Bush Snookered the Evangelicals

Slate.com has posted a 3-part essay titled, Bush's Evangelical Politics. It is an easy read and was written by Jacob Weisberg, author of The Bush Tragedy. Weisberg chronicles the politics of religion that George W. Bush began to explore while helping his father get to the White House. Weisberg says, "Bush does not appear to surrender himself to the will of God in the way a conventionally religious person does. If we look closely at his relationship to religion over a period of two decades, we see him repeatedly commandeering God for his exigent needs. His is an instrumentalist, utilitarian faith that puts religion to work for his own purposes."

As one reads all three sections of this piece it should not surprise any but those fundamentalist/evangelicals that George Bush used religion for his own political purposed, including getting elected as governor of Texas and as president. Having watched him for more than 7 years in the White House, few people would accuse him of following the path that Jesus laid out.

Only the ever-faithful evangelicals will not let go of their image of him: that he is a born-again, active Christian man who puts Jesus first in his life. Of course, these people love to worship and idolize authority figures, and so it is only natural that they would become victims of cunning politicians like George W. Bush. The trouble for the rest of us is that they voted him into office for these miserable eight years.