Fundamentally, Bush Works on Faith

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Fundamentally, Bush Works on Faith
LA Times

By Peter Schweizer and Rochelle Schweizer

Peter Schweizer, a fellow at the Hoover Institution, and Rochelle Schweizer are the authors of "The Bushes: Portrait of a Dynasty."

April 11, 2004

NEW YORK — Ask Bush family members and friends about the intersection between the war on terrorism and George W. Bush's Christian faith and you get some strong answers.

"George sees this as a religious war," one family member told us. "He doesn't have a PC view of this war. His view is that they are trying to kill the Christians. And we the Christians will strike back with more force and more ferocity than they will ever know."

Family friend Franklin Graham told us: "The president is not stupid. The people who attacked this country did it in the name of their religion. He's made it clear that we are not at war with Islam. But he understands the implications of what is going on and the spiritual dimensions."

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In many respects, questions about the role of faith in Bush's presidency are a replay of those raised during Ronald Reagan's administration, when the former president called the Soviet Union an "evil empire" and talked about a spiritual battle against communism. Critics then predicted a possible nuclear Armageddon caused by a president bent on fulfilling prophecy. In reality, what Reagan's faith brought him was a deeper understanding of the Cold War, that it was less about missiles and geopolitics than about core principles. His faith morally clarified the superpower conflict, and according to some dissidents behind the Iron Curtain, encouraged them to further resist the Soviet system.

Faith has played an equally important role in Bush's administration, morally clarifying for him the war on terrorism and encouraging patience in the light of tremendous pressure. But Bush's critics have it backward: It's not so much that Bush thinks God is on his side; rather, he wants to be on God's side and make the correct moral choices. He doesn't think God has given him a blank check; rather, to make the correct decisions, he believes he must study and embrace Judeo-Christian principles.



-- Bill Nelson (bnelson45-nospam@hotmail.com), April 11, 2004

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-- Bill Nelson (bnelson45-nospam@hotmail.com), April 11, 2004.

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