CHRISTIANITY TODAY/February 17, 1989

Is there more to George Bush’s faith than public prayers and church attendance?

“Heavenly Father, we bow our heads and thank you for your love. Accept our thanks for the peace that yields this day and the shared faith that makes its continuance likely. Make us strong to do your work, willing to heed and hear your will, and write on our hearts these words: Use power to help people. For we are given power not to advance our own purposes, nor to make a great show in the world, nor a name. There is but one just use of power, and it is to serve people. Help us remember, Lord. Amen.”

—A prayer offered by George Bush at the beginning of his inaugural speech, January 20, 1989.

Many evangelicals who once thought President George Bush’s proclamations of faith may have been politically motivated are now warming to the notion of a genuinely Christian president. And as the Bush administration takes shape, many Christians will be watching closely to see how—or if—Bush’s religious beliefs will affect his policy making.

“Never Any Doubt”

Bush never used to talk openly or easily about his religious beliefs. In an interview with CHRISTIANITY TODAY last fall, Bush said his faith “has been very personal.” Yet, in the same interview, he asserted that “there was never any doubt that Jesus Christ was my Savior and Lord” (CT, Sept. 16, 1988, p. 40).

While many politicians stop talking about their religion after they are elected, Bush has seemed to increase his public discussion of religious matters. On the day following his election, he told reporters he and his wife had gone to church that morning because “God’s help is absolutely essential.”

Similarly, during last month’s inaugural events, the Bushes scheduled both private and public worship services, and Bush proclaimed the Sunday following his inauguration a national day of prayer. During his inaugural speech, Bush said that his first act as President would be a prayer (see above).

The Bushes have followed through with their stated intention to attend church every Sunday. The family, lifelong Episcopalians, generally rotate worship at several Episcopal churches in the Washington area, but they have also visited other churches, including a black Baptist church. The Bushes have said they will not allow security precautions to hamper their worship pattern, and, indeed, Barbara Bush told one television interviewer that she believes one of her duties as First Lady is to “get my husband to church.”

Billy Graham, who has been a close personal friend of the President and his family for more than 25 years, believes Bush’s faith is “strong and genuine.” Graham told CHRISTIANITY TODAY, “I’ve had prayer with him many times and discussed spiritual things with his whole family on a number of occasions.”

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Bush has included other Christians in the leadership of his administration. Vice-president Dan Quayle and his wife have regularly attended McLean Presbyterian Church in northern Viriginia and are considered evangelicals. Mrs. Quayle has been part of a Bible study along with Joanne Kemp, wife of Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Jack Kemp, and Susan Baker, wife of Secretary of State James Baker. In addition to the Quayles, two Cabinet members, Kemp and Labor Secretary Elizabeth Hanford Dole, have been outspoken about their evangelical beliefs.

Faith And Public Policy

While many Americans might concede that faith is a good thing for the nation’s highest leader, determining how that faith is worked out may be more complicated. Robert Maddox, speech writer and religious liaison for President Jimmy Carter—a President who was very open about his born-again Christian faith—said a deep personal faith has many benefits for a President. “The personal strength that he can gain from his faith—from his own study of the Scripture, from his prayer life, from his own walk with the Lord—can bring great strength and a sense that he is not walking alone,” Maddox said.

Maddox noted how the Bible can “push the President to think about human problems in biblical terms. Mr. Carter did that, and it came out in a public way in his commitment to human rights, and in other quiet ways that frequently affected domestic and foreign policy.”

However, Maddox said deep faith can also pose difficulties for political leaders. “Presidents can wear their religion on their sleeve too much … and polarize people,” he said. “Politicians always have the subtle temptation to use their religion to make it look like God is on their side.”

James Skillen, executive director of the Association for Public Justice, also cautions that a Christian President could end up pushing a “civil religion” where “God is the nationalistic god of the American republic.”

Skillen said Christian citizens need to take more care in distinguishing between how a person performs the duties of office and how he confesses his faith in office. “Christians should be far more astute in looking at how George Bush is going to set his priorities, how he’s going to work on them, and at his agenda, regardless of what he says about his faith,” Skillen said. “Judge him on those deeds and not so much on how he wraps [religious] language around it.”

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Bob Dugan, director of the National Association of Evangelicals’ Washington Office on Public Affairs, said his concern is “that people may read too much by way of assumption into a statement of personal faith. A personal faith in Christ does not necessarily imply any particular political position, or, as in the case of Jimmy Carter and abortion, that he would be willing to translate personal conviction into political conviction.” In the case of George Bush, Dugan said, “We’re still going to have to look at his individual policies and see how he translates the personal faith into his political convictions.”

In making such translations, Maddox advises Bush to go to Scripture. “I would like some sense that Mr. Bush struggles with the biblical mandates about the poor and the hungry and the widow and the orphan, that he struggles with the concepts of war and peace,” Maddox said.

Skillen urges the President to “learn to call on others with whom he could pray, with whom he could get encouragement.” Dugan suggests that Bush place an evangelical at the top level of his staff in the White House. In addition, Dugan advises Bush to continue with regular church worship. He said he was “always disappointed” that Reagan did not attend church.

Some evangelicals remain skeptical about how Bush’s faith will be worked out, but evangelist Graham said he is confident “it will have a great influence.” Said Graham, “[Bush] desperately wants to see the moral values of this country restored and implemented, and when he says he wants to see a kinder, gentler nation, it means he wants to reach out to the people who feel discriminated against and the homeless and the poor.”

By Kim A. Lawton in Washington, D.C.

ANALYSIS

Pious Presidents

Some Presidents of the United States have served as lay preachers, Sunday school teachers, vestrymen, or choir members; others have been alcoholics, womanizers, inveterate gamblers, or liars. But whatever their personal lifestyles, every elected President from George Washington to George Bush has made deferential reference to the Deity in some form in his inaugural address, often with warmth and feeling.

Ulysses Simpson Grant (1869–77), for example, attended services with considerable regularity with his devout wife at the Metropolitan Methodist Church in Washington. When as President he was requested by the Sunday School Times to compose a message for its readers, he advised; “Hold fast to the Bible as the sheet anchor of your liberties; write its precepts in your hearts and practice them in your lives.”

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Yet this same President Grant was plagued by chronic alcoholism and gave up plans to reform the civil service when a designing group of politicians plied him with choice wines, expensive cigars, and fast horses.

Although relatively honest, Grant allowed corruption to run rampant during his eight years as President. Historians have considered the various departments of the national government during his administration to have been riddled by more scandal than ever before or since.

Similarly, Warren G. Harding’s (1921–23) inaugural address was laced with references to God and biblical themes. His mother was a devout believer and his sister a missionary to Asia. As a young man, Harding joined a Baptist church in Marion, Ohio, and in time became a trustee. Both before and after he became President, he was widely known as a humanitarian and man of good will.

However, his administration, like Grant’s, was riddled with corruption, and his name became forever linked with the infamous Teapot Dome Scandal. Moreover, after his untimely death in 1923, his womanizing, frequent gambling, and hard drinking (during the period of national prohibition) came to light. Harding, as one historian commented, clearly had genuine religious feelings, but they had little impact on many aspects of his public and personal life.

For this reason, Christian citizens should reserve judgment on the meaning of the God words a newly elected President utters in his inaugural address to the nation, remembering always the words of Jesus: “By their fruits ye shall know them” (Matt. 7:20).

By Robert D. Linder, professor of history at Kansas State University.

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