Posted by
Shogrensus on Thursday, June 07, 2007 1:57:01 PM
June 6 (cont)
They continued their discussion about Politicians and Religion but turned to Bush:
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EH: The Constitution has God all over it
SS: It has God all the way in it. And I want to know when I am looking at the candidates that I am going to vote for that his faith is going to play a part in making his decisions. That’s integrity to me
BW: I don’t know how to say this but when we have a President who feels that he has made certain decisions because God has given him the word, I -that can be very dangerous. I don’t necessarily need to know that my President believes in God.
Joy: I still don’t get it
SS: I do- it’s so important to me
EH: Let’s take it to another extreme- what if the candidate that is probably going to win- all the polls are favoring them- what if they believed in a religion that made themselves God, okay? And they believed that
Joy: You mean George Bush?
EH: I am just saying- faith matters- Not like George Bush
Joy: That’s him- He believes he’s God
EH: Here’s the key to the door I just opened for you
Joy: He doesn’t listen to anybody. He does whatever he pleases. He walks on water. He’s
EH: I don’t think so. He has a cabinet of advisors. He does not believe that he is God at all. I just think someone’s faith defines
Joy: Then he’s talking to God.
EH: We want to know everything about these
Joy: And God is talking back to him- that’s what’s really scary
BW: I’m not sure taking it away from God is
***
There was a very funny interruption of the dialogue by a bolt of lightening from the heavens striking Joy and lighting her up.
Joy laughed, which was refreshing. Had it been Rosie, we would have been subjected to complaining that they had never struck anyone else with lightening...
Bush is clearly a man of faith who has been very vocal about his use of prayer in his quest to make decisions. To my recollection, he has not said that God is talking to him. He does not think he walks on water. I do think that he makes decisions that he thinks to be morally correct, even when those decisions will be unpopular.
This is what has led him to the immigration disaster. Bush really believes that his approach to immigration reform is right, morally. He feels for these illegal aliens and is pained at the thought of sending them back to their countries. The problem: his solution is a short sighted fix to a problem that won't go away without serious reform to immigration policy, which will not happen under the current bill.
His faith has led him down an emotional path. He should be thinking about what is best for these people and their homelands in the long run. But his first priority as President should be to protect and defend the United States of America. His faith has led him to stray from his responsibility as President. His faith has also led him to support a policy that will virtually ensure the continued exacerbation of the problem for decades to come and may very well lead to problems the United States may not be able to resolve.
His failure on this issue to cling to his duties as President because of his faith may lend credence to Joy's argument except that in general supporters of this bill are not the conservative Christians Joy fears. The supporters of this bill seem to be secular Christians and Democrats.
Bush is a Christian but he is, unfortunately, not always a strict constructionist who believes in the Constitution.