MSNBC: Specifics of Bush's faith remain a mystery

[gauguin57]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6014570/

snip:

"George W. Bush is among the most openly religious presidents in U.S. history. A daily Bible reader, he often talks about how Jesus changed his heart. He has spoken, publicly and privately, of hearing God's call to run for the presidency and of praying for God's help since he came into office.

But despite the centrality of Bush's faith to his presidency, he has revealed only the barest outline of his beliefs, leaving others to sift through the clues and make assumptions about where he stands.

Bush has said many times that he is a Christian, believes in the power of prayer and considers himself a "lowly sinner." But White House aides said they do not know whether the president believes that: the Bible is without error; the theory of evolution is true; homosexuality is a sinful choice; only Christians will go to heaven; support for Israel is a biblical imperative; or the war in Iraq is part of God's plan.

Some political analysts think there is a shrewd calculation behind these ambiguities. By using such phrases as the "culture of life," Bush signals to evangelical Protestants and conservative Catholics that he is with them, while he avoids taking explicit stands that might alienate other voters or alarm foreign leaders. ..."



"Maybe if I pretend to be praying, no one will notice that I've come to church hung over again, and can't help nodding off."

[BlueEyedSon]

1. This book explains it all (Bush's Christian Values)

and it's all inconsistant BS.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0452286220/qid=1095343279/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/103-6828763-3250227?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

[Catfight]

2. The religious fright wingers are the real terrorist of the world. n/t

[Ready4Change]

3. The only mystery in Bush's religion to me is...

Why hasn't his God smitten him for all the things this administration is doing in his name?

Then again Florida, and Bush's brother, seem to be getting some bad rolls of the ol' hurricane dice. Hmm...

[chelsea0011]

4. Bush is like many others with religious beliefs

they conform beliefs when it suits them. Bush is one constant lie, smirks at people about to be executed, and all and all lives a fairly immoral life. But he portrays himself as Christian. It is a facade.:evilgrin: :evilgrin: :evilgrin:

[mbali]

5. It's no mystery at all

"{Scripture tells us} 'It is not enough, my brother, to say you have faith, when there are no deeds. Faith without works is dead.' As you know, my friends, we are taught to walk by faith not by sight.

"And when we look around us – when we look around neighborhoods and towns and cities all across this country, we see faith to be lived out, and so many deeds to be done . . . We look at what is happening in America today and forget to ask: Where are the deeds? Where is the substance in our faith?
. . .

"The fact is, the wrong choices of the Bush Administration – reduced taxes for the few and reduced opportunities for the middle class and those struggling to join it – are taking us back to two Americas -- separate and unequal. Our cities and communities are being torn apart by forces just as divisive and destructive as Jim Crow – crumbling schools robbing our children of their potential…rising poverty…rising crime, drugs and violence. I say again: Where are the deeds? Where is the substance in our faith?

"Four years ago, George Bush came to office calling himself a 'compassionate conservative.' Well, in the story of the Good Samaritan we are told of two men who pass by or cross to the other side of the street when they come upon a robbed and beaten man. They felt compassion, but there were no deeds. Then the Good Samaritan gave both his heart and his help.

It is clear: For four years, George W. Bush may have talked about compassion, but he’s walked right by. He’s seen people in need, but he’s crossed over to the other side of the street.

John Kerry - National Baptist Convention, September 9, 2004

[Sugarbleus]

6. LOL--->"Maybe if I pretend to be praying.......

It is Written....... Rove and gang dusted him off and made him APPEAR to be a Christian, spouting all the rhetoric et al, then Placed him into the oval office. Bush has NO clue about spiritual matters.

Bush is no more a Christian than Madeline Murray Ohare. It's a ruse.

Frankly, I'm leaning more towards the "The Aliens Have Taken Human Form" theme. :smoke:

[gauguin57]

7. From 2000, an article that blew lid off "Mister Christian" Bush

http://gailsheehy.com/Politics/polimain_bush3.html

If anyone missed this great story from Vanity Fair in 2000, check it out. It told me all I needed to know about Bush's alleged "Christian conversion..."

snip:

" ...Their businesses were sinking, the men were fighting middle age, and their traditional marriages—bolstered by enough family wealth that their wives didn't have to work—were nonetheless beginning to come apart. Bush's drinking had become more than just an embarrassment to the whole family. ...

In 1985, Don Evans urged Bush to join a new kind of men's group—a franchised Community Bible Study program for men, a precursor to the Promise Keepers. "That was a very pivotal time for George," Laura Bush has said. "For the first time weren't just spending their time sitting around, kicking back with hamburgers and beer." But Jones doesn't remember Bush taking that spiritual exercise very seriously either. The pastor would ask a question from the lesson: "What happened to the Jew on his way to Jericho?"

"He got his butt whipped," Bush shot back.

And when his attention span was exceeded, he set his watch to go off in the middle of the pastor's spiel. The other men guffawed, and the following week they all set their watches and the class turned into a cacophony of alarm bells. Jones, who can point to the exact date when he became a born-again Christian, never heard Bush describe a conversion experience....
Two strong women in his life have taken on the soul-wrestling job for Bush—his mother and his wife. Barbara Bush is in charge of mythmaking. Probably mindful of Big George's savaging by the Christian right, Mrs. Bush told reporters that her son has always read the Bible. (Bush challenged that myth in a recent interview with The Washington Post: "No, I wasn't reading the Bible when I was younger.") It is also his mother who likes to tell the conversion story ..."

[ClintonTyree]

8. I've always said....................

that Bush's conversion was one of convenience, not of conviction. He fucked up so much in is earlier years that he needed to find a loophole that would get him out of the shit. Voila! Christianity! Perfect! Absolved of all sins, a completely clean slate. Isn't Born Again Christianity great!!

[gauguin57]

9. And people TOTALLY BUY THIS CRAP!

Just this morning, NPR was interviewing a woman (as part of a report on rural voters) who said she was going with Bush because he's a good Christian.

I wanted to throw my clock radio across the room!

[NV1962]

10. Hey, that's plagiarism!

Oh wait - it's a reprint.

Nevermind! :hi:

Seriously - I don't know which of the two here is more troubling: that the Xian Taliban is so well-positioned nowadays that the idea of their success in creating Ameristan isn't entirely ridiculous, or that the interest in religion that so many people apparently have in this country doesn't come with a high degree of critical introspection -- normally inherent to religious fervor -- that would expose coarse frauds like W...

Sad that a dry drunk is driving the country into bizarre crusades while the mainstream press toils in the dictatorship of a conventional wisdom that doesn't even want to dare and portray him as the latter day Nero that he is: a dull brute obsessed with redemption for a lifelong career of deceit and miserable failure.

Funny, Hollywood makes perfect sense as a simile to explain American politics: another remarkably successful industry of liars and pretenders making tons of money over the backs of gullible masses, desperately searching for vicarious experiences they deny themselves in the first place... The power of persuading people to not engage their brains and conscience.

And the kicker is that W is egging the crowd on to mock "Old Europe" and its much older tradition of institutionalized incompetence, that is fueled by exactly the same habit of myopic abnegation.

Selling medieval madness as progress, what a concept!