When asked if the Bible can be taken literal.
"You know. Probably not. ... No, I'm not a literalist, but I think you can learn a lot from it, but I do think that the New Testament for example is ... has got ... You know, the important lesson is 'God sent a son,"' Bush said.So he doesn't take the Bible literally, not a big deal right. I've already covered how not all the Bible is to be taken literally. But, surely he understands what Jesus meant when He said "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
"It is hard for me to justify or prove the mystery of the Almighty in my life," he said. "All I can just tell you is that I got back into religion and I quit drinking shortly thereafter and I asked for help. ... I was a one-step program guy."
On the War In IraqWhen asked if he thinks that he prays to the same God as those with different beliefs, Bush said, "I do."
"I do believe there is an Almighty that is broad and big enough and loving enough that can encompass a lot of people," Bush said, but he drew a distinction when it comes to those who perpetrate terror."
"I think anyone who murders to achieve their religious objective is not a religious person," he said. "They may think they're religious, and they play like they're religious, but I don't think they're religious. They are not praying to the God I pray to ... the god of peace and love."
"You can't look at the decision to go into Iraq apart from, you know, what happened on Sept. 11. It was not a religious decision," he said. "I don't view this as a war of religion. I view this as a war of good, decent people of all faiths against people who murder innocent people to achieve a political objective."
Am I the only one flabbergasted that in the same breath one man can say ""I think anyone who murders to achieve their religious objective is not a religious person," and then say that He is a religious person? So he says that the Iraq war was not a religious decision. Is that what lets him sleep at night, thinking that his decision was based on false information and a personal vendetta to fix his daddies mistake rather than religion? The fact that he is still defending this war shows how completely out of touch he is with the American people.
More commentary on this subject available here:
Contend Earnestly: "Jesus" Isn't Enough
3 comments:
I haven't been convinced for a while that Bush is a Christian.
However, these comments are not the reason why.
Nobody - and I mean nobody - takes the Bible absolutely literally. So the question isn't that. The question is, how seriously do you take the message contained there in.
Whether it's literal or not has to do with the given genre, grammar, book, writer, etc. We cannot just assume literal = true and nonliteral = untrue. That's an oversimplification of the matter.
Tom, I absolutely agree that all of the text of the Bible is not to be taken literally, but interpreted according to to the context (figurative, symbolic, etc.)In fact I covered that point in my November 11th post. My point is more along the lines that it seems Bush's attitude is changing now that he no longer needs the conservative Christian vote. What I really find intriguing is how he distinguishes his violent acts of war from others. His is protecting people, but others are just doing it because of their religion, and only those terrorists are the ones who don't pray to the God he does.
You're right, Tim.
I've suspected for a long time that he is not a genuine Christian, but man, you're right, he's not pulling punches now that he doesn't need the Religious Right.
For people 'in the know', the idea of a literal reading of scripture must be nuanced. But for Bush, I almost bet literal = true, and therefore he probably doesn't believe it.
I've feared for a long time that his god is really one of nationalism. Remember his rhetoric at the beginning of the Iraq war? - "Democracy is God's gift to the world!"...if that doesn't smack of soteriological heresy, I don't know what does!
cheers brother. hope all is well with you.
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