Bush says U.S. seeing religious reawakening
Pastor Dale Morgan
Thursday September 14, 2:05 AM Reuters
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Bush says U.S. seeing religious reawakening*
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush believes the United
States has embarked on the latest great religious awakening of its history.
Bush, who counts on religious conservatives as a key base of political
support, was quoted as saying on Tuesday that the United States appeared
to be undergoing a cultural change on the scale of that seen in the
1950s and '60s.
"There was a pretty stark change in the culture of the '50s and the
'60s. I mean, boom. But I think something is happening here," Bush said
at a roundtable with conservative columnists. His words were reported by
the National Review magazine.
"I'm not giving you a definitive statement -- it seems like to me
there's a Third Awakening with a cultural change," Bush said.
Historians have pointed to periods such as the early 1700s and early
1800s, as times in which religious movements were particularly
significant in America.
Those eras are referred to as Great Awakenings, although there is
disagreement on how many there have been. In one such period, in the
1730s and 1740s, religious revivals in the United States coincided with
similar movements in Germany and England.
An awakening in the 1800s is credited with helping to inspire the
movement to abolish slavery in the United States.
Bush, a Methodist, often talks about the importance of faith in his
life. Some critics seeing this as crossing a line between religion and
politics, and his frequent references to religion are viewed with
particular unease abroad.
Amid growing U.S. concerns about the Iraq war, The National Review
article linked Bush's rejection of a pullout to his religious faith.
"I know it upsets people when I ascribe that to my belief in an
Almighty, and that I believe a gift from that Almighty is universal
freedom. That's what I believe," Bush said.