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Bush is openly religious, to a point

By Alan Cooperman
The Washington Post

FRANK JOHNSTON / THE WASHINGTON POST President Bush participates in the National Day of Prayer at the White House with first lady Laura Bush in 2003.

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When it was over, many in the audience were convinced that the president shared their view that abortion is murder and should be banned.

"The 'culture of life' is a very important code word that will resonate with Catholics," said Carl Anderson, head of the 1.6 million-member Knights of Columbus, the world's largest Roman Catholic men's society.

But Bush had not actually said abortion is tantamount to murder. Nor, according to aides, has he ever said all abortions should be illegal. When asked by reporters during the 2000 presidential campaign and again last fall whether abortion should be banned, Bush said the nation was not ready for that step, without indicating his position.

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.

Clues and assumptions

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; that the theory of evolution is true; that homosexuality is a sinful choice; that only Christians will go to heaven; that support for Israel is a biblical imperative; or that 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.

Bush and his chief speechwriter, Michael Gerson, are "very gifted at crafting references that religious insiders will understand and outsiders may not," said the Rev. Jim Wallis, editor of the evangelical journal Sojourners.

Current and former White House aides, as well as religious leaders close to the president, maintain that underneath Bush's religious references is a no-frills set of classical Christian beliefs that he holds firmly but voices softly.
 
Although some of his opponents portray him as a closet fundamentalist, some of his allies cast him as a closet moderate whose differences of opinion and style with the most vociferous elements of the religious right have been played down by his political advisers and underreported by the media.

Coaxing the country

How voters perceive Bush's beliefs could be a major factor in a tight presidential contest. As he courts both conservative Christians and swing voters, the GOP is seeking to move those perceptions toward the middle.

"If you asked me how I would describe George Bush's religious expressions in a word, I would say 'gentle.' He's never harsh, and abortion is an example," said former White House speechwriter David Frum. "He's coaxing the country to move gradually in his direction, and that's been happening."

Although Bush does not say much about his own beliefs, he does talk a lot about faith, and some of that talk has made others nervous, particularly when he has suggested that he sees God's will at work in his presidency.

In "Plan of Attack," a book about Bush's decision to go to war by Washington Post Assistant Managing Editor Bob Woodward, the president is quoted as saying that he prayed "for the strength to do the Lord's will" in Iraq.

"I'm surely not going to justify the war based on God. ... Nevertheless, in my case I pray I will be as good a messenger of his will as possible," Bush told Woodward.

Earlier, Bush had told members of the clergy that he believed God called upon him to run for president. In his book "A Charge to Keep," Bush said he was moved to run by a sermon delivered by his friend the Rev. Mark Craig, a Methodist minister, in 1999 during his second gubernatorial inauguration. "I believe God wants me to be president," the Rev. Richard Land, head of the public policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, quoted Bush as saying.

Observers have interpreted Bush's words in different ways.

"This is so conventionally Christian piety and Christian faith that of course it ought not to raise any alarms," said the Rev. Richard John Neuhaus, editor of the Catholic journal First Things. "Any devout Jew, any devout Muslim, also believes God has purposes for his life and tries to divine them. There is nothing that Bush has said about divine purpose, destiny and accountability that Abraham Lincoln did not say. This is as American as apple pie."

"Theology of empire"

But Wallis, the Sojourners editor, said Bush has adopted a "theology of empire" that suggests God is on America's side and confuses the nation with the church.

"It's a good thing, and a normal thing, for religious people to have a sense of calling as a pastor or a teacher or a journalist or a politician. But I think this goes further," Wallis said. "It's almost a sense of divine appointment for this president and this war on terrorism. ... When it comes out as 'They're evil and we're good,' and 'If you're not with us on all issues, then you're with the evildoers,' I think it's bad foreign policy and dangerous theology."

As the United States prepared to invade Iraq last year, the mainline Protestant magazine Christian Century said Bush's words and actions also raised the question of whether he shares the view of many evangelicals that history is racing toward an apocalyptic clash and the second coming of Christ.

"Millions of Americans believe that the Bible foretells regime change in Iraq, that God established Israel's boundaries millennia ago, and that the United Nations is a forerunner of a satanic world order," the magazine said in an editorial. "The American people have a right to know how the president's faith is informing his public policies, not least his design on Iraq."

But Bush has not publicly voiced any apocalyptic scenario, and aides scoffed at the notion that he holds one. Neuhaus, who has met several times with the president to discuss abortion and other issues, said "the whole realm of biblical prophecy ... with respect to the Middle East" is "quite alien to George W. Bush."

"Terminally misunderstood"

The Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell, a prominent minister in Houston and close friend of the president, said Bush is "a mainstream Christian" whose faith is "terminally misunderstood."

"He does not believe God told him to run. He does not believe God told him he would win. He surely does not believe God told him to drop any bombs anywhere in the world," Caldwell said.

Recent books on Bush's faith have made the case that his religious beliefs are sincere and that he fits in naturally with evangelicals, in style as well as substance. But none of the authors found it easy to summarize Bush's beliefs.

David Aikman, who was given wide access to Bush's friends and senior officials to write "A Man of Faith," said he "could not get from anybody a sort of credo of what (Bush) believes" and was forced to "intuit" many elements of the president's faith. In the end, he said, he concluded Bush is "a mainstream evangelical with a higher-than-normal tolerance of dissent."

Prayer and faith

Some White House officials suggested that the reason Bush's beliefs seem hard to categorize is not that they are complex and nuanced, but that they are relatively simple and few.

Tim Goeglein, who directs the White House Office of Public Liaison and is the president's official intermediary with Christian groups, said Bush is an evangelical but also fits the Irish theologian C.S. Lewis' definition of a "mere Christian" — someone who looks beyond denominational lines to the central, common teachings of the universal church.

Frum, the former speechwriter, said: "If you want to know what George Bush really thinks, look at what he says. He believes in a personal God who answers prayers. He believes that truth is found in all religions and that all people who pray pray to the same God. He believes that prayer and faith can allow one to improve one's own life and save one, not just in the theological sense but in this world. And he's told us that he does not ask God to tell him what to do, but asks God for wisdom and judgment and calm.

"If you said to him, 'Does God want you to invade Iraq?' he'd say, 'I don't know.' He'd say, 'I asked for the best wisdom I could have to make that decision.' "

But if Bush's beliefs are so ecumenical and his prayers so generic, asked the Rev. Shaun Casey, an assistant professor of Christian ethics at the Methodist Church's Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, do the president's positions on such matters as abortion and same-sex marriage really derive from his faith?

And what influence do his religious beliefs have on his budget priorities or tax policies?

Casey, who went to college in West Texas, said he recognizes in Bush an "indigenous West Texas evangelical piety" and thinks "the critics who dismiss him as purely manipulating religion" are wrong.

"The real question is how he moves from this vague constellation of beliefs to specific policies," Casey said. "That's an enigma."