George Bush - Presidential Preacher

[Guest BlackJesus]

[img]http://www.baptiststandard.com/2003/2_17/images/bush_portrait.jpg[/img]
ALABAMA artist Frank Bear illustrated support for George W. Bush as a follower of Jesus Christ by this work, titled "Our Christian President." The artist pieced together individual portraits of Jesus Christ to make the image of President Bush. Despite criticism, Bear insists the artwork is not blasphemous.



[img]http://bryanhurst.com/v-web/b2/images/bush_jesus.jpg[/img]
[u]GEORGE W. BUSH:
Presidential preacher
Baptist Standard
By Deborah Caldwell
Beliefnet[/u]

WASHINGTON (RNS)--In the spring of 1999, as George W. Bush prepared to announce his run for president, he agreed to be interviewed about his religious faith--grudgingly. "I want people to judge me on my deeds, not how I try to define myself as a religious person of words," he said.

Since taking office, however, Bush's personal faith has turned highly public, arguably more so than any modern president. It's not just that Bush is talking about God but that he's talking about God differently.

Bush's public theology has shifted from talking mostly about a Wesleyan theology of "personal transformation" to describing a Calvinist "divine plan" laid out by a sovereign God for the country and himself.

At the National Prayer Breakfast Feb. 6, for instance, Bush said: "We can be confident in the ways of Providence. ... Behind all of life and all of history, there's a dedication and purpose, set by the hand of a just and faithful God."

Sixteenth century Reformer John Calvin, whose ideas are critical to contemporary evangelical thought, focused on the idea of a powerful God who governs "the vast machinery of the whole world."

Bush has made several statements indicating he believes God is involved in world events and that he and America have a divinely guided mission.

After Bush's Sept. 20, 2001, speech to Congress, Bush speechwriter Mike Gerson called the president and said: "Mr. President, when I saw you on television, I thought, 'God wanted you there.'" "He wants us all here, Gerson," the president responded.

In that speech, Bush said, "Freedom and fear, justice and cruelty, have always been at war, and we know that God is not neutral between them." The implication: God will intervene on the world stage, mediating between good and evil.

At the prayer breakfast, during which he talked about God's impact on history, Bush also said he felt "the presence of the Almighty" while comforting the families of the shuttle astronauts during the Houston memorial service Feb. 4.

In his State of the Union address last month, Bush said the nation puts its confidence in the loving God "behind all of life and all of history" and that "we go forward with confidence, because this call of history has come to the right country. May he guide us now."

In addition to these public statements indicating a divine intervention in world events, there is evidence Bush believes his election as president was a result of God's acts.

A month after the World Trade Center attack, World magazine, a conservative Christian publication with a Calvinist theology, quoted Tim Goeglein, deputy director of White House public liaison, saying, "I think President Bush is God's man at this hour, and I say this with a great sense of humility." Time magazine reported, "Privately, Bush even talked of being chosen by the grace of God to lead at that moment."

The net effect is a theology that seems to imply that God is intervening in events, is on America's side, and has chosen Bush to be in the White House at this critical moment.

That pleases some and sounds dangerous to others.

"All sorts of warning signals ought to go off when a sense of personal chosenness and calling gets translated into a sense of calling and mission for a nation," said Robin Lovin, a United Methodist ethicist and professor of religion and political thought at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. What the president seems to be lacking, he said, is theological humility and an awareness of moral ambiguity.

But Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, argued Bush's sense of divine oversight is part of why he has become such a good wartime leader--he brings a moral clarity and self-confidence that inspires Americans and scares enemies.

"We don't inhabit that relativist universe" of European leaders, Land said. "We really believe some things are good and some things bad."

It's even possible that Bush's belief in America's moral rightness makes the country's military threats seem more genuine because the world thinks Bush is "on a mission."

Presidents always have used Scripture in their speeches as a source of poetry and morality, according to Michael Waldman, President Clinton's chief speechwriter, author of "POTUS Speaks" and now a visiting professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

Lincoln, he said, was the first president to use the Bible extensively in his speeches. One of the main reasons was that his audience knew the Bible; Lincoln was using what was then common language. Theodore Roosevelt, in his 1912 speech to the Progressive Party, closed with these words: "We stand at the edge of Armageddon." Presidents Carter, Reagan and Clinton all used Scripture, but Waldman labeled their use more as a "grace note."

Bush is different, Waldman said, because he uses theology as the guts of his argument. "That's very unusual in the long sweep of American history."

Many Americans know the president had a religious conversion at age 39, when he, as he describes it, "came to the Lord" after a weekend of talks with Billy Graham. Within a year, he gave up drinking and joined a men's Bible study group at First United Methodist Church in Midland. From that point on, he has often said, his Christian faith has grown.

Less well known is that, in 1995, soon after he was elected Texas governor, Bush sent a memo to his staff, asking them to stop by his office to look at a painting titled "A Charge to Keep" by W.H.D. Koerner, lent to him by Joe O'Neill, a friend from Midland.

The painting is based on the Charles Wesley hymn of the same name, and Bush told his staff he especially liked the second verse: "To serve the present age, my calling to fulfill; O may it all my powers engage to do my Master's will."

Bush said those words represented their mission. "What adds complete life to the painting for me is the message of Charles Wesley that we serve one greater than ourselves."

By 1999, Bush was saying he believed in a "divine plan that supersedes all human plans." He talked of being inspired to run for president by a sermon delivered by the Mark Craig, pastor of Highland Park United Methodist Church in Dallas.

Craig talked about the reluctance of Moses to become a leader. But then as now, the pastor said, people were "starved for leadership"--leaders who sacrifice to do the right thing. Bush said the sermon "spoke directly to my heart and talked about a higher calling." But in 1999, as he prepared to run for president, he was quick to add in an interview: "Elections are determined by human beings."

Land recalls being part of a group of about a dozen people who met after Bush's second inauguration as Texas governor in 1999.

At the time, everyone in Texas was talking about Bush's potential to become the next president. During the meeting, Land recalled, Bush said, "I believe God wants me to be president, but if that doesn't happen, it's OK." Land points out that Bush didn't say that God actually wanted him to be president. He merely said he believed God wanted him to be president.

Bush's religious talk causes some to be uneasy about whether he sees himself as a political leader or a religious leader.

"Sometimes Bush comes close to crossing the line of trying to serve the nation as its religious leader, rather than its political leader," said Welton Gaddy, president of the Interfaith Alliance, a clergy-led liberal lobbying group.

European leaders seem to be bothered by Bush's rhetoric, and it has been cited as fueling suspcion in Islamic countries that Bush is on an anti-Islamic "crusade."

Radwan Masmoudi, executive director of the Washington-based Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy, worries about it.

"Muslims all over the world are very concerned that the war on terrorism is being hijacked by right-wing fundamentalists and transformed into a war, or at least a conflict, with Islam," he said. "President Bush is a man of faith, and that is a positive attribute, but he also needs to learn about and respect the other faiths, including Islam, in order to represent and serve all Americans."

In hindsight, even Bush's inaugural address presaged his emerging theology. He quoted a colonist who wrote to Thomas Jefferson: "We know the race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong. Do you not think an angel rides in the whirlwind and directs this storm?"

Then Bush said: "Much time has passed since Jefferson arrived for his inauguration. The years and changes accumulate, but the themes of this day he would know, 'our nation's grand story of courage and its simple dream of dignity.'

"We are not this story's author, who fills time and eternity with his purpose. Yet his purpose is achieved in our duty, and our duty is fulfilled in service to one another. Never tiring, never yielding, never finishing, we renew that purpose today; to make our country more just and generous; to affirm the dignity of our lives and every life.

"This work continues. This story goes on. And an angel still rides in the whirlwind and directs this storm."

[Guest BlackJesus]

[img]http://tinypic.com/ak9w7m.jpg[/img]

[Guest BlackJesus]

[img]http://tinypic.com/ak9wk6.jpg[/img]

[Guest BengalBacker]

Bill told Hillary he was ministering to Monica.

[Guest BengalBacker]

Which Presidents were atheist?

[url="http://www.adherents.com/adh_presidents.html"]http://www.adherents.com/adh_presidents.html[/url]

[Guest BlackJesus]

[quote]Which Presidents were atheist?

[url="http://www.adherents.com/adh_presidents.html"]http://www.adherents.com/adh_presidents.html[/url][/quote]


[i]you mean according to ...
[img]http://www.adherents.com/images/adherents.jpg[/img]

All of our presidents were religious [/i]



[i]"The Bible is not my book nor Christianity my profession. I could never give assent to the long, complicated statements of Christian dogma."[/i]
[b]--- Abraham Lincoln, American president [/b]


[i]"And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerve in the brain of Jupiter. But may we hope that the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in these United States will do away with this artificial scaffolding, and restore to us the primitive and genuine doctrines of this most venerated reformer of human errors."[/i]
[b]--–Thomas Jefferson, Letter to JohnAdams, April 11, 1823 [/b]


[i]“The United States of America should have a foundation free from the influence of clergy.”[/i][b]--- President George Washington[/b]


[i]"This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there wereno religion in it." [/i]
[b]--- John Adams, U.S. President[/b]


[i]"I do not believe in the divinity of Christ, and there are many other of the postulates of the orthodox creed to which I cannot subscribe."[/i]
[b]--- President William Howard Taft[/b]



[b][color="blue"]Oh but there is good ol Jefferson Davis[/color][/b]

[i]“We recognize the Negro the way God, and God's Book and God's Laws, in nature, tell us to recognize him -- our inferior, fitted expressly for servitude.”[/i]
[b]--- Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy[/b]

[Guest BlackJesus]

[i][b]Also yes many US presidents were Deists but that is a huge difference from Bush. Bush thinks Jesus talks through him personally.... and he is the worst kind of convert....

one who finds Jesus after 39 years of snorting coke off of Urinals... so he feels he needs to tell everyone about it [/b][/i]

[Guest BlackJesus]

[i]"The free school is the promoter of that intelligence which is to preserve us as a nation. If we were to have another contest in the near future of our national existence, I predict that the dividing line will not be Mason's and Dixon's, but between patriotism and intelligence on one side, and superstition, ambition and ignorance on the other. Let us all labor to add all needful guarantees for the more perfect security of FREE THOUGHT, FREE SPEECH AND FREE PRESS, pure morals, unfettered religious sentiments, and of equal rights and privileges to all men, irrespective of nationality, color or religion. Encourage free schools, [color="red"]and resolve that not one dollar of money be appropriated to the support of any sectarian school.[/color] Resolve that neither the State nor nation, or both combined, shall support institutions of learning other than those sufficient to afford every child growing up in the land the opportunity of a good common education, unmixed with sectarian, pagan or atheistical tenets. Leave the matter of religion to the family altar, the Church, and the private schools, supported entirely by private contributions. KEEP CHURCH AND STATE FOREVER SEPARATE."[/i]
[b]--- President Ulysses S. Grant[/b]

[Guest BlackJesus]

[quote][i]One of the embarrassing problems for the early nineteenth-century champions
of the Christian faith was that not one of the first six Presidents of the United
States was an orthodox Christian.[/i][b]- The Encyclopedia Brittanica[/b][/quote]

[Guest BengalBacker]

Hey, I'm with ya in principle. Just seems like a lot of liberals (not talking about you in this instance) completely ignore their candidate's claims of religion while they bash anyone on the right who claims to believe.

I wish religion was left out of politics and it's definitely one of the things I'm not with Bush on.

[Ben]

[quote name='BengalBacker' date='Aug 14 2005, 08:39 PM']I wish religion was left out of politics a
[right][post="130858"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post][/right][/quote]


Too easy to get votes that way..... Say you hate fags and blam! thats good for at least 10 million votes.

[Guest BengalBacker]

[quote name='Ben' date='Aug 14 2005, 08:58 PM']Too easy to get votes that way.....  Say you hate fags and blam!  thats good for at least 10 million votes.
[right][post="130874"][/post][/right][/quote]


Which candidate said that?

[Homer_Rice]

I think Eisenhower did.

[img]http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/6261/eisen0wb.jpg[/img]

[Guest BengalBacker]

[quote name='Homer_Rice' date='Aug 14 2005, 09:27 PM']I think Eisenhower did.

[img]http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/6261/eisen0wb.jpg[/img]
[right][post="130891"][/post][/right][/quote]


[img]http://forum.go-bengals.com/public/style_emoticons//31.gif[/img]

[Guest steggyD]

What I find funny is that in another thread, BJ would be calling some of those Presidents slave owning Christians. And then he'll quote them when it helps him in another thread.

[Guest BlackJesus]

[quote]What I find funny is that in another thread, BJ would be calling some of those Presidents slave owning Christians. And then he'll quote them when it helps him in another thread.[/quote]

[i][b]I am not quoting them because I admire them... I am quoting them to show that all the Presidents were not Christian.... [/b][/i]

[|Bunghole|]

Who cares?
Politics will tilt this way and that, and sometimes that will include religious overtones...
...I've stopped watching...it is amazing how much more accurate your opinion is if you watch the news with the sound off....

[Guest BlackJesus]

[quote]Who cares?[/quote]

[color="green"][i][b]We all should it... t affects the way that Bush runs the country. He thinks that he is literally a messanger of God (this can be bad when it comes to admitting mistakes) he also only sees things as good and evil (this can be bad when compromising, and understanding foriegn policy decisions).[/b][/i][/color]

[i]''I believe God wants me to run for president.” [/i]
[b]--- George W. Bush[/b]


[i]"Events aren't moved by blind change and chance'', but by ''the hand of a just and faithfulGod.'' [/i]
[b]--- George W. Bush [/b]

[b](I guess this includes his fuckups and bombing of others) [/b]


[i]"Therefore, I, George W. Bush, Governor of Texas, do hereby proclaim June 10, 2000, Jesus Day in Texas and urge the appropriate recognition whereof, In official recognition whereof, I hereby affix my signature this 17th day of April, 2000." [/i]
[b]--- George W. Bush, "Jesus Day 2000" Proclamation [/b]


[i]“God told me to strike at al Qaeda and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East. If you help me I will act, and if not, the elections will come and I will have to focus on them.” [/i]
[b]--- George W. Bush[/b]

[|Bunghole|]

Anything that speeds up Armaggedon and accelerates my death and reunification with the essence of The Divine Spirit and my family the happier I am.

[The Scales]

I wonder how many lives dubya has sent to the maker?

Whatever the number, Jesus ain't happy.

[Guest steggyD]

For one, I don't think GW is a true Christian, and he knows it. He is merely using it to get votes from the far right. It's all part of his act. Even Bill was a "Christian", but he clearly broke the rules of his Church by getting a bj outside of marriage.

And secondly, ok, there is no second.

[The Scales]

Eh, your right steggs.

But there's no way that gettin some tang on the side is in the same ballpark as "life Takin."



Don't worry Black your boy georgie poo will get his. Old Scratch is gonna have a fantastic ride set up for Jr. when he gets home. [img]http://forum.go-bengals.com/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/3.gif[/img]

[Guest steggyD]

I wasn't comparing the acts. I was merely showing how "Christian" these Presidents really are.