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On a mission from God?
After Bush's inaugural address, Rich Weaver slipped past security, entered a restricted area, and shook Bush's hand. He then gave the president a medallion and a blue card. On the card, Weaver says, was a message from God: "Your miracle election is to remind you to stand for Christ daily without political compromise. Keep Christ first and God will give you another miracle election in four years." What's absolutely crazy about the whole thing is that Weaver pulled the same trick off four years ago at Clinton's inauguration. And the Capitol Police were shown a video of that encounter so that Weaver could be identified if he tried it again. "The guards let me in like nobody's business," said the 55-year-old renegade minister. "It happens all the time. It's so funny, it's almost eerie. But this stuff is no big deal to God. God can close people's eyes so they don't see you." He tried to explain the same thing to the Secret Service. "It had nothing to do with you. God's bigger than all you guys," he told them. He later explained to The Washington Post, "It really encourages them [the Secret Service] when I tell them that." (I bet.) A former Secret Service agent says Weaver won't be charged with anything. (See also Weaver's interview with the Associated Press.)

Bush will start sending "charitable choice" proposals to Congress next week
As a first step to involving churches and religious organizations in governmental social programs, President Bush had dinner last night at the home of Theodore McCarrick, Washington's archbishop (who will be elevated to cardinal by Pope John Paul II). Before the meeting, Bush explained his plans are "all based upon what's called charitable choice, which is a constitutional provision which recognizes government will never fund religion but government should not fear funding programs that can change people's lives. Nor should government fear providing funding for an individual and allow that individual to choose a faith-based program so long as there's a secular alternative available." Archdiocese spokeswoman Susan Gibbs said, "It was a private dinner. There wasn't an agenda. Tonight was more social. It was really just a chance for [them to] get to know each other." But White House spokesman Ari Fleischer noted, "It's part of reach-out, part of faith-based solutions. He's been discussing that with leaders of a variety of religious backgrounds, and he's going to continue to do that." Fleischer also agreed that Bush's plans will be controversial. "Some people will raise church and state issues," he told reporters. "The president is prepared to take that on."

Evangelicals voting more Republican
A much larger percentage of evangelicals voted for Bush than voted for Bob Dole four years ago, says a survey by political scientists John Green, Lyman Kellstedt, Corwin Smidt, and James Guth (who regularly study religious voting behavior). "The Bush vote was substantially an alliance of more observant white Christians (Protestant and Catholic), led by evangelical Protestants; they were joined by less observant white Protestants," the study says. "Together these groups made up about three-quarters of the Texas governor's total." And this alliance was stronger than usual, they say: "84 percent of more observant evangelicals voted for Bush. This figure was considerably higher than the comparable figure in 1996, when Bob Dole received 70 percent of their votes. Observant mainline Protestants were also strongly Republican, backing Bush with 65 percent, a margin that also grew from Dole's 58 percent in 1996. However, the most Republican religious group was the Mormons, 88 percent of whom voted for Bush, about the same level as four years earlier." Black Protestants were the strongest Democratic group, followed by Jews and secular voters.

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January (Web-only) 2001, Vol. 45