved by God from a life of heavy drinking and irresponsibility. From the day Billy Graham took a walk with him and urged him to start his life anew, Bush has been a different man. And since September 11, he has been a different man altogether.
Nobody seems to doubt the spiritual context for this. The day of his speech to Congress on September 20, Bush did not spend the afternoon conferring with aides or even speech-writers. He spent it with religious leaders of all denominations. And at the end of the day, a telling moment occurred. James Merritt, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention, told the president: "I believe you are God's man for this hour. God's hand is on you." The president nodded. "I accept the responsibility," he replied. Whatever others think, this is what Bush believes; not in a messianic way but as one of those odd occurrences that the Almighty sometimes decides to bestow on the unlikeliest of people.
He was like this before September 11. His inaugural speech, when you look back on it, was full of religious imagery. He spoke of an "angel riding in the whirlwind". He invoked "a power larger than ourselves, Who creates us equal in His image". He spoke of "history's Author, Who fills time and eternity with His purpose".
These words come naturally to him. Bush begins most days reading the Bible and is as regular with his private prayers as with the treadmill. "I don't think anyone out there truly understands how important his faith is to this man," one of his aides told me a few months back. Perhaps part of this is due to Bush's life story. He was the first son, but he wasn't the first child in his family. His elder sister died of leukaemia when he was a child, thrusting him into the first-child role he never sought, while his mother grieved and leant on him. He never expected to be in public life and goofed off for years. His younger brother, Jeb, was supposed to be the next president, not W.
And from then on, surprise after surprise. He was not expected to beat an incumbent vice-president at a time of unparalleled prosperity. He did not win the popular vote, and asked himself what it meant that he had become president in such awkward circumstances. He carried on as if the riddle of his good fortune and awesome responsibility would at some point be solved for him.
September 11 solved it. "I think, in his frame, this is what God has asked him to do," a friend of his told The New York Times. "It offers him enormous clarity." Another friend opined that Bush had "begun a new life that is inextricably bound to September 11 and all that it implies". Look at the language Bush has employed. He uses the word "evil" with constant emphasis. Osama Bin Laden is an "evil man", the "evil one".
As Fred Barnes, the political journalist, noticed, the September 20 speech was also an exercise in psychological projection. "In our grief and anger we have found our mission and our moment," Bush said. "The country is called to defend freedom." Nobody needs to ask who had done the calling. Or who, apart from the country, had been called.
Nobody should confuse the faith of George W with more conventional Christian right belief. There are times when Bush seems almost embarrassingly ecumenical. One of his most beloved policy initiatives is the creation of "faith-based" social policy. But, apart from his campaign disaster of giving a speech at the uber-Protestant Bob Jones University, he has bent over backwards to avoid denominational edge. He has insisted that the focus of pro-life work (a view he shares) should not be imposing laws but changing hearts. His early insistence after September 11 that American Muslims deserved respect and protection was not merely good politics and good policy. It was heartfelt.
Like Tony Blair, we ignore this man's spiritual core at our peril. Its main consequence right now has been what insiders are calling a laser-beam concentration on the war on terrorism. Bush believes this is now his mission. It is not a job; it is not an adventure. It is a vocation. Bush seems determined to avoid any hostility with the Democrats. This has many conservatives worried, and it may indeed mean more public spending than is prudent. All this, in his mind, must be subjugated to what God has called him to.
And this, I think, explains the uncanny composure of the man. No president since John Kennedy in 1963 has been put under such intense stress in a national emergency. Yet Bush seems calm and happy. He doesn't stay up all night; he exercises and plays with his dog. His underrated wife plays a part in this. And so, too, do Bush's well-honed executive skills. He knows how to delegate. Above all, like many former drunks, he knows psychologically how to delegate to a higher power.
I don't think it's too great a stretch to see this war as a religious one. It's between the frenzied fanaticism of one man, and the calm, sustaining faith of another. I have no doubt which one will crack first.
A mind in which such a thought occured when reading the article is one which I am glad I do not possess.
Well, that explains a lot. I have no fear of them, nor does my son. We know that we are heterosexuals and as such have nothing to fear. Fear comes from being insecure about your own feelings, you fear that you might like it.
So9
Amen, and amen! Thank you, Lord, for our wonderful President. Please continue to guide him as he leads this nation.
Please continue to keep him safe, and fill him with your wisdom and discernment.
Please keep him humble, realizing that he needs You for this strength.
Have you ever listened to Kirbyjohn Caldwell, President Bush's Pastor? He makes most Southern Baptists sound liberal.
I'm so grateful for Pastor Caldwell, he has prepared our President well.
Oh...I guess you must practice perfection in order to connote "solemn devotion." Pardon me, but I do the same thing and consider myself a pious individual. The characteristics Sullivan is criticizing Bush for are NORMAL human emotions that EVERYONE does, including Andrew. And just in case Andy forgot his own religion, engaging in anal sex is a far more serious sin than calling adam clymer an a**hole. He should pluck the beam from his own eye first.
Don't forget, dear friend, God is IN CHARGE! He saw us through the last election, in spite of outright voter fraud. He put W through the crucible of that election. It seems like a thousand years ago, even just since 9/ll!
As long as President Bush continues to bend his knee, and as long as WE continue to uphold him in prayer, the demonrats WILL NOT prevail!
At the same time, I have found some of his writing narcissistic and self-absorbed -- a quality found in a lot of gay writers. Not surprising. I think at its heart homosexuality is about narcissism.
Much as I love what he writes, I suspect I would not enjoy spending an afternoon with Mr. Sullivan, shooting the breeze. I get the feeling that he believes in the egocentric view of the universe -- everything revolves around him -- a modern day Oscar Wilde. (I may be wrong.)
Still, that does not mean I cannot admire and enjoy his writings. After all, I love Beethoven's music, but I understand that he was a bit much to take, also. Especially downwind.
Jimmuh also SUPPORTS the entire demonrat agenda - partial-birth abortion, clintbilly, and all the rest of their perverted beliefs.
Don't sound too Christian to me.
I always find such considerations important before I apply something to someone else -- or to myself, for that matter.
I'll be interested to hear your response.
Dan
Well, that's where I disagree with him. It obviously
revolves around me and I am unanimous in that.
I used to like Sullivan, inspite of his being gay. I agreed with his politics. That's all I cared about. But then he wrote a bunch of columns that were brutal and unfair. Also, he wrote a colunn, and I apoligize for being so vague but I really don't want to have to go back through his stuff to be more specific, that was supporting gay activity among teens or something. Again, I remember how I felt shocked about it but not the specific words.
If he wants to be gay ....whatever. But, it's an adult subject and I strongly feel that kids should be left out of it. Not in the Boy Scouts. Not in school. That is why I jest about being afraid of them. I get tired of being called names but the gay activism and prostlityzing being done in schools, etc... does scare me.
I think Sullivan is a very smart guy. I would guess that he was introduced to gay sex as a youth and that's why he thinks it's okay. It is not okay.
Then, he wrote about 5 straight articles slamming Jerry Falwell. Falwell's apology just got in Sullivan's way. His agenda came before sincerity and truth. If Sullivan can hate Falwell for his WORDS on a Christian Broadcasting Network then why can't someone hate Sullivan for his WORDS in print? hmm? Seems contradictory to slam someone for only practicing the same technique your admired Sullivan uses. (I use the word "hate" loosely here. I know that gay activists love the word so much so I try to use it as much as I can when discussing the issue.)
Anyway, there have been numerous other areas that he seems to bounce back and forth from conservative to extreme liberal. I've promised myself to remember this trait about him.
Yes, that is exactly right.
-penny
Everything I have read indicates that President Bush was not a heavy drinker or an alcoholic. I took him to a party back in those days, and I don't specifically remember him having any alcohol to drink.
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