God and Country

I hear a lot about George W. Bush being a “Godly man.” I hear that from a lot of sources. Some of them I don’t believe – like a guy at the grocery store, for example.

Let it be known that I do, in fact, believe that our current President is a man of faith. I’m not basing this belief on the President’s speeches, because we all know that speeches are often the most general of political expressions. However, over the years, I have seen numerous interviews with various ministers who have met and/or consulted President Bush. Many of these ministers are men that I hold in high regard and I am willing to trust their testimonies as to the President’s understanding of spiritual need.

But let’s take a second to think about those “speeches” I mentioned earlier. Most intelligent Americans (and American Christians, in my opinion) understand that references to faith are present in even the most un-spiritual of Presidential addresses. I’ve heard John Kerry mention God, Al Gore mention God, Bob Dole mention God, Bill Clinton mention God, and you know what?
Some of the stuff they’ve said is pretty good! But do we take them at their word? Probably not. And it’s a good thing – this sort of spiritual distrust we have for those who lead us. Hopefully, we are people that value a holy life more than holy words.

Why do I say all of this? Because it really bugs me when I hear Christian media quote the speeches of George Washington or Abraham Lincoln or other long-gone national leaders and put them forth as proofs that these men were devout.
Any moderately detailed study of Presidential history will reveal numerous things about some of these icons – and some of the things revealed show us that these idolized men weren’t near as devout as we believe. Maybe it’s true – maybe the country was too young to be corrupt and I’m just a jaded political observer, but I submit that picking these quotes out of these speeches is a cheap move.

If we want to talk about how the country was founded on Christian principles, let’s do that. Let’s talk about it, let’s examine entire speeches and voting records and the biographies of these men. Aren’t we the people who cried “character counts” when Monica Lewinsky showed up on our newspapers? If it counts now, it counted then.