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Religion

Man of faith

Does the president believe he is God's man in the White House? Or is he just a man trying to do God's will?

By WES ALLISON
Published January 16, 2005

	[Getty Images]
	President Bush, at a church service in Maryland two years ago, says he frequently prays for God's wisdom and guidance.

WASHINGTON - President Bush finds Jesus here, in the historic, pale yellow sanctuary where he often worships on Sundays, even though St. John's Episcopal Church doesn't share his views on gay unions, the death penalty or the war in Iraq.

The president finds Jesus here, too, in the marbled halls of the White House, where he reads daily devotionals and asks God's guidance, and where he has funneled billions of taxpayer dollars to religious charities.

And he invoked Jesus at a civic center in Iowa five years ago during his first presidential debate, when he was asked to name his favorite thinker. "Christ," he answered without hesitation, "because he changed my heart."

Thursday, on the west side of the U.S. Capitol, facing Texas, Bush will place his left hand on the family Bible he keeps at his bedside, then swear to uphold the Constitution. Millions of evangelical Christians will praise God for again providing a man of faith to lead the nation.

But forget the snide T-shirts labeling the big red block of Bush-backing states as "Jesusland," and forget the complaints about the born-again righteousness that his critics say permeates his presidency. Forget the "Faith in the White House" ball caps bobbing among the crowd at Republican rallies.

Although Bush has given conservative Christians a voice in government like no other president in the modern age, his public comments on faith give voice to far less fire and brimstone than supporters and critics alike portray.

Those who have prayed with and ministered to him say it is also wrong to suggest, as his critics often do, that Bush believes he is God's man in the White House.

That because he prays for wisdom and guidance, he believes God blesses his decisions.

That his faith is the foundation for his famous certitude, and his apparent distaste for dissenting views.

On some matters, including abortion and stem cell research, the president does make decisions based on his interpretation of Christianity, but "he is very clear that he is commander-in-chief, not chaplain-in-chief," said the Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell, a Methodist minister in Houston who is one of the president's closest pastors.

"He is very clear about the fact that the American people put him in office. He is not confused about that at all," Caldwell said.

"Sometimes I read little statements that imply that God put him in office. He does not think that."

Critics on the left say that Bush appears to believe he is working God's will and that he has not only God's blessing, but also his endorsement.

Friends and ministers, however, say he is simply a man of faith who asks God's help. Then, like most Christians, he does what he thinks is right.

They say the man who walks into St. John's to worship early Sunday mornings is the same man who proposes reforming Social Security is the same man who invaded Iraq is the same man who cut taxes.

Father Richard Neuhaus is a prominent Catholic priest who helped Bush articulate his policies against abortion, embryonic stem cell research and cloning and has visited the White House to discuss matters of faith. He said the president in no way believes his decisions necessarily reflect God's will, or that God acts through him.

"We pray for divine guidance in all the major decisions of our life, and sometimes we sense that the prayer has been answered with clarity," said Neuhaus, editor of First Things, a Catholic newsletter in New York. "But most of the time we act in the face of our uncertainty."

Evangelical leaders and many conservative Christians happily proclaim that Bush has reversed a 12-year decline, beginning with his father, in Christian influence and values at the highest level of government.

Polls show white Protestants overwhelmingly chose Bush over Sen. John Kerry in November's election, and Christian activists say the president's public faith endears him to them.

It's not that Bush speaks more stridently than his predecessors. Many of his comments about the power of prayer and God's grace could have been uttered by Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton or Jimmy Carter, who also identified himself as born again.

What's different is how Bush has expressed his faith, which has led to the perception that he believes he is closer to God. In describing how renewing his faith allowed him to give up alcohol 20 years ago, Bush offers a story of personal salvation central to the notion of being "born again." He speaks of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ that resounds with evangelicals.

He also has given religious conservatives and their ideals leading roles in his administration. His first month in office, Bush suspended funding for international groups that offer abortions. He created the White House Office of Faith-Based Initiatives, which has given more than $3-billio n to religious groups for social services, as long as they don't proselytize.

His administration has taken aim at abortion rights, and he limited federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. He recently named Claude Allen, a deputy secretary of health and human services with close ties to the religious right, as his chief domestic policy adviser. Last week, he promoted Jim Towey, a former Florida social services chief, from director of faith-based initiatives to senior assistant to the president, a job on par with chief political adviser Karl Rove.

"He shares our concept of the role of government, and also the role that faith plays in our American scene," said Rich Cizik, vice president for governmental relations for the National Association of Evangelicals. "I would say that Bush is no cultural stranger to the evangelical faith in the way that John Kerry showed himself to be."

Bush's supporters often exacerbate the left's impression that Bush is overly righteous, equating Bush's election with returning God to the White House.

But those close to him say it's not clear how the president believes God affects his decisions. It probably isn't clear to him, either.

"I think any of us that has a relationship with God recognizes that it is shrouded in mystery, full of doubts, and very rarely a burning line of certainty," Towey said. "My sense is the president prays for strength and wisdom, then goes about being the best president he can be, and makes decisions he thinks are in the best interest of America.

"I've never, ever heard him say, "This is what God wants this country to do,' that somehow he has some kind of phone in the Oval Office to heaven."

The president's friends of faith say it's important to note that religion does not drive many of his policies. Some Christians, who cheer Bush's stances on abortion and gay marriage, for example, argue his cuts in social programs and his industry-friendly environmental policies run counter to biblical teachings.

"One must be careful not to assume that because Bush is a man of faith that he uses religious faith to fill in the moral gaps in our economic system, for example," Cizik said. "I don't think when Bush approaches the issue of Social Security reform he's exercising his religious belief system. Nor is he doing so when he goes to war with Iraq."

On Sundays when the president is in Washington, he takes the short, pleasant stroll from the White House through Lafayette Park to worship at St. John's Episcopal Church. Every president since James Madison has prayed here.

Before the inauguration Thursday, the church will hold a private service for the president, his family and his Cabinet, as well as the church staff. The rector, the Rev. Luis Leon, later will give the invocation at the swearing-in at the Capitol.

Theirs is a friendly relationship based in part on their shared love of Christ. But on many political and social issues, Bush and the St. John's clergy are not as compatible.

The Episcopal Church officially supports legal abortion; the president does not. St. John's has blessed gay unions; the president has pushed a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. It opposes the death penalty; under Bush, Texas led the nation in executions. The bishop of the Washington diocese opposes the war in Iraq.

Such is the difficulty of judging faith in a public official: Religious people often interpret the Bible and Christianity differently. The church's assistant rector, the Rev. Hannah E. Atkins, said many of the president's beliefs about God's desires run counter to hers.

"There's a difference between asking for God's guidance and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and asking for God's blessing on your action and claiming that you know the will of God," Atkins said.

"I think what he claims is that he makes many of his decisions based on how he interprets his religious beliefs."

Especially troublesome for her and many of the president's critics is the sense that Bush dismisses dissenting views and is so confident with his decisions because he believes God is on his side.

But Neuhaus said the president's prayerfulness is really an expression of uncertainty. Caldwell, Bush's spiritual confidant in Houston, said he would be just as self-confident if he were not a man of faith.

"If someone sees him as a "religious person,' it becomes equally convenient to label him as arrogant and religious, as opposed to just being arrogant," Caldwell said. "It's the onlookers who put that religious tag on him when they view that as reason for him being cocky."

Bush's specific theological beliefs are not a matter of record, and his ministers declined to discuss them. Like Reagan, he has refused to endorse the scientific principle of evolution, and he believes creationism should be taught alongside evolution in schools. He supports displaying the Ten Commandments in government facilities.

Before he was elected governor of Texas, he was quoted as suggesting that only Christians go to heaven, but he later said he was misunderstood and sent the Anti-Defamation League a letter of apology.

He appears comfortable with those who hold views different from his own. Bush was raised an Episcopalian, converting to Methodism after he married Laura in 1977.

When he invites clergy to the White House, he includes representatives of non-Christian faiths.

Towey recalled visiting a Jewish drug treatment center in Los Angeles with him. As they met recovering addicts, "it wasn't an issue to him that it was built around the Torah and Judaism," said Towey, who is Catholic. "He saw that people were recovering, and he understood that the spiritual component was important to that.

"He's rooted in his own beliefs, and he's comfortable with people who are rooted in theirs."

In an interview with writers and editors for religious publications last summer, Bush said that each morning he reads the late Oswald Chambers, a Scottish minister who wrote a popular devotional, My Utmost for the Highest.

This year he planned to re-read the One-Year Bible, he told them. He is thrilled when people pray for him.

"People say, "When do you pray?' " Bush said. "I pray all the time. All the time. ... Whether it be in the Oval Office, I mean, you just do it."

The president has asked Caldwell to deliver the benediction at his inauguration.

Caldwell is senior pastor of the nation's largest Methodist church, the predominantly African-American Windsor Village United Methodist Church, which counts 6,000 souls. They met about eight years ago at a reception in Houston hosted by black business leaders.

While Caldwell identifies himself as "not a Republican," Windsor Village was providing many of the social services Bush would later fund as president, and the two hit it off. In the years since, Caldwell has become one of the president's closest friends and spiritual counselors.

Caldwell hasn't decided exactly what to say Thursday, and he takes to heart that the president is counting on him. Before each debate in both presidential campaigns, Bush called Caldwell in Houston, and the two would pray.

What about?

Caldwell laughed. "I didn't pray that God would confound Sen. Kerry. My focus was pretty much on the president and his relationship with God."

They also would pray for "clarity of thought - clarity of speech, as well, for that matter. And just doing the best you can."

Times researchers Carolyn Edds and Kitty Bennett contributed to this report.

[Last modified January 16, 2005, 00:34:19]