{"id":2151,"date":"2004-07-19T11:42:57","date_gmt":"2004-07-19T16:42:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/2151.html"},"modified":"2004-07-19T11:42:57","modified_gmt":"2004-07-19T16:42:57","slug":"bush-believes-god-speaks-through-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/bush-believes-god-speaks-through-him\/","title":{"rendered":"Bush believes God speaks through him"},"content":{"rendered":"

I know this quote<\/a> has appeared everywhere, but I wanted to pass it along anyway.<\/p>\n

President Bush met privately with a group of Old Order Amish during his visit to Lancaster County [Pennsylvania] last Friday. He discussed their farms and their hats and his religion. He asked them to vote for him in November.<\/p>\n

The Amish told the president that not all members of the church vote but they would pray for him.<\/p>\n

Bush had tears in his eyes when he replied. He said the president needs their prayers. He also said that having a strong belief in God is the only way he can do his job.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

At the end of the session, Bush reportedly told the group, “I trust God speaks through me. Without that, I couldn’t do my job.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I respect Bush’s right to be as religious as he wants, but there’s something deeply disconcerting about the idea that the president believes he is, quite literally, a mouthpiece for God.
\n
\nFrom a theological perspective, I’m not sure exactly what Bush meant. Is he claiming to be a messenger for God, spreading the word on the Big Guy’s behalf? Or is Bush somehow suggesting that he’s acting on instructions he thinks are coming from God? Oddly enough, both are sentiments echoed by people like Osama bin Laden to justify their behavior.<\/p>\n

People who believe they are acting under divine “orders” act with dangerous certainty. They can not be dissuaded or discouraged because, in their mind, God “told” them what to do. Indeed, critics and opponents are not only viewed as incorrect, they’re seen as heretics.<\/p>\n

Maybe Bush was making a political calculation and made the remark because he thought it might get him a few votes. It’d be crass exploitation of religion, but in this case, it might actually make me feel better<\/i> about Bush’s worldview.<\/p>\n

And let’s not overlook the second half of the scary quote. Bush not only believes that God speaks through him but also that he wouldn’t be able to serve as president without such a belief. The implication is something of a religious test for the presidency, at least as Bush sees it. Whether one believes they are a mouthpiece for God is up to them, but according to Bush, it’s something of a prerequisite to executing presidential duties.<\/p>\n

105 days until the election…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I know this quote has appeared everywhere, but I wanted to pass it along anyway. President Bush met privately with a group of Old Order Amish during his visit to Lancaster County [Pennsylvania] last Friday. He discussed their farms and their hats and his religion. He asked them to vote for him in November. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2151\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}