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NEWS FEATURE:
President Bush's Religious Rhetoric
February 7, 2003 Episode no. 623
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BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: Now a look at the President as Pastor. At the Houston memorial service, and again at the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday, Mr. Bush referred to God, and faith, several times. Religious imagery has become a hallmark of his speeches, prompting debate about whether such language unites or divides. Kim Lawton reports.
President George Bush in Houston: It is a desire written in the human heart.
President Bush: In the words of the prophet Isaiah, "Lift your eyes and look to the heavens."
President Bush at National Prayer Breakfast: The Almighty God is a God to everybody.
KIM LAWTON: There were times this past week when President Bush sounded more like a preacher than a politician.
President Bush at National Prayer Breakfast: Events aren't moved by blind change and chance. Behind all of life and all of history, there's a dedication and purpose, set by the hand of a just and faithful God.
Dr. ELAINE PAGELS (Religion Professor, Princeton University): Other presidents certainly have used biblical language. But in recent memory, I cannot think of anyone who has used the language in the way that this man has.
LAWTON: Bush -- who describes himself as a born-again Methodist -- works with a team of speechwriters, headed by Michael Gerson, an evangelical Christian. Bush's speeches frequently reflect his religious beliefs, something that has garnered praise -- and provoked criticism.
Religion Professor Elaine Pagels is among those concerned.
Dr. PAGELS: Many people think that religion is essentially benign. But religion has also been, as we know in the history of humankind, enormously divisive as well. It can reinforce divisions; It can demonize the opposition. It can imply that anyone who is not Christian, much less evangelical, is not a real American.
RICHARD CIZIK (National Association of Evangelicals): Americans not only expect this language of their presidents, but they respect it. This is a nation with a soul of a church. This is religious language for a religious people, and Americans are comfortable with it.
LAWTON: Bush is following a long Presidential tradition of public religious speech.
Professor STEVE TIPTON (Emory University): This kind of civil religious rhetoric can and should be not just biblical in resonance and cadence, but not specific to this or that denomination or even faith tradition. There is an effort, certainly, in Mike Gerson's writing to make this kind of unifying embrace rather than to say explicitly "Christ Jesus." But there are these evangelical resonances.
LAWTON: Sometimes Bush's religious references can be subtle.
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President Bush: Yet, there's power, wonder-working power, in the goodness and idealism and faith of the American people.
LAWTON: Protestants recognized the "wonder-working power" phrase from a popular hymn about the blood of Jesus.
His announcement of the shuttle disaster was explicitly religious.
President Bush: The same Creator who names the stars also knows the names of the seven souls we mourn today.
LAWTON: That speech earned widespread religious praise.
Leaders of the American Muslim Council told Bush: In a moment of profound sadness, you gave us a sense of peace and a feeling that beyond our national grief, there is hope.
The president of the Jewish Yeshiva University called it a "powerful and moving announcement" by "a truly religious person, who spoke genuinely spiritual words."
Mr. CIZIK: President Bush has played the role of a priest attempting to help heal the nation's wound and that's entirely appropriate.
LAWTON: But the nation didn't elect a pastor. They elected a president.
Mr. CIZIK: Right. But presidents in this country, who play the role of head of state as well as head of a political party, have that function.
LAWTON: Professor Steve Tipton says public, civil religion may be more appropriate at some times than others.
Prof. TIPTON: There are real differences in occasion, and one of the things that's most revealing about religion in public or religious language and moral rhetoric from the public pulpit -- and particularly from the presidential podium -- is: what is the occasion?
LAWTON: Professor Pagels is critical of how Bush applies religion to public policy, such as his use of the word "evil" to label nationsÉand Saddam Hussein.
Dr. PAGELS: He's turned the volume way up on this kind of language and in doing so, portrays us as people caught in a battle of good against evil. You'd think we were in the Lord of the Rings.
President Bush: If this is not evil, then evil has no meaning.
Dr. PAGELS: What that does is distort the reality of the situation and make anyone who even engages him in discourse seem like somebody who is on the side of evil.
Mr. CIZIK: The President isn't using his words for partisanship. This is the President's theology. He brings it to these issues. I think it's entirely appropriate.
LAWTON: The President has made it clear religion will be playing a key role during what he calls this "testing time for our country." He's requested prayers for wisdom and guidance in the days ahead.
I'm Kim Lawton in Washington
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