"Never in the history
of the United States has religion had such a definitive presence in the
decision-making of government. … It's possible that the real challenge for
Obama or McCain will have nothing to do with the problems in public health,
education, and Iraq. Rather, they'll have to address an item that is directly
responsible for all of these: religion."
In
1999, a year before the election he (didn't) win, George W. Bush spoke with
several evangelical leaders about his campaign for the Presidency of the United
States. “I know it won’t be easy for me or for my family,” he said, “But God
wants me to do it.”
And Bush obeyed: if God wants
a person to be president, then one must obey: there’s no other option. After
(not) being elected, Bush undertook a radical transformation of his country the
scope of which, I believe, is far from being fully measured. Among the things
of most concern to citizens, according to the polls, are the war in Iraq,
education and public health. But it's possible that the real challenge for
Obama or McCain will have nothing to do with these. Rather, they'll have to
address an item that is directly responsible for the problems in public health,
education, and Iraq: religion.
Never in the history of the
United States has religion had such a definitive presence in the
decision-making of government. North American believers like to think that
their country was founded on religious principles (God is mentioned in many
parts of the nation’s lore, from bank notes to the Pledge of Allegiance to the
flag), but the truth is that not even the most notoriously evangelical
presidents, from Lyndon Johnson to Ronald Reagan, have ever permitted the
design of national policy on the basis of religious arguments. The Bush White
House, however, is the closest things possible to a church; and I don’t mean an
institution founded for the purposes of Bible study (which apparently, at least
half of the White House staff attend). I refer here to the evangelical faith
practiced in such a way as to lead a country and to direct its policies on
health, education and its war in Iraq.
ELECTION FUN: MCCAIN AND MADONNA
DUET
HEALTH: The Bush Administration is obsessed with sex, and
this obsession has manifested itself through the spending of $150 million a
year (on average) on policies calling for abstinence. Programs funded with this
money contend, among other little beauties, that HIV is transmitted via the
medium of sweat and that abortion causes cancer. EDUCATION: The Bush
Administration is obsessed with evolution: Bush has argued in favor of also
teaching intelligent design in science classes. Darwin alongside God, because
otherwise, to say that one is a religion and the other science goes against
freedom of belief. The Bush Administration isn't comfortable separating the
two: former attorney general John Ashcroft once said that the separation of
church and state was “a wall of religious oppression.”
Former General Jerry Boykin: Talking up President Bush's favor in
the eyes of God.
And finally, the war in Iraq.
For the Bush Administration, it’s clear that this war has always received the
God's backing. During the first months of the war near the end of the Bush's
first term, General Jerry Boykin, one of those charged with finding Osama bin
Laden, made a tour of several churches where the parishioners may have been
wondering why Bush was in the White House: "Why is this man in the White
House? The majority of Americans didn't vote for him. He's in the White House
because God put him there for a time such as this. So that he can lead, not
only our country but the world, in moments like these." Reverend Falwell,
the fundamentalist preacher of the extreme Right who died a little more than a
year ago, was clearer: “It's a war of Good versus Evil.”
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
How curious. These are the
same words used by John McCain in 2004! The war in Iraq, he said, was “a fight
between good and evil.” And then he said, “the issue is no more ambiguous than
that.” These are the enviable certainties given to those of the faith. Thus
they govern with such gusto.
