'God Is Not Indifferent to America'

One Zell of a misquote

If you missed Zell Miller's speech yesterday, here's a summary: Vote for Bush because he'll send us into war.

But Miller's speech wasn't all about promising that Bush will "grab terrorists by the throat and not let them go." It was also the convention's most direct in saying that Americans should vote for Bush because of his religion.

"I can identify with someone who has lived that line in 'Amazing Grace,' 'Was blind, but now I see,' and I like the fact that he's the same man on Saturday night that he is on Sunday morning," Miller said. (Well, says a Beliefnet reprint of an Amy Sullivan blog posting, that's true in that he doesn't attend church at either time … )

But without a doubt, Miller's most shocking line was this:

I am moved by … the fact that he is unashamed of his belief that God is not indifferent to America.

Expect many pundits to make a comparison similar to that of Beliefnet editor Steven Waldman:

Kerry took a different approach in his speech by quoting Lincoln: 'I don't want to claim that God is on our side. 'As Abraham Lincoln told us, I want to pray humbly that we are on God's side.'"

Yeah, but one might as well quote Bush, too. Weblog has never seen a quote from the president that says, "God is not indifferent to America." But he has seen Bush make the same Lincoln reference that Kerry made. Here's Bush at this year's National Day of Prayer:

It was Lincoln who called Americans "the almost chosen people." [And] that word, "almost," makes quite a difference. Americans do not presume to equate God's purposes with any purpose of our own. God's will is greater than any man, or any nation built by men. He works His will. He finds His children within every culture and every tribe. And ...

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