[TruthTalk] Bush and Christianity

[Judy Taylor]

One or two more points from this piece of 'trash journalism'   Question: Why would George W. have a home church in Dallas TX? When he was the Governor he lived in Austin TX and his Ranch was then and is now in Crawford TX -  not anywhere near Dallas.  And where would she get the idea that John Wesley abandoned a fortune to live righteously with the poor? (like being poor makes one righteous and holy or something). John Wesley never had a fortune. He was the son of a preacher and one of 18 children. But God met his needs and he wasn't too poor to travel from the UK to Georgia.  Jesus told one person with a problem to sell everything and this lady has made it a rule for all "real Christians" - Those who don't conform are then branded "Dalmations" who only keep the spots they like.  How ludicrous, as if the President is supposed to be some preacher or something.  Why put him down for being smart enough to make a fortune?    I don't believe her charge that Karl Rove spread filthy stories about Ann Richards either, these would have had the George W's OK but they are ugly and mean spirited and I don't see that kind of behavior now.  I remember Ann Richards mocking him when he ran for her job, calling him "the shrub" and saying he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth but I've yet to see George W. ridicule anyone's person.  Their voting record and their job performance - yes.   She writes: If he is anything at all, Bush is nominally Methodist, the denomination of his home church in Dallas. John Wesley, Methodism�s founder, emphasized an emotional �warming of the heart� to Christ as fundamental to conversion. (That self-help ethos is evident in the resident�s �compassionate conservatism.�) But Wesley was equal part freedom fighter: As a pastor in 17th-century England, he was barred from the pulpit for crusading against the abhorrent evils of slavery. Wesley died a poor man, his life a testament to Christ�s exhortation of charity in the Gospel of Mark: �Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.� Bush, on the other hand, is no ascetic firebrand. The president has a net worth of nearly $20 million, and there is no indication that he is on the brink of abandoning his fortune to live righteously with the poor. And unlike Wesley, Bush has never compromised his political standing to challenge the conservative status quo -- regardless of its Christian righteousness.   The president is, safe to say, a �Dalmatian� Methodist.