Bush & Religion

Remarks becoming more religious in nature

"I welcome faith to help solve the nation's deepest problems," President Bush told a convention of religious broadcasters last week.

Earlier, in his State of the Union address, he said, "The liberty we prize is not America's gift to the world, it is God's gift to humanity."

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Speaking to the broadcasters in Nashville, Tenn., last week about the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Bush said, "We carried our grief to the Lord Almighty in prayer."

Hours after the shuttle Columbia disintegrated, Bush turned to religion and a quote from the book of Isaiah to help console the nation.

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Expressions of faith and values are familiar ground for American presidents, and this one, who became a born-again Christian in the 1980s after concluding he was drinking too much, is no exception. Yet lately, Bush has gone beyond his usual broad remarks on the power of faith in general to use language and ideas specific to Christianity.

I've noticed this from the beginning of Bush's presidency, as have many others. As an atheist, it grates on my nerves to hear him exhort his gawd. Bush has the right to believe what he wants to believe and he also has the right to say what he wants to say as President. But I'm sick of his religious references.

"This president is using general references and, beyond that, terminology and vocabulary that come straight out of a very particular religious tradition, which is evangelical Christianity," said the Rev. C. Welton Gaddy, a Louisiana pastor and executive director of the Interfaith Alliance Foundation, an umbrella interfaith group.

"I think his rhetoric implies a lack of appreciation for the vast pluralism of religion in this nation," Gaddy said.

Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said Bush speeches have started sounding "more and more like a sermon in a church" and risk alienating significant chunks of his constituency.

"When presidents start to become theologians on a regular basis, they begin to exclude people from their audience," Lynn said.

I don't think it matters at all if Bush "appreciates" the diverse religious opinions contained in the US. As long as he doesn't bring the Church and the State together, he can blather on about how much he loves Gawd and how much Gawd has given us. I think he's already gone too far by asking for federal funds to help religious organizations.

Mr. Lynn should avoid the superficial issue of how many people like Bush for his religious views and focus on matters of government establishment, endorsement, or repression of religion.

Posted by Drizzten at February 19, 2003 10:14 AM