I Cogitate
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Religious Transformation
This is not to question or demean President Bush's faith. I'm much too distant from him to do so.
This is, however, an attempt to stitch together as many of the pieces of the puzzle as possible in the faith-attributed personal transformation of the most important figure in the world.
In 2000, at one of the Republican primary debates, President Bush was asked to name his favorite political philosopher.
He said it was Jesus and offered that Jesus had changed his heart.
When asked to elaborate he stumbled a bit and finally said that it takes accepting Jesus into your heart to understand.
Political or personal? You be the
judge. My experience tells me the 'saved,' especially the
'newly-saved,' are usually bursting to share how their life has changed
so much for the better. But everyone is different.
On a March 6, 2000, Bill O'Reilly show, President Bush talked about that debate moment: "...Christ came out of my
mouth because Christ has influenced me, thanks to Billy Graham. It
planted a seed in my heart, and it changed my life. It really did. I'm
-- I'm--I take great solace--I recognize I'm a humble--I'm a
lowly sinner who sought redemption."
This certainly sounds like a typical and sincere response.
Just before launching his first presidential
campaign, President Bush, in a Dallas Morning News interview, was asked
to address religion in his life and his politics. He responded: “I view
my religion as very personal....I want people to judge me on my deeds,
not how I try to define myself as a religious person of words.”
Again, this may be a bit politically
coy but the humbleness, if sincere, shines through. I would feel more
obligated to question the sincerity if such a statement was spoken
prior to President Bush's second presidential campaign, what with the
demonstratedly obvious Republican political efforts to rally the
conservative religious groups throughout this country.
Paul Harris, in "The Observer," on
November 2, 2003, wrote of President Bush speaking before a crowd at a
Dallas Christian youth center about his 'born again Christianity': 'If
you change their heart, then they change their behaviour. I know,' he
said, referring to his own conversion, which led to him giving up
drinking.
This is the always-mentioned reference to his changed behavior.
This doesn't sound like someone viewing religion as personal but maybe in such a setting...
This also reminds me of my experience with those believers in reincarnation (I am addressing solely Americans here as that is my experience) who would go to various psychic fairs and gatherings and be told that in their past lives they were chieftains and queens. I cannot recall anyone ever being told they were an illiterate serf or a groveling beggar. Who would pay for that exclusive?
Yoshi Tsurumi, one of President Bush's former professors
at
Harvard Business School, in a September 16, 2004 Mary Jacoby-written
article on the Salon.com web site, noted Bush's behavior as a student there, saying
that he would make
intellectually indefensible statements and charges and then when
confronted with his words, Bush would either deny he ever said them or
explode in anger. Tsurumi also noted that Bush began 'whisper
campaigns' against students who challenged his arguments and beliefs.
Note that this was far, far prior to President Bush's 'born-again' experience.
Katherine Van Wormer in her 'Dry Drunk Syndrome' article on President Bush's behavior lists these attributes to such a syndrome, attributed to those who have quit drinking but failed to broaden or deepen their abstinence:
* grandiose behaviorI plead ignorance if this an actual clinical diagnosis but my experience says elements of it ring true.
* a rigid, judgmental outlook
* impatience
* childish behavior
* irresponsible behavior
* irrational rationalization
* projection
* overreaction
Finally, E.J. Dionne Jr., on April 13, 2004, in the Washington Post, writes of President Bush criticizing our nation's culture and of the need to change it to one of greater self-responsibility. Dionne then writes "...maybe President Bush should reread his own words, offered last week at a fundraiser in Charlotte--Micah 6:8: "And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God
Okay, just what else does President Bush credit Christ for in, as he describes it, his redemption as a lowly sinner?
In all of my searching, I cannot find any attribution other than his abstinence from alcohol.
Now, some of this may be due to political gamesmanship as President Bush has never acknowledged using illegal drugs, an allegation that has dogged him since his surfacing as a regional and national politician. The story of recovery from 'demon rum' is much more palatable to the voting public than the more nefarious illicit drug-taking, especially so for evangelicals. Plus, there would be many who would partisanly pillory President Bush if he ever admitted involvment with controlled substances.
Again, I do not doubt the validity of President Bush's faith. I believe that is real. But what I find peculiar is the lack of any acknowledgement or admission of any other alteration in his personal behavior. Especially regarding change involving the Biblical 'sin' of arrogance as well as the Christian-stressed tie-in of humility. Just what other entire-being, core changes took place with President Bush, if any?
Yes, the drinking and resulting abusive behavior has stopped and that is a major plus for anyone (and those related) suffering from alcoholism. But is that the sole improvement?
Now, George Bush in his younger days has been described as cocky and arrogant, with an air of privilege yet angry at the perceived condescension of those in the Eastern Establishment. Someone with a sharp tongue who could either affectionately nickname someone or jab at those who crossed him.
Did these personal qualities also undergo a transformation? Well, for anything to change it must first be seen as a problem and I don't see President Bush perceiving anything in his behavior, then or now, as a problem other than his drinking.
He still exhibits arrogant behavior, disses the 'elite' (if he and his family aren't among the elite, then who is?) and remains a nicknamer to both those he likes and abhors. On the latter, just ask former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neil.
Interestingly, Jim Wallis, an evangelical with The Sojourners, contradicts my theory to some degree regarding the timing.
Quoted in Ron Gooding's November, 2004, "Vanity Fair" article as describing pre-President, Austin-based George Bush as a "self-help Methodist, very open, seeking." Wallis depicts Bush as acknowledging he doesn't know how to talk to the poor and has him asking what he (Bush) can door to better understand the underclass.
But Wallis' description of now-President Bush changes after a February 1, 2002 meeting: "What I started to see at this point was the man that would emerge over the next year--a messianic American Calvinist. He doesn't want to hear from anyone who doubts him."
A description of President Bush meeting with various U.S. Senators prior to the invasion of Iraq dovetails with this. He was seeking their political support but began with an announcement that he wouldn't take or answer questions and actually cut off Senators who tried to pose questions.
This seems to be the peevish President Bush apparent in the first debate with Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. Is this the actual George Bush or is reality the more 'tamped-down' version of the second and third debates?
Or, as other have suggested, is President Bush now simply a conduit for God? An omnipotent God whose direction therefore should never be questioned?
Nobody can truly answer such a conundrum.
But we certainly are experiencing much more of the Bush Harvard M.B.A.-seeking behavior, along with elements of the Dry Drunk Syndrome, whether you believe in such a full-fledged ailment or not.
Where is the personal humility? Where are the thoughts and actions of the redeemed, lowly sinner? Have they been compartmentalized between the private person and the politician President? I thought only Bill Clinton could pull that one off.
Here is Jim Wallis again from that same Ron Gooding/Vanity Fair article: "Faith can cut so many ways. If you're penitent and not triumphal, it can move us to repentance and accountability and help us reach for something higher than ourselves. That can be a powerful thing, a thing that moves us beyond politics as usual, like Martin Luther King did. But when it's designed to certify our righteousness, that can be a
dangerous thing. Then it pushes self-criticism aside. There's no reflection. Where people often get lost is on this very point. Real faith, you see, leads us to deeper reflection and not, not ever, to the thing we as humans so very much want...easy certainty."
My unasked-for RX for President Bush: there are many avenues and no guarantees for deepening and broadening the depth of one's spirituality--a period of prayer and contemplation in a monastery or assisting AIDS patients as a personal caregiver are but a couple.
Remember that quizzical bumpersticker "subvert the dominant paradigm'? It appears President Bush could benefit from a stretch of sublime selflessness. He could start by personally inverting the human-created 'castes' that typically define importance in this temporal world. Jesus did.
From one on his journey, trying to do his best.
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