These are some offline comments about the
President�s Pep Rally performance this week that I didn�t want to share with
the whole list:
Not that you asked, but I thought his
statements went well Thursday night before the questions were asked. It is working out much better for him
to use his baritone not his tenor voice and slow down. Bartlett and Card must have read all
the internet stories about his reputed Diet Coke addiction/ aspartame
poisoning/ dry drunk syndrome and taken him off the canned stuff, because he
looked like a tranquilized man until some of those multi-part questions
sharpened his focus.
Also note reporter Helen Thomas was absent
from the front row for the first time in decades, stuck back in the middle and
was not called upon. She is
persona non grata for making disparaging remarks off the record that someone
put into print. Also note that
Bush called on Condon of the San Diego Union after giving him an interview
earlier in the week that hinted at �non-governmental backlash� against
Mexicans in this country if Mexico did not vote with the US on the UN
resolution. Can you believe
that? Was that a �wink and nod�
to people who want to unleash racial hostility during wartime, to resurrect a
new McCarthyism? Whether he
intended it or not, there are those elements in all societies who will take
that as approval and act now. See
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/07/opinion/07KRUG.html
and http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/iraq/20030303-1705-cnsbush.html)
I fear we are seeing the early stages of
POTUS meltdown, caused by global stress, Spring in Iraq fever and not enough
naps to counteract the effects of all those years of �legendary�
drinking. Those are not made up
stories by the �liberal� press. I
know someone who used to �run� in the same circles and knows personally what
binge drinking and skirt chasing with Bush and his buddy Don Evans meant.
Even if I apply my own 50% Rule
and believe only half of the tales, it�s still
significant.
By the way, Evans has a daughter who was
born with disabilities severe enough to call for a lifetime of care. This made him a grown up quickly and
invite his friend George to Bible Study. If you read Newsweek�s cover story,
Bush and God, you will learn more about what drives GDubya, not just the
neoconservatives who think America is the manifest destined New Rome with
better weapons. The Newsweek
story covers the cultural and personal
angles wrapped around current geopolitics and strategic realignments. I�ve attached it for those
interested. Below, commentary
accompanying the cover story.
There is also some intriguing stuff
sprouting up in the media about and reacting to a potentially �new
McCarthyism�, immediately directed at Hollywood, but by expansion at those who
are not True Believers.
I�m not really that concerned about groups
boycotting TV shows or movies that have actors in them they find unpatriotic,
but the internet is serving as a neat place to rage for those who can�t make
it into mainstream media who have liability issues to consider. In times of peace, this targeted
hatred is silly and ignorant, but in times of war and dissent, potentially
much worse than that. -
KWC
The Sin of Pride
Vision
Thing: A scholar wonders if Bush has the humility to see the nuance of this
conflict
By Martin E.
Marty
NEWSWEEK
March
10 issue
� �God
bless America.� For decades, chief executives have acted like priests of the
national religion. Sometimes they soothe�think of shuttle disasters or
terrorist attacks�and sometimes they inflame, as in times of
war.
Never have we historians been busier making
sense of presidential God talk than now. We all knew that after a reckless
youth and a fall into alcohol addiction, George W. Bush experienced a
Christian conversion of the now standard �born again� sort and settled down.
On the path to the presidency he saw that his newfound faith appealed to a
core constituency of religious conservatives and they appealed to him. His
religious rhetoric became more public and more
political.
After September 11 and the president�s
decision to attack Iraq, the talk that other nations found mildly amusing or
merely arrogant has taken on international and historical significance. It
rouses many Americans to an uncertain cause and raises antagonism among
millions elsewhere. Few doubt that Bush is sincere in his faith, a worthy
virtue when he alone must decide whether to lead 270 million people into war,
possibly killing thousands of others. The problem isn�t with Bush�s sincerity,
but with his evident conviction that he�s doing God�s
will.
Some criticism comes from cynics abroad,
who charge hypocrisy. George M. Cohan once said, �Many a bum show has been
saved by the flag,� and these critics hear Bush�s God talk as a trumped-up
strategy for saving a military bum show. All kinds of less suspicious voices
have also been heard from clerics here at home. A few worry about whether
Bush�s advocacy of �faith-based initiatives� for social programs would violate
the traditional separation of church and state. More have political concerns;
they fear the faith-based programs will replace governmental support for those
in need, but will not be strong enough.
The concerns of world religious leaders
about this war have not induced the White House to open its door to a broader
theological debate. The pope and the American Roman Catholic bishops�as well
as Protestant bishops and many other �lay and clerical leaders outside the
president�s core constituency�got no hearing, only dismissal. These clerics
have legitimate concerns that extend to the geopolitical scene�as well as to
the American soul: how will the only remaining world power assume the burden
of building a new empire? One hopes that the Bush people will keep in mind
that claims of God�s always being on our side are alienating to many former or
would-be allies.
More dangerous is that Bush�s God talk will
set the tinderbox that is the Muslim world on fire. Neither the
president nor the American Christian majority have to yield their own faith in
order to get along, but how they express
it matters. Here the president has
shown signs of change and growth. His first understandable outburst against
terrorism led him to call for a �crusade� against terrorists. Raging reaction
was instant and total among offended Muslims. The term never again appeared in
White House language.
Often the company the president keeps gets
him into trouble. True, the administration distances itself from the most
extreme statements against Islam and the Muslim Scriptures, the Qur�an, when
clerics who are otherwise congenial to the White House voice them. The billion
humans in the Muslim world, leaders and followers alike, had good reason to
seethe when the evangelist who prayed at Bush�s Inaugural�and who remains
close to the president�persisted in calling Islam �a very evil and wicked
religion.� The administration had
to reject that claim�and it did.
Regular appearances by the president at meetings of certain evangelical
groups, however, make it hard for friendly Muslims not to hear the word
�Islam� whenever Bush portrays �terrorists� as absolute evils. And, as evangelical theologian Richard
Mouw points out, �Those inflammatory statements stimulate further antagonism
on the part of Muslim extremists,� who can go recruiting among
moderates.
Christian
theologians are wary when Bush uses the
words of Jesus to draw neat lines and challenge the whole rest of the world:
if you are not for us, or with us, you are against us. Without question, belief in American
democracy as one of God�s blessings is part of the move against Iraq. But, as theologians in a
number of faiths remind us, the demonization of the enemy�an �us and them�
mentality�can inhibit self-examination and repentant action,
critical components of any faith.
Long having professed that �our nation is
chosen by God and commissioned by history to be a model to the world of
justice,� President Bush boasts that we are the only remaining superpower
left. He gives notice that our military power
and moral choices will dominate the world. He follows and leads ever since he
first, as he put it, �heard the call� to seek the presidency, and after Iraq
he promises to transform the Middle East into
utopia.
But the Bible presents a more nuanced
God. Fifty years ago, patriot and cold
warrior Reinhold Niebuhr, the most noted theologian of the time, reminded
citizens of a judgment against pride of nations by quoting Psalm 2:4: God �who
sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord has them in derision.� That same God, Niebuhr reminded
readers, is also a God of mercy, who holds people responsible and, yes, will
honor human aspiration. Even
Bush�s critics are obliged to see that many of our own convictions may be
wrong or misguided. And so we
should confront the administration in the spirit of Oliver Cromwell: �I
beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be
mistaken.� One of this
president�s virtues is that he has, historically, corrected his
mistakes.
In the future, when Bush speaks about God
and this country, as he assuredly will, one hopes he will heed the example of
Abraham Lincoln. In other
desperate times Lincoln had to seek Almighty guidance for what he called this
� almost chosen people.� That president accompanied his seeking
with a theological affirmation too rarely heard now: �The Almighty has His own
purposes.� These purposes may not
always match our own, even if we are called to highest office. Awareness of
this might bring the nation and its political and religious leaders alike
under judgment as we pursue, by our best lights, responsible action.
Marty is professor emeritus at the
University of Chicago, a Lutheran minister and a former president of the
American Catholic Historical Association.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/879509.asp?0dm=C13UO
Also see Denomination criticizes
Bush over Iraq action @ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41435-2003Jan25.html
