{"id":2504,"date":"2004-09-10T13:49:49","date_gmt":"2004-09-10T18:49:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/2504.html"},"modified":"2004-09-10T13:49:49","modified_gmt":"2004-09-10T18:49:49","slug":"bushs-theology-isnt-exactly-mainstream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/bushs-theology-isnt-exactly-mainstream\/","title":{"rendered":"Bush’s theology isn’t exactly mainstream"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bush used an administration surrogate today to tell everyone how “normal” his religious beliefs are<\/a>.<\/p>\n

President Bush’s religious faith is “mainstream America” and no different from previous presidents, the director of his Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives said Friday. <\/p>\n

“The president’s faith has been misunderstood,” said the White House aide, Jim Towey. “I don’t see him as any different from his predecessors, both Democrats and Republicans.” Towey cited Democrats Jimmy Carter and Franklin Roosevelt.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Towey went on to describe Bush as “so mainstream America on matters of faith.” That may sound nice, but I don’t think most “mainstream Americans” believe Heaven is the exclusive province of Christians. Bush, however, does.
\n
\nFor example, there was this exchange<\/a> from a 1998 interview with the New York Times.<\/p>\n

“Mother and I were arguing — not arguing, having a discussion — and discussing who goes to Heaven,” recalls the Governor, who at the time had religion very much on his mind. Having dealt with a gathering drinking problem by abruptly swearing off alcohol, he had vowed a renewed commitment to his family and his faith. Bush pointed to the Bible: only Christians had a place in heaven. “I said, Mom, look, all I can tell you is what the New Testament says. And she said, well, surely, God will accept others. And I said, Mom, here’s what the New Testament says.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It wasn’t the first time<\/a> Bush said this.<\/p>\n

In 1993, discussing his decision around age 40 to accept Christ as his personal savior, Bush told a Houston Post reporter that — as the reporter paraphrased it — “heaven is open only to those who accept Jesus Christ.” … Bush has never denied the accuracy of the reporter’s paraphrase.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If Bush believes all non-Christians (Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, non-believers, etc.) are banned from Heaven, that’s entirely his business. He’s free to think whatever he wants. But that doesn’t make his approach to theology “mainstream.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bush used an administration surrogate today to tell everyone how “normal” his religious beliefs are. President Bush’s religious faith is “mainstream America” and no different from previous presidents, the director of his Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives said Friday. “The president’s faith has been misunderstood,” said the White House aide, Jim Towey. “I don’t […]<\/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-2504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2504","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=2504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2504\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}