From Saturday's
Weekly Radio Address:
"Our citizens have responded to this tragedy with
action and prayer. We ask
God's comfort for the men and women who have suffered so much.
We pray that the missing find safe return, and those who were lost find holy rest. And we sought the
strength of the Almighty for the difficult work that lies ahead.
In the life of our nation we have seen that wondrous things are possible
when we act with God's grace. From the rubble of destroyed homes we can see the beginnings of vibrant new neighborhoods. From the despair of lives torn asunder we can see the hope of rebirth. And from the depth of darkness we can see a bright dawn emerging over the Gulf Coast and the great city of New Orleans."
***
Isn't that a bit heavy handed? Even for Bush?
I admit, I'm not the most religious person. But I was raised in a conservative Jewish home, bar-mitzvahed, married in a synagogue by a rabbi, and have my son in a Jewish pre-school. So I'm not some "G-dless Liberal," either.
Still, I have always found President Bush's frequent references to G-d a little unsettling. I have since a 1999 debate, when candidate Bush -- asked to identify the political philosopher he found most inspirational --
answered "Jesus Christ."
Bush, no doubt as a reward to the religious right that helped get him elected and re-elected, has mushed together religion and politics since becoming president. Separation of church and state? As
pointed out by
The American Prospect: "With the help of evangelical speechwriter Michael Gerson,
Bush lards his speeches with code words directed at Christian conservatives. In (the 2003) State of the Union address, Bush mentioned the "wonder-working power" of the American people, an allusion to an evangelical Christian song whose lyrics cite the "power, wonder-working power, in the blood of the Lamb" -- i.e., Jesus.
Maybe House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX)
said it best when, calling Bush's idea for federal support of faith-based initiatives "a great opportunity to bring God back into the public institutions of the country. God has been removed from all of our public institutions."
Of course, DeLay wasn't real sound on his history, talking about "this notion of separation of church and state that has been imposed upon us over the last 40 or 50 years" -- failing to recognize that "this notion of separation of church and state" actually dates back to the formation of the United States.
The Constitution doesn't mention G-d.***
Displays of the Ten Commandments in public buildings. Religious school vouchers. Teaching "Intelligent Design" or even the Bible in public schools. Placing religious opinions above scientific fact on a host of issues, from evolution to stem cell research. These are the steps an emboldened Religious Right has undertaken nationwide -- empowered by words of support from Bush and-or other conservative politicians.
The non-profit
Americans United For Separation of Church and State has devoted some of its resources to fighting efforts by the Religious Right at the local level to teach religion in schools -- and at that, I mean Christianity.
We don't live in a Christian nation, even if Bush and other conservative leaders keep dropping hints (some not so subtle -- Paul Weyrich, who coined the term "Moral Majority" in 1979, said at a speech a year later: "We are talking about Christianizing America. We are talking about simply spreading the gospel in a political context.")
I have a suggestion for those who want to teach Intelligent Design or Bible history in public schools: Can we also teach our kids Biblical archaeology? Because biblical archaeologists have been able to show -- with the same amount of scientific certainty as say, proponents of evolutionary theory -- that many of the stories of the Bible are just that ...
stories.
Now that would be an interesting classroom discussion.
***
This article first appeared at
Journalists Against Bush's B.S.
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