Posted on 03/02/2003 9:58:16 AM PST by Brian Mosely
Press Release
| Source: Newsweek |
Newsweek Cover: Bush & God
Sunday March 2, 11:49 am ET
In the March 10 Newsweek cover story, "Bush & God," (on newsstands Monday, March 3), Chief Political Correspondent Howard Fineman writes a "faith portrait" of the president, looking at Bush's background of strong religious faith and belief and how they saved his life and family and shaped a political career and a national government. Every president invokes God and asks His blessing and promises, though not always in so many words, to lead according to moral principles rooted in Biblical tradition. But, Fineman reports, it has taken a war, and the prospect of more, to highlight a central fact: this president -- this presidency -- is the most resolutely "faith-based" in modern times, an enterprise founded, supported and guided by trust in the temporal and spiritual power of God.
In the debate over whether Iraq is a "just war," in Christian terms as laid out by Augustine in the fourth century and amplified by Aquinas, Luther and others, Bush has strong support from his base. Leading advocates for the moral virtue of his position include Richard Land, the key leader of the Southern Baptist Convention's political arm and Michael Novak, the conservative Catholic theologian.
But Bush faces a mighty force of religious leaders on the other side, including the pope, and he will meet with a papal envoy this week, Newsweek has learned. "People appreciate his devotion to faith but, in the context of war, there is a fine line, and he is starting to make people nervous," says Steve Waldman, the editor and CEO of Beliefnet, a popular and authoritative Web site on religion and society. "They appreciate his moral clarity and decisiveness. But they wonder if he is ignoring nuances in what sounds like a messianic mission."
The atmosphere inside the White House, insiders say, is suffused with an aura of prayerfulness. There have always been Bible-study groups there; even Clintonites had one. But the groups are everywhere now, Fineman reports.
The language of good and evil -- central to the war on terrorism -- came about naturally, says David Frum, the author and former Bush speechwriter. From the first, he says, the president used the term "evildoers" to describe the terrorists because some commentators were wondering aloud whether the United States in some way deserved the attack visited upon it on September 11, 2001. "He wanted to cut that off right away," says Frum, "and make it clear that he saw absolutely no moral equivalence. So he reached right into the Psalms for that word." He continued to stress the idea, Fineman reports. Osama Bin Laden and his cohorts were "evil."
In an accompanying essay, Martin E. Marty, a former president of the American Catholic Historical Association and a professor emeritus at the University of Chicago, writes about the effects of Bush's rhetoric on world religious leaders. "One hopes that the Bush people will keep in mind that claims of God's always being on our side are alienating to many former or would-be allies. More dangerous is that Bush's God talk will set the tinderbox that is the Muslim world on fire. Neither the president nor the American Christian majority have to yield their own faith in order to get along, but how they express it matters," Marty writes.
He writes that few doubt Bush is sincere in his faith. "The problem isn't with Bush's sincerity, but with his evident conviction that he's doing God's will."
Marty writes that the billion humans in the Muslim world, leaders and followers alike, had good reason to seethe when the evangelist who prayed at Bush's Inaugural -- and who remains close to the president -- persisted in calling Islam "a very evil and wicked religion." "The administration had to reject that claim -- and it did. Regular appearances by the president at meetings of certain evangelical groups, however, make it hard for friendly Muslims not to hear the word 'Islam' whenever Bush portrays 'terrorists' as absolute evils. And, as evangelical theologian Richard Mouw points out, 'Those inflammatory statements stimulate further antagonism on the part of Muslim extremists,' who can go recruiting among moderates," Marty writes.
A load of codswallop from the leftist press, who simply hate that not only the fact that he is a Christian, but that he actually lives his faith.
In typical NEWSWEEK fashion, the article seeks to imply that Bush is a right wing Christian moron who does'nt understand the world. Fineman can't help himself. He wrote recently about Bush, in college, fighting for the rights of an Indian student who was ridiculed by others in school. Bush stood up for the young student, telling his fellow students "NEVER make fun of this man in my prescence, he has just as much right to be here as you do!"
Instead of remarking upon the courage required to be the the ONLY one to stand up for the under-dog, he critisized Bush for "not taking the opportunity to learn more about the immigrants culture".
Bush took a stand for the man's right to be there, that does'nt mean Bush had to start taking yoga classes with the man.
White House photographers won a lot of bar bets with those pics I guess. "See, they DO go."
Actually, the Clintons went to separate churchs. Bill to Batist and Hillary to the Methodist.
No, the problem is not with Bush's evidence conviction that he's doing God's will, it's that those whose job it IS to do God's will have instead been playing three-dimentional three-card monty with men who want to anally rape small children under color of Church authority.
Thank God we have SOMEONE in charge who actually believes in a real and personal God. Now if we can just get some bishops who believe in one too.
Where exactly does Mr. Bush worship on Sundays when he's in Washington? In a White House chapel, or does he go out to a real church?
The idea that Bush could actually do what he believe God wants him to do...how horrid.
I guess they would feel better if Bush did the opposite of what he believed was God's will, or better yet if he treated Christianity like the hypocrite Clintons....going to church for show everytime you get in trouble... lugging the biggest Bible you can find for the cameras.
Secondly and more important, it might do Mr. Bush some good to get out to a real church and worship with his real constituents. IMHO.
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