Hmmm… sounds like the United Methodists are in serious violation of separation of church and state! Better sic the ACLU on them!
Well, you’re easily amused, so this is hardly a surprise. 
Hint for Brutus: Nowhere did I state nor imply that Al Franken was an impartial source.
The Roman Catholic Church is officially pro-life. I suppose now you will say that John Kerry is a charlatan and is only pretending to be religious to garner votes.
No, I would say Kerry is pro-life, but doesn’t believe it should be legislated.
Good point. BOTH Bush and Kerry are at variance with their denominations’ positions on abortion. However, only Kerry seems to have to answer for it. I’d say Bush has as much right to be a “cafeteria Methodist” as Kerry does a “cafeteria Catholic”. My own personal feeling is that Kerry’s philosophy is much closer to the Christian ideal than Bush’s- based on his eagerness to start a war and his reluctance to stand up to the NRA.
Does Laura regularly attend church in DC? The impression I have is that the President became a Methodist for her when they married. She’s a life long Methodist, while I believe he was born and raised an Episcopalian (the domination of his father).
Err, denomination of his father.
I see that I have not been clear.
Bush and Evans reportedly attended “Bible Bootcamp”, which studied Acts and Luke in depth. Candidate Bush reportedly read the Bible every day.
These claims -these claims that support the contention that GWBush is highly religious- have been shown to be questionable. If they were true, Bush -and Evans- could surely answer certain very very simple questions. (eg "What is Acts about? eg. “What have you read recently in the Bible?”)
TeaElle
----- I have utter disdain for the Bush 2000 campaign for making G.W. Bush’s devotional habits a matter of discussion (and Bush/Cheney '04 if it’s happened again) and I commend Mr. Bush for personally endeavoring to keep his private spiritual practices just that: private, because they’re, I repeat, not anyone else (on earth’s) business.
I’m with you. However. I have read multiple accounts of GWB supporters citing the fact that “Bush prays before he makes a decision”, as an important aspect of their support for W. These perceptions, I maintain, have been actively cultivated by the White House. I am unaware of any attempts by W to keep his spiritual practices private.
The Bush Campaign are the ones that made his spiritual life public, not I.
Liberal
---- Lots of people are religious without attending church.
I agree. My OP said as much. And I don’t mind this perspective being repeated; frankly, I don’t believe that I stressed it enough.
BobLibDem
---- You can be Biblically quite illiterate and still be deeply religious. My wife is a woman of deep faith, yet she surely could not tell you what the Acts are about and probably could not name you five books of the Old Testament.
Agreed. The issue isn’t knowledge about Acts. The issue is blatent misrepresentation.
Amok
---- Does Laura regularly attend church in DC? The impression I have is that the President became a Methodist for her when they married. She’s a life long Methodist, while I believe he was born and raised an Episcopalian (the domination of his father).
Now I’ll throw a spanner in the works. Attending church is often a family activity: I suspect part of the reason Clinton attended church while President was to give him some time to spend with Hillary and Chelsea. Politics can be tough on families.
W, in contrast, had children in college while he served as President. (While he was Texas governor, in contrast, he did attend church with his wife and daughters.)
Carter’s behavior is different, as he continued to teach Sunday School after leaving the Oval Office.
There are few members of this board more passionately opposed to the current administration than I.
Character assassination is pointless, but spiritual assassination is blasphemy, and requires acts specifically forbidden to Christians.
You cannot ever even know the state of George Bush’s soul, or the quality of his devotion to the Lord.
What you can know is that the Lord loves George Bush, and you. That has no bearing on politics.
Tris
----- You cannot ever even know the state of George Bush’s soul, or the quality of his devotion to the Lord.
Agreed. One way. Or. The other.
---- What you can know is that the Lord loves George Bush, and you. That has no bearing on politics.
Fair enough.
Well, I don’t know if it is fair enough. GWB has repeatedly used God as his ‘alibi’ for his actions - ‘God told me to do it’ … seems to me he’s declining to take responsibility for his political actions - and that does have a bearing on politics.
Proof once again that God’s love has no limits.
So how do you plan to measure GWB’s devotion to God?
Should his “devotion to God” dictate his policies - foreign or domestic??? Are the American people [even the non-Christians] happy that his ‘God’ dictates his policies? It isn’t me, a non-American, who should be answering your question above - all Americans should be asking themselves if they are happy that their country’s policies are decided after a heart to heart between GW and God? Historically, people who claim to hear voices are psychiatrically examined, not given the power of life and death over the whole world.
The argument supposes that there is some essential way to measure one’s love of God, and that that measure applies to the question of how well one can fulfill the the office of President of the Untited States.
I think the argument fails on both assumptions.
God loves the mentally retarded, and some of them devotedly love Him back.
That doesn’t change the fact that they would be very bad at being President of the United States.
Tris