Bush leaves specifics of his faith to speculation

[John]

President is openly religious, but his true beliefs remain mystery

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6014570/

Sounds more like a moderate, eh?- Or just maybe a politician that is afraid to offend a voting block.

[fox]

The last quarter of the article is the best part so stay with it, the part where they start quoting the Christian Century on whose editorial board the new bishop of North Bama UMC Will Willimon sits.

I just read the story myself in the Wash Post. Bush has same relation with electorate local whipsawwed Baptist preacher has with the two or three wealthiest Baptist deacons on the Deacon board.
Say a pastor is in his 50's and plateaued out and his church give 15% to the Cooperative Program.
And he started out leaning toward the CBF cause that was where his heart was but leaders in the church didn't want to get in the controversy.
He's be in similar place at Dub. Real coy and in many cases have hatchet men or women like Karl Rove who use a master deceiver like Richard Land to play the code words.
Pastor could even be a fan of CS Lewis and mere Christianity and be brilliant at dancing around the phrases of inerrancy and the BFM 2000, Darwinism etc all the while sending his church money to SBC and Presler's Council for National Policy
Dawson Memorial in Bham plays the game while leading member Bob Terry expresses severe reservations about BFM 2000 and BWA. The Whole Alabama Baptist convention and Rick Lance play a similar game all the while funding Pressler and the CNP's move toward theocracy.
PBS in May, like today's Wash Post get close but don't close the deal on Dub and Rove. Look at Pressler. Look at the Ex Com of the SBC and Ronnie Floyd and Wal-Mart, BWA, Vision America and the closed door meeting in San Antonio in 1999.
Whole world needs to know a little more definitively about Bush and the religion card, especially as Rove, the disciple not of Jesus Christ, but of Lee Atwater plays it
Wilkey got close in his ethicsdaily.com column today. The http://www.takebackourfaith.org NY Times ad is in the right direction.
Cooperman needs to do another front page story. Bush religion card is much bigger than Rather's typewriter.
Talk to Glenn Smith of the Politics of Deceit. Heck talk to me. I'm sure James Dunn has some views on this matter given his history with Richard Land, Jesse Helms, Sam Currin the religion card.
As Criswell says either the Bible is literally true or it isn't. Bush's SBC base was massacred on the question of whether the first 11 chapters of Genesis are historically and literally accurate.
Karl Rove should demand our "Christian" president answer the same question.
Likewise after Dub all local Babdiss preachers everywhere should either sign the BFM 2000, express their personal views on BWA and women preachers and then lead their churches to send the Church cooperative program moneys where their convictions are.

[Sandy]

Good article. It didn't really answer any questions I have, but it did provide some good information about Bush. Most extremist religious righters aren't too hot in the informed category. I've met several who were glad to inform me that Bush was an "active Southern Baptist." He is a United Methodist.

That's always been a bit puzzling as well. Methodists are generally more liberal than evangelicals, and the church that GW and Laura call home in Dallas is more liberal than most Methodists. Women in the pulpit are commomplace, and they are evenly split on gay and lesbian ordination. The Methodist church they occasionally attended in Austin was pretty far to the left as well. I don't know if it occurred when GWB was governor, but it has had several female pastors. In DC, their rare church attendances include St. John's Church, a liberal Episcopal congregation right behind the White House, and Foundry United Methodist Church, another left side Methodist congregation.

Bush seems to accept Mormons as Christians, along with Jehovah's Witnesses, and followers of Sun Myung Moon, none of which are accepted by evangelicals as "CHristian." Having an Islamic Imam open the Republican convention in prayer was pretty bold.

I teeter on the brink of believing that he is genuine and sincere, or using a religious posture while being non-committal as a political tool to get votes. Newsweek did an article a couple of years back that hinted that he was briefed and told that if he ever wanted to be the Republican nominee and run for president, he'd have to start sounding like a conservative evangelical.

[William Thornton]