The Jesus Factor
Daves
The Jesus Factor
Written, Produced and Directed by
Raney Aronson
..............
Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: My relationship with God through Christ gives me
meaning and direction.
ANNOUNCER: He is by most accounts the most openly religious president
in generations.
E.J. DIONNE, Jr., Author, Sacred Places, Civic Purposes: The interest
in religion is not made up. It has to do with Bush's self-presentation
and what he thinks he is about.
Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: I'll talk about it, OK? I've got a personal
faith. Billy Graham came into my life.
ANNOUNCER: From the beginnings of his faith--
MARK LEAVERTON, Midland Men's Community Bible Study: He told me at
that point, he said, you know, "I realized that I had to be born
again."
ANNOUNCER: --and his mission to become president--
Dr. RICHARD LAND, Southern Baptist Convention: Among the things he
said to us was, "I believe that God wants me to be president."
ANNOUNCER: --to his embrace of conservative Christians--
DOUG WEAD, Advisor to Pres. George H.W. Bush: The message did come
home. My God, you could win the White House with nothing but
evangelicals.
ANNOUNCER: --and his ideas on God and government--
Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: We need commonsense judges who understand that
our rights were derived from God.
ANNOUNCER: Tonight, FRONTLINE examines a president--
Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: I, George Walker Bush, do solemnly swear--
ANNOUNCER: --and his faith.
NARRATOR: George W. Bush has often said that to understand him, one
must go to Midland, Texas. And it's in Midland that his religious
journey begins.
WAYNE SLATER, Sr. Political Writer, Dallas Morning News: The thing to
understand about Midland is that it's probably the most conservative
area of Texas. It's flat. There's nothing to do here but to make
money, if you're in the oil business, or to work for companies that
make money because of the oil business, and to go to church.
NARRATOR: Midland's motto is "Where the sky's the limit," but in the
mid-1980s, during the biggest oil bust in a generation, that kind of
optimism was hard to find. The downturn lead to bankruptcies, divorce,
even suicide. And it was during those desperate times that this group
was formed, Midland's chapter of Community Bible Study, or CBS, as
it's called.
SKIP HEDGPETH, Midland Men's Community Bible Study: Men were searching
for help, trying to have an air of confidence for their families that
things were going to be OK. And they were themselves looking for help
to find out that everything was going to be OK.
BIBLE STUDY LEADER: Tonight in Romans 5, the Apostle Paul is going to
help us discover the vast riches that are available to all people
through faith in Jesus Christ.
SKIP HEDGPETH: Hard times have a way of making people draw closer to
God. Out of the struggles, we become aware that, you know, we're not
in charge of everything. And so we start looking for a power greater
than ourselves to help us when we're in our troubles.
NARRATOR: Facing his own troubles, in the fall of 1985, George W. Bush
joined the Bible study group.
MARK LEAVERTON: When he came, it was noteworthy. It was always neat to
me because I thought, "Isn't that wonderful? Here's a guy who has so
much in his life, and yet he has a need, just like I do."
NARRATOR: Bush had been given so much in his life. He was from a
privileged family with powerful business and political connections
going back generations. But very little had gone well in Bush's own
life. As his father had before him, Bush had moved to Midland hoping
to make his fortune in the oil business. But in the middle of the oil
bust, facing bankruptcy, he had been forced to sell his company.
WAYNE SLATER: As Bush approached 40 years old, he found himself as the
dark sheep of the family. He talked about that.
NARRATOR: Wayne Slater is a Texas newspaperman who has followed George
W. Bush throughout his political career.
WAYNE SLATER: Jeb was the one who was going to be the political
success of the family. George told the Queen of England one time,
"Well, I'm the black sheep in my family."
NARRATOR: Bush's family were East Coast Episcopalians, churchgoing but
not particularly devout. When he had married Laura Welsh, Bush had
adopted her family's United Methodist Church.
WAYNE SLATER: His father and mother's church, the Episcopalian Church,
is seen by some Methodists as a liberal or much too tolerant offshoot.
The Methodist Church gives you an opportunity, and the Baptist Church
even more, to believe in certain absolutes in an absolute way.
NARRATOR: But Bush had expressed little interest in religion. Though
he had gone to church every Sunday, by his own admission, he had been
more interested in an active social life, fueled by heavy drinking.
But with a wife and two young girls, his lifestyle had begun to cause
problems.
DOUG WEAD: He knows he's got a drinking problem. He loves his
daughters, and he was going to lose his daughters if he lost his
marriage. And he was going to lose his marriage if he didn't stop
drinking. But he's going every Sunday to this Methodist church with
Laura, for the kids' sake, for the girls' sake. No matter what he
believes, he's there, he's hearing this stuff. He's already had some
literature that shows that people who are able to beat their drinking
problem often do by invoking a higher power.
NARRATOR: Then, the summer before he turned 40, he had a conversation
with the Reverend Billy Graham, an old Bush family friend. Years
later, Bush would write, "Graham planted a mustard seed in my soul."
And soon after his 40th birthday, Bush made a decision.
DOUG WEAD: He woke up one morning and he said, "Eureka. That's it.
I'll take God. I'll beat drinking. I keep Laura and the girls. That
simple. I will never take a drink again the rest of my life. Done. So
where do you go to sign up? How do you believe? I'll believe."
BIBLE STUDY LEADER: "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus." Sing it twice.
NARRATOR: The Bible study that Bush joined was evangelical Christian.
To evangelicals, it is not their Christian denomination that connects
them but a series of beliefs. One of the most important is committing
yourself to Jesus Christ, or being "born again."
MARK LEAVERTON: We all have that deep yearning for something genuine,
something real. And I'm sure that's exactly what George was feeling.
He'd changed, and all of a sudden, studying the Bible was important.
NARRATOR: Bush became one of a 120 Midland men who began a rigorous
study of the Bible.
BIBLE STUDY LEADER: This week's passage provides a beautiful picture
of God's unconditional love.
NARRATOR: Many of the men in this room today were in the group 19
years ago when George Bush joined.
BIBLE STUDY LEADER: If ever there is a Scripture verse that defines
the grace of God this is this one. So who's got the memory work this
week?
[www.pbs.org: More on Midland's Bible study class]
NARRATOR: Conservative evangelicals consider the Bible to be the word
of God, and without error, and reading it daily is more important even
than going to church.
BIBLE STUDY PARTICIPANT: God demonstrates his own love for us in this.
Christ died for us.
BIBLE STUDY PARTICIPANT: It's Romans 5-8.
BIBLE STUDY PARTICIPANT: Amen to that.
BIBLE STUDY PARTICIPANT: Thanks, brother.
MARK LEAVERTON: I remember after George Bush had been in CBS for about
a year, a year-and-a-half, my wife and I went to the Yucca Theater,
which is a little downtown theater. And there were these little tables
you could sit at. I sat down, my wife Vikki, and I. And then George
and Laura Bush came in and set at this little table with us.
I leaned over to him, and I said, "George. How have you been enjoying
CBS?" Really kind of conversational. I wasn't trying to get deep with
him at-- you know, at this play. And he looked at me, and really just
very strong eyes and feeling in his voice, he said, "CBS has changed
my life." I was really taken aback by the fervor, the way he said it.
It was something deep. And he talked about the fact that when we had
studied about Nicodemus and how Nicodemus asked Jesus about life, and
Jesus told him, "Nicodemus, you've got to be born again," and that
little story really impacted him because he told me, at that point, he
said, "You know, I realized through studying that that I had to be
born again."
NARRATOR: But being born again did not solve all his problems. In
1987, still struggling with his career, George W. Bush left Midland
and moved to Washington, D.C. His father was running for president,
and he had a problem.
Vice Pres. GEORGE H.W. BUSH, Presidential Candidate: Let me say we've
just gotten the returns in from Iowa. Round two is over. And I
congratulate both Mr. Dole and-- Senator Dole and Pat Robertson.
ROBERTSON SUPPORTERS: Hats off for Pat! Hats off for Pat!
NARRATOR: The Bush campaign was stunned when their candidate came in
third in the Iowa caucus behind televangelist Pat Robertson.
Rev. PAT ROBERTSON, Presidential Candidate: Thank you very much! I
must say that my campaign for the presidency has been given an
enormous boost here in Iowa tonight.
NARRATOR: Robertson was the latest in a line of conservative
evangelical leaders who had been having increasing success in getting
religious voters to the polls. In his campaign, he had emphasized the
moral issues that conservative evangelicals had been rallying around
for years, such as school prayer and abortion.
Rev. PAT ROBERTSON: You and I know we must restore the greatness of
America through moral strength!
NARRATOR: But George Bush, Sr., was not an evangelical Christian, and
he was never comfortable discussing his religion in public. To craft a
better message to religious conservatives, he had hired evangelical
political adviser Doug Wead.
DOUG WEAD: I was writing a memorandum for George Bush, Sr. on how to
build a relationship with the evangelical community-- how to define
it, who they are, where they come from, what's their language.
NARRATOR: Soon it was clear someone other than Bush, Sr., was reading
Wead's memos.
DOUG WEAD: I was churning out hundreds of pages of memorandum, and he
was sending them back with little notations. And so someone was
talking in his ear about this information I was feeding him. I
suspected it was Billy Graham. It had to be someone sharp, who
understood evangelical Christianity. But it turned out he was vetting
them with his son.
Obviously, this was part of the equation. The vice president was
receiving this memorandum from me that had data and facts and
demographics and percentages, and then he was hearing verbally, at the
same time, from his son, saying, "Mom, Dad, this is real America. This
is-- this is out here. I've tasted it myself."
WAYNE SLATER: If it wasn't for the son, George Bush the father
wouldn't have received as much support as he did in the evangelical
community. George W. Bush reached out to some key evangelical
ministers, reassuring them about the values of his father in a way his
father, an Episcopalian, could not do.
DOUG WEAD: I remember one meeting where we thoroughly prepped the vice
president. And he had been in many sessions already. He was very good.
But we were with a group of evangelicals. They were really tough. And
they started peeling the onion back so fast that I thought, "Uh-oh!"
And finally, the vice president said, "Hey, fellas, you need to talk
to my son. He's a real born-again Christian."
NARRATOR: Often, Wead and the younger Bush would talk to evangelical
groups themselves.
DOUG WEAD: We in the Republican Party can humble ourselves and put
down our golf clubs long enough to welcome in the new evangelicals--
NARRATOR: And the evangelicals liked what they heard.
GEORGE W. BUSH: No matter how busy George Bush has been in his past,
he's never let us down as a father.
RICHARD CIZIK, Natl Association of Evangelicals: Bush indicated on
multiple occasions that he understood us. He wasn't just a fixer who
was trying to fix a political problem, he was somebody who understood
us and had a heart that was akin to our own.
NARRATOR: Richard Cizik heads up the government affairs office of the
National Association of Evangelicals. The group represents 45,000
churches.
RICHARD CIZIK: And he was saying, "I not only share your concerns but
I'll do what I can." And that was all that was needed.
NARRATOR: With his son's help, George Bush, Sr., won by a landslide.
DOUG WEAD: We lost, as we always do, the Jewish vote and the Hispanic
vote and all those votes. We lost the Catholic vote. We were the first
modern presidency to win an election -- and it was a landslide -- and
not win the Catholic vote-- just barely, but we lost the Catholic
vote. And how did we do it? We carried 82 percent or 83 percent of the
evangelical vote. While we were frightened by the fact that we lost
all these votes and still won the White House, the message did come
home. "My God, you can win the White House with nothing but
evangelicals, if you can get enough of them, if you get them all."
NARRATOR: And George W. Bush had learned something, too.
DOUG WEAD: Sometimes, when we would prepare these memos for his
father, we would prepare a memorandum on a region or a state. And I
remember George W. reviewing the memorandum on the state of Texas, and
he just lit up. "Ah!" You know, "I could do this in Texas." You know,
"I can make this work in Texas." I think there was no secret he was
talking about running for governor.
[www.pbs.org: Read the interview with Doug Wead]
NARRATOR: Bush had already run for political office once before--
GEORGE W. BUSH: I'm George Bush, running for the Congress.
NARRATOR: --in 1978, in a failed bid for Congress.
DOUG WEAD: His opponent had played the evangelical culture card
against him by saying everybody at George's house is going to go out
and have a beer, before the election. You know, "We're different. Our
people are different." And he got beat.
GEORGE W. BUSH: I welcome the relaxation and welcome the chance to be
alone with Laura in the house, but it has been tough to unwind.
DOUG WEAD: Now, he had become an evangelical Christian himself. So
he's reading this strategy, and he's thinking, "Whoa."
GEORGE W. BUSH: [1994 campaign commercial] I am running for governor
to change this state. We can right the wrongs in Texas if guided by
one basic principle: Individuals should be responsible and accountable
for their actions.
WAYNE SLATER: It was a marvelous transformation from the outsider,
rich wastrel, who would drink, to the inside Texan--
ANNOUNCER: [campaign commercial] --a family man active in civic and
church programs to help the disadvantaged--
WAYNE SLATER: --a person who understood the values, the religious
ethic, the social ethic, the cultural ethic that was so missing in his
first campaign.
NARRATOR: But as Bush learned to blend his personal faith with public
politics, he sometimes found himself in trouble.
KEN HERMAN, Reporter, Austin American-Statesman: He was very open
about his religion. One of the theses of my first story of him was
differences between him and his father. Obviously, the similarities
were striking and obvious, but I found some of the differences to be
also.
NARRATOR: Ken Herman was a reporter for The Houston Post. He
interviewed Bush on the day he announced his intention to run for
governor. As they talked, the new candidate offered Herman a
surprising anecdote.
KEN HERMAN: Him and his mother were having a difference of opinion
about whether you have to accept Christ to go to heaven, a perfectly
legitimate thing for a family to discuss. His mother's belief was, as
Bush told me, sort of, "Maybe you don't. But more importantly, maybe
you shouldn't worry about it, just sort of take care of yourself. And
you know, we'll see what happens when the time comes."
To make the point that this family operates different than others,
through their long-time contact with Billy Graham, they decided,
"Let's get Billy Graham on the phone"-- you know, kind of God's
right-hand man right on the planet. As it turns out, Reverend Graham
said, "Just don't worry about it. Live your life the way you're
supposed to. Love everybody and move on." Bush, however, said he held
the personal belief that you have to accept Christ to get to heaven.
[FRONTLINE Editors' Note: The above anecdote by Ken Herman differs
from what he wrote in a 1993 Houston Post article in which he reported
that Billy Graham sided with George W. Bush on theological grounds,
but agreed with Bush's mother that they should "never play God."]
DOUG WEAD: The political ramifications of that were huge. I mean, if
I'm not a Christian, if I'm Jewish or some other faith, I'm damned?
And so he doesn't talk about that anymore.
NARRATOR: But in Texas, it wasn't a problem. With overwhelming support
from conservative evangelicals and other religious conservatives, Bush
toppled Ann Richards, one of the most popular governors in Texas
history. On election night, his supporters cheered to his victory
song. It was called "God Blessed Texas."
SINGERS: God blessed Texas with his own hand. He brought down angels
from the promised land. And I've been sent to spread the message. God
blessed Texas.
NARRATOR: But it was a more traditional religious melody that Bush
invoked early on as governor. In this memo to his staff, Bush wrote
about a painting that he had hung in his governor's office. The
painting was titled "A Charge to Keep" and was based on one of Bush's
favorite Methodist hymns.
WAYNE SLATER: "A Charge to Keep" was about these Methodist circuit
riders, who would go to one church and preach and then go to another
community and preach. And in that way, the charge to keep was a charge
to spread the Gospel as broadly as possible.
NARRATOR: The word "evangel" means good news and spreading the Gospel,
or good news, is an important part of being evangelical. In his memo,
Bush wrote of the circuit riders, "This is us," and ended with a
message, "We serve one greater than ourselves."
[www.pbs.org: Read the full memo]
WAYNE SLATER: That was the message that George Bush was saying in that
memo, that this was an administration that was going to express
values-- fundamental values, Christian values, Methodist-Protestant
values.
NARRATOR: Just six months into his term, Bush was given an opportunity
to put his faith into action. Marvin Olasky, the editor of the
conservative evangelical magazine "World," had written a cover story
alerting his readers to a Christian drug treatment group that had come
under fire from the state government.
MARVIN OLASKY, Editor-In-Chief, World Magazine: There was an anti-drug
group in San Antonio called Teen Challenge of South Texas that was
helping people out of addiction, but it did it its own way. It did it
by saying that the reason people get into drugs or alcohol is because
they have a hole in their soul, and we can fill that hole in your
soul, or God can fill that hole in your soul, and fill it with Jesus.
NARRATOR: When a state agency threatened to take away Teen Challenge's
operating license for failure to follow regulations, the group had
gone public.
MARVIN OLASKY: The Teen Challenge people organized a rally, with great
Texas symbolism, in front of the Alamo. There were 200, 300 people
there holding up signs that said things like, you know, "Thank you,
Jesus, for changing my life."
NARRATOR: Bush was reminded of the change in his own life, and he
asked to see Olasky.
MARVIN OLASKY: His whole thing was, "Hey, this program works. Let's
find a way to essentially call off the dogs, let it work."
WAYNE SLATER: It's a fundamental understanding that he had that in
order to make people's lives better, you don't just institutionally
give them jobs to a bureaucracy, but you fundamentally change their
heart. And to do that, Bush was receptive to the idea that the people
that ought to do it would be the people whose hearts had been changed.
Bush believed that people who had been transformed in their own life,
much the way that George Bush had, were the perfect kind of teachers.
NARRATOR: "I support faith-based programs," Governor Bush said at the
time. "I believe that a conversion to religion, by its very nature,
promotes sobriety." Bush made it known that he supported Teen
Challenge, and his state agency backed down. Ultimately, his interest
in faith-based programs would lead to this report published by his
office, "Faith in Action: A New Vision for Church-State Cooperation in
Texas."
"We each bear a responsibility to do justice and love our neighbors,"
the report concluded, "a responsibility that comes from God. We see no
threat to promoting the general welfare when government contracts with
faith-based social service organizations."
This desire to change the relationship between churches and government
was an idea that Bush would carry towards his future presidency.
On Tuesday, January 19th, 1999, Bush and his family attended a private
church service in Austin, Texas. The service was a Texan tradition.
Later that day, Bush would be sworn in for his second term as
governor. He had won the election in a landslide and was now one of
the most popular governors in the country.
George Bush's political promise suddenly seemed boundless and talk had
begun of a possible run for the presidency. The invited guests crowded
into the small Austin church that morning.
RENA PEDERSON, Editor-at-Large, Dallas Morning News: It was former
President George Bush and Barbara Bush, the Bush daughters, their very
closest friends and closest party supporters. I attended because I go
to the same church that the Bushes attend, Highland Park Methodist in
Dallas, and I wanted to see what the minister would have to say on
this special occasion.
NARRATOR: The minister's sermon was taken from the book of Exodus. He
talked to his audience about how God had called on Moses to lead his
people. He said that Moses had been unsure of himself, uncertain he
was the right man for the task.
RENA PEDERSON: He said that Moses tried to beg off and said, "Oh, not
me. You want somebody else." You know, "I'm busy. I've got a family.
I've got this speech impediment." But he followed that by saying,
"The country's hungry for leadership."
And you have to remember the context of the times. This was 1999.
George W. Bush was about 52-- you know, just about time for a mid-life
reckoning. "What do I do with the rest of my life? How do I do what's
meaningful?" The minister counted off the number of seconds and
minutes in a year and said, "This is how many seconds in your year in
your life. What are you going to do with it?" He was looking right at
the president. You could just feel a currency in the air. I think
everyone knew something happened.
NARRATOR: Late that afternoon, Bush gathered together with some close
colleagues at his residence. In the group was Richard Land, one of the
directors of the conservative evangelical Southern Baptist Convention.
RICHARD LAND: The day he was inaugurated, there were several of us who
met with him at the governor's mansion. And among the things he said
to us was, "I believe that God wants me to be president."
NARRATOR: Twelve years after his father had finished behind Pat
Robertson in the Iowa caucus, George W. Bush landed at Des Moines
International Airport. He was in Iowa as one of six candidates
battling for the Republican nomination for president. They had all
gathered for the third Republican debate.
During the debate, the moderator asked the candidates what political
philosopher or thinker they most identified with. Steve Forbes
answered John Locke. Alan Keyes named the Founding Fathers.
[December, 1999]
MODERATOR: Governor Bush, a philosopher/thinker. And why.
Gov. GEORGE W. BUSH (R), Texas: Christ, because he changed my heart.
DOUG WEAD: I think that was instinctive and genuine. The media elite
and non-evangelicals see that statement and they think it's
calculated. The evangelicals know it's not calculated. They know it
didn't help him. So they tend to believe it's true.
JOHN C. GREEN, Ph.D., Author, Religion and the Culture Wars: It may
very well be that that was just the real Bush speaking. But it did
have a very important political effect. Evangelical Christians and
other conservative Protestants immediately understood what he was
talking about, and they began to identify with President Bush.
MODERATOR: I think the viewer would like to know more on how he's
changed your heart.
Gov. GEORGE W. BUSH: Well, if they don't know, it's going to be hard
to explain. When you turn your heart and life over to Christ, when you
accept Christ as a savior, it changes your heart and changes your
life. And that's what happened to me.
E.J. DIONNE, Jr., Author, Sacred Places, Civic Purposes: When he was
asked to explain this, he basically said, "If you haven't had this
experience, you don't know what it is." I was offended by that because
I thought, in a tolerant democracy, a politician has an obligation to
explain things to people who don't necessarily accept their religious
terms. I had an assistant at the time who was a Democrat, no friend of
Bush's but an evangelical Christian. And she was actually upset with
me because she said, "That's how we talk. You should understand that."
And I think it's those moments when Bush speaks like that that
evangelicals know in their heart that he's one of them.
Gov. GEORGE W. BUSH: Faith gives us conscious to keep us honest even
when no one else is watching. And faith can change lives. I know
because it changed mine.
NARRATOR: Bush spoke openly about his faith throughout the 2000
campaign.
Gov. GEORGE W. BUSH: There came a point in my life when I felt
something was missing on the inside. By chance -- maybe it was more
than chance -- one day, I spent a weekend with the great Billy Graham.
NARRATOR: The Bush campaign knew their candidate's ability to reach
out to evangelicals as one of them was key to winning the White House.
Gov. GEORGE W. BUSH: --and decided then and there to recommit my
life--
NARRATOR: By 2000, over 40 percent of Americans described themselves
as evangelical or born again. Of those who vote, at least 70 percent
are were considered politically conservative.
Gov. GEORGE W. BUSH: And my relationship with God through Christ gives
me meaning and direction.
NARRATOR: But as he worked to appeal to religious conservatives, Bush
was aware of the political danger of appearing too close to them, a
lesson he had learned from his father's campaign eight years earlier.
By 1992, his father's '88 rival, Pat Robertson, was now the president
of a powerful organization that mobilized conservative Christian
voters. It was headed by a young Southerner named Ralph Reed, and it
was called the Christian Coalition.
JOHN C. GREEN: Christian right organizations like the Christian
Coalition were absolutely critical to moving evangelical Protestants
into the Republican Party.
MINISTER: There is a voter guide on the back of this insert today--
JOHN C. GREEN: One of the things they did right was to engage in grass
roots mobilization to actually get information out to people in the
pews that showed that voting for a Republican candidate was superior
to voting for a Democratic candidate.
NARRATOR: But not just any Republican candidate. Although conservative
evangelicals had given George Bush, Sr., their support in 1988, his
moderate record as president had angered them. At the '92 Republican
convention, in a last ditch effort to shore up support among religious
voters, the party gave center stage to a number of conservative
religious leaders, including Pat Robertson.
Rev. PAT ROBERTSON: To me and to most Republicans, traditional values
start with faith in almighty God!
DOUG WEAD: That convention was not in the best interests of the
candidate. I mean, Pat Robertson offered to speak at the national
convention. Well, he wasn't even a candidate for president. Why should
he be speaking?
PAT BUCHANAN: Yes, we disagreed with President Bush, but--
NARRATOR: After Robertson, conservative commentator Pat Buchanan
addressed the convention.
PAT BUCHANAN: --and we stand with him against the amoral idea that gay
and lesbian couples should have the same standing in law as married
men and women. We stand with President Bush--
DOUG WEAD: You have to be careful how you appeal to the evangelical
constituency. I'd have had Bush, Sr. go ride horses with Pat Robertson
on his private estates and say all kinds of things, and kiss in
secret, but not in public. And he didn't have that kind of a
calculated campaign, and the result was there was backlash.
PAT BUCHANAN: There is a religious war going on in this country!
NARRATOR: The convention alienated moderate voters, and in the end,
evangelicals divided their votes between Bush, Sr., Ross Perot and
even Bill Clinton--
PAT BUCHANAN: And George Bush is on our side!
NARRATOR: And Clinton won the White House.
Eight years later, George W. Bush and his advisers crafted a message
that would appeal across the Republican political spectrum. They
called it "compassionate conservatism."
Gov. GEORGE W. BUSH: Without support, more support and resources, both
private and public, we are asking the armies of compassion to make
bricks without straw.
WAYNE SLATER: It's a great way of knocking off the rough edges. When
you say you're a compassionate conservative, the people who are
conservative say, "Ah. I like that because he's conservative." The
people who are more moderate say, "He's compassionate. I like that.
That means he's not really conservative."
NARRATOR: And religious voters liked Bush's plan, too. The compassion
that he spoke of would come not from government-run programs but from
the faith that he believed could change people's lives.
Gov. GEORGE W. BUSH: Governments cannot make people love one another.
It's been the great false hope of the past. All you got to do is pass
a law, and people will love one another. But love comes from a higher
calling, a higher authority. The great strength of America lies in the
hearts and souls of citizens who've heard that call, not in the halls
of government--
NARRATOR: In the end, Bush won the closest presidential contest in
history. And religion, it turned out, was key.
RICHARD LAND, Southern Baptist Convention: The single most reliable
predictor of how a person voted in the 2000 election was whether they
went to church or synagogue or mosque at least once a week. If they
went to church or synagogue or mosque at least once a week, two thirds
of them voted for George W. Bush.
WILLIAM REHNQUIST, Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court:
--preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: --preserve, protect and defend the Constitution
of the United States.
Chief Justice WILLIAM REHNQUIST: So help me God.
Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: So help me God.
NARRATOR: As he took office, Bush put his campaign promise of
compassionate conservatism immediately to work. In his first executive
order, he established the Office of Faith-Based and Community
Initiatives inside the White House.
Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: When we see social needs in America, my
administration will look first to faith-based programs and community
groups.
NARRATOR: In the early days of his presidency, Bush's faith-based
initiative was called his signature program. Bush asked Congress to
expand on something called "charitable choice," a provision that had
been passed as part of the 1996 Welfare reform bill. Championed by
then senator John Ashcroft, a Pentecostal Christian and a member of
the conservative Assemblies of God church, charitable choice had
opened the door to allow smaller and more overtly religious groups to
receive government money for providing social services. Now Bush
wanted the principles from Ashcroft's provision to be applied to most
of his government agencies.
RICHARD CIZIK, Natl Association of Evangelicals: We believe there has
to be equality of treatment towards religious social service providers
so that they're treated the same as secular service providers, equal
competitors for federal dollars to be able to dispense services.
E.J. DIONNE, Jr., Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution: I had an
argument about this with a conservative evangelical friend, who said,
"Look, their method is Freud, our method is Jesus. Why should Freud
get the money and Jesus not get the money?" And I thought that was an
interesting argument. But we still do have the 1st Amendment, and it
raises a real question.
Rep. ZOE LOFGREN (D), California: Consider the plain language of the
1st Amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment
of religion." I think that's clear.
NARRATOR: Interpreting the 1st Amendment was at the heart of the
debates in Congress, with critics charging the president's initiative
threatened the separation of church and state.
Rep. ZOE LOFGREN: Will the Sikhs or Hindus receive the day care
contract? Will the Muslims or Jews run the nursing home where your
mother will live? Pity the local government who must decide.
NARRATOR: Proponents of the president's bill also invoked the 1st
Amendment, arguing that they were trying to reverse years of
discrimination against religious groups.
Rep. CLIFF STEARNS (R), Florida: The 1st Amendment provides that the
government cannot establish one religion, or religion over a
non-religion. But it also, my colleagues, provides that the government
shall not prohibit the free exercise of religion.
NARRATOR: Ultimately, Congress failed to move. But the faith-based
initiative did not die.
Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: I asked Congress to join me and pass what I
called the faith-based initiative, which would help change the culture
of Washington and the behavior of bureaucracies. They've stalled. So I
just signed an executive order.
NARRATOR: Bush's orders set up faith-based offices inside seven of his
own executive agencies, such as the Department of Agriculture,
Department of Health and Human Services, the Labor Department and the
Department of Justice. As he had done in Texas, he ordered these
agencies to actively encourage faith-based groups to apply for money.
Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: My attitude is the government should not fear
faith-based programs. We ought to welcome faith-based programs, and we
ought to fund faith-based programs.
NARRATOR: And as he has pushed for access to more funds, Bush has also
defended the right of these groups to maintain their religious
character, including their right to hire only members of their own
faith.
Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: Government oftentimes will say, "Yeah, you can
participate, but you've got to change your board of directors to meet
our qualifications." You know, "You got to conform to our rules." The
problem is, faith-based programs only conform to one set of rules, and
it's bigger than government rules.
NARRATOR: But critics of the faith-based initiative, including some
evangelical Christians, have warned that this kind of rhetoric will
lead to the entanglement of the church and the state, hurting both.
Welton Gaddy is a Baptist minister and heads up the Interfaith
Alliance, an organization of liberal religious leaders.
Rev. Dr. C. WELTON GADDY, President, The Interfaith Alliance:
Religious institutions, wanting federal funds, jeopardize the
integrity of their freedom as and identity as religious institutions
because with those federal tax dollars come federal regulations.
President Bush made a speech, and in the course of his speech, he held
up the Bible and said, "This is the guidebook, not federal
regulations."
Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: The handbook of this particular child care is a
universal handbook. It's been around for a long time. It doesn't need
to be invented. It's a-- let me see your handbook there. This handbook
is a good book. It's a good go-by.
Rev. C. WELTON GADDY: The Bible, guidebook for public policy? Now,
President Bush is the chief executive officer of this nation, pledged
to defend the Constitution. He was speaking as a religious leader, not
worried about the constitutional implications of that rhetoric.
NARRATOR: Despite constitutional concerns, Bush's executive agencies
have already gone ahead and started funding faith-based groups. The
White House acknowledges $1.1 billion spent so far, but admits it
could be millions more. And determining just how much has been spent
and where this money has gone is difficult.
The only program that specifically records funding to faith-based
groups is called the Compassion Capital Fund run by the Department of
Health and Human Services. This fund has given out $100 million
dollars to what they call "faith-friendly" organizations. So far, this
money has gone only to Christian groups and a handful of interfaith
organizations. Even though they've applied, no charities run by
Jewish, Muslim or other non-Christian faiths have received money from
the fund.
[www.pbs.org: More on the faith-based initiative]
RICHARD CIZIK, Natl Association of Evangelicals: The secularist
believes that we're undoing the American experiment, that we are
trampling upon the separation of church and state. The secularist, you
see, wants to relegate religious belief to the margins of public life,
and the evangelical, with his pietistic influence, says, "Absolutely
not. I'm going to bring those religious values right into the center
of all of life."
NARRATOR: On September 14th, 2001, Bush gathered with spiritual and
political leaders from around the nation at the National Cathedral.
The president had declared a national day of prayer and remembrance
for the victims of the September 11th terrorist attacks. In the wake
of those attacks, as he brought the nation into the war on terror,
Bush's public expression of religion took on a new tone, no longer
speaking merely about personal salvation but of biblical themes of
good and evil.
Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: We are here in the middle hour of our grief.
Americans do not yet have the distance of history, but our
responsibility to history is already clear: to answer these attacks
and rid the world of evil.
JIM WALLIS, Editor-in-Chief, Sojourners Magazine: After September
11th, Bush's role changed dramatically, his notion of himself, and his
place in history.
NARRATOR: Jim Wallis is the editor of the liberal evangelical magazine
Sojourners and has written extensively on the president's use of
religion since 9/11.
JIM WALLIS: He had been sort of a self-help Methodist, meaning someone
whose faith had made a difference in his personal life-- solved some
drinking issues, and some family issues, kind of a 12-step God. Then
September 11th came, and the self-help Methodist became now almost a
Messianic American Calvinist speaking of "the mission of America."
Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: In every generation, the world has produced
enemies of human freedom. They have attacked America because we are
freedom's home and defender, and the commitment of our fathers is now
the calling of our time.
RICHARD LAND, Southern Baptist Convention: As an evangelical
Christian, I was completely in sync with the way the president put
this in context for the nation. Romans 13 says God instituted civil
government to punish those who do evil and to reward those who do that
which is right.
NARRATOR: But in the weeks and months to come, the president's
religious language of absolutes made others uncomfortable.
Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: We will rid the world of the evildoers. We've
never seen this kind of evil before. But the evildoers have never seen
the American people in action before, either, and they're about to
find out. Thank you all very much.
JIM WALLIS: To not acknowledge, see, name evil in the world is bad
theology. And yet Jesus says in the Gospel of Matthew, "Why do you see
the speck in your neighbor's eye, your adversary's eye, your enemy's
eye, and not see the log in your own eye? Why do you see the evil in
them but not in yourself?"
Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: Every nation in every region now has a decision
to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.
JIM WALLIS: To say that they are evil and we are good, and that if
you're not with us, you're with the terrorists-- that's also bad
theology.
Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: Freedom and fear, justice and cruelty have
always been at war. And we know that God is not neutral between them.
RICHARD LAND: The problem with the left is that some of them don't
think God has a side. George Bush and most of George Bush's supporters
believe God has a side. And we believe that side is freedom. We
believe that side is democracy. We believe that side is respect for
basic human rights.
Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: Ours is the cause of human dignity.
NARRATOR: A year after 9/11, Bush again drew his message from the
Bible.
Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: This idea of America is the hope of all mankind.
That hope drew millions to this harbor. That hope still lights our
way. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness will not
overcome it.
JIM WALLIS: "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has
not overcome it." Well, that's from the Gospel of John. But it's about
the light of Christ and the word of God, which is the light that
shines in the darkness and has never been overcome. Now, all of a
sudden, it's meant to be America as a beacon of light to the world. He
changed the meaning of the text. It's no longer about the word of God,
the light of Christ, it's about us. It's about we being the hope of
the world. That's, again, bad theology.
RICHARD LAND: I can understand that there are a lot of people on the
left who think that-- who are uncomfortable with the concept that
someone thinks they're doing God's will or that they're on a divine
mission. That says more about the left than it does about George W.
Bush. George W. Bush is standing squarely in the middle of American
history and American tradition in believing in American
exceptionalism. Does that mean that America's God's chosen people? No.
No. Does it mean that we believe that an angel still rides in this
storm, as they did at the founding? Yes. Yes.
JIM WALLIS: This language of righteous empire, of God being on our
side and our having this divine mission-- I think this creates a
framework for the misuse of religion. And I think the rest of the
world hears this and it frightens them, particularly in the Arab world
because they are afraid that we see this as a clash of civilizations
and that this is a religious war.
NARRATOR: Despite his being the most openly religious president in
recent times, George Bush has kept his devotional life private. While
he tells his supporters that he reads the Bible daily, unlike most
other presidents, he is rarely seen even going to church.
The president has stated that while his faith is central to his life,
it does not affect his policy decisions. Yet as his critics have
pointed out, over the last three years, many of those decisions have
mirrored the agenda of conservative evangelicals, still his most
important voting block.
Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: John Ashcroft will perform his duties guided by
principle.
NARRATOR: He earned their praise when he nominated John Ashcroft, a
hero to many conservative Christians, as his attorney general.
Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: Embryonic stem cell research is at the leading
edge of a series--
NARRATOR: He pleased the pro-life movement when he talked about an
embryo as a life in his decision on embryonic stem cell research.
Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: I worry about a culture that devalues life, and
believe, as your president, I have an important obligation to foster
and encourage respect for life in America and throughout the world.
NARRATOR: And again, when he signed the so-called partial birth
abortion ban, the first federal legislation banning any type of
abortion since Roe v. Wade had made abortions legal.
RICHARD LAND: George Bush is pro-life. And let me tell you the
difference between George Bush and Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan was
pro-life by gut instinct-- traditional value, American value, Western
civilization kind of gut instinct with him. With George W. Bush, it is
a settled faith conviction. And I'll take settled faith convictions
over gut instincts anytime.
[www.pbs.org: Read the interview with Richard Land]
NARRATOR: Bush has also satisfied his religious base with the kind of
judges he has appointed.
Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: We need commonsense judges who understand that
our rights were derived from God. And those are the kind of judges I
intend to put on the bench.
NARRATOR: In the last year, in recess appointments, Bush has pushed
through two federal judges, Charles Pickering and William Pryor, both
outspoken religious conservatives.
And on the debate over same-sex marriage, an issue that has become the
new rallying cry of conservative Christians, the president appeared to
support their position when he spoke about the issue publicly for the
first time.
Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: I believe a marriage is between a man and a
woman, and I think we ought to codify that one way or the other. And
we've got lawyers looking at the best way to do that.
NARRATOR: But for conservative Christians, he hadn't gone far enough.
And they were dissatisfied until seven months later, when he met their
demands.
Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: Our nation must enact a constitutional amendment
to protect marriage in America.
RICHARD CIZIK: There was always this idea, "Oh, if we could only get a
staff person in the White House who would carry our concerns to the
president"-- well, you know, the private joke inside the Beltway
nowadays is, "We don't need a staff person. We've got one in the Oval
Office." What do you want, a staff person, or do you want the
president, who understands you? I'll take the president.
NARRATOR: As the 2004 campaign has begun, Bush has once again moved to
rally this crucial voting bloc. In the Southeast, Ralph Reed is his
campaign chairman, hoping to appeal to the same Christian voters he
used to mobilize as the head of the Christian Coalition.
DOUG WEAD, Bush Family Friend: There's no question that the
president's faith is calculated, and there's no question that the
president's faith is real, that it's authentic, that it's genuine. I
would say that I don't know, and George Bush doesn't know, when he's
operating out of a genuine sense of his own faith or when it's
calculated.
WAYNE SLATER, Dallas Morning News: In an odd way, what the Bush
campaign is involved in is a political proselytizing effort, where
they go out and express to those people, those voters who need to hear
the good news of the Bush campaign -- who he is and what he stands for
-- and recruit them into this effort. This is about bringing in a
community, people who share not just a few political ideas but
something more fundamental. And to do that, they will tell and retell
the story of Bush as a man who has had a religious conversion in his
life, has taken Jesus into his heart and it informs everything he
does.
NARRATOR: What began 20 years ago as a personal religious experience
has for George W. Bush become a factor inextricably linked with his
career as a politician and now with the life of the country as
president.
...........
To order FRONTLINE's The Jesus Factor on videocassette or DVD, call
PBS Home Video at 1-800-PLAY PBS.
Support for FRONTLINE is provided by U.S. News & World Report.
Michael Gray
>http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/jesus/etc/script.html
>
>The Jesus Factor
>
>Written, Produced and Directed by
>Raney Aronson
>..............
>
>Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: My relationship with God through Christ gives me
>meaning and direction.
>
>ANNOUNCER: He is by most accounts the most openly religious president
>in generations.
>
>E.J. DIONNE, Jr., Author, Sacred Places, Civic Purposes: The interest
>in religion is not made up. It has to do with Bush's self-presentation
>and what he thinks he is about.
>
>Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: I'll talk about it, OK? I've got a personal
>faith. Billy Graham came into my life.
>
It's just another example of his delusional thinking.
If anyone else boasted that sky-pixies talk to him, and tell him to
murder Iraqis, they'd be locked away.
But not GWB.
It gets him elected to president.
Rico
Personally I encourage everyone to in some quiet place talk to God, but the
ones who claim God talks back to them scare the daylights out of me.
fundamentalism, fundamentally wrong.
Republican Double Standard
news:10avbk3...@corp.supernews.com:
Anyone who thinks God is talking has to ask themselves this: how do they
know it's god and not the devil?
--
"We gave Hussein a chance to allow inspectors in, and he wouldn't let
them in."
- George WMD. Bush, lying on July 14, 2003.
- http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/07/20030714-3.html
Rico
Thing is, even if it is the devil, they think it is God.
fundamentalism, fundamentally wrong.