I happened (via Charles Dodgson at Through the Looking Glass) to discover that George Bush rarely goes to church (behind paywall, but the intro gives you the basics).
NTTAWWT – I’m sure he goes more often than I do. But it struck me as a blogworthy factoid.
John Quiggin 
When you’re president of the US, God comes to you.
His piety is part of the political theatre that surrounds this administration? I wouldn’t be surprised.
Going to church no more makes you a Christian than going to the garage makes you a car.
Are you confusing necessary with sufficient conditions, Andrew?
Actually.I have noticed that on John Howard’s most recent visits to the Court of the Emperor in Washington that he is usually shown attending church there…a thing I never see evidence of here in Australia.What does that say about Howard….the complete accolyte ?Ihave just read a disturbing piece in “Mother Jones”(USA blog),about a sinister US Christian group..The Dominionists..who are all cashed up and politically active and they want a theocracy in the USA…only the Fundies would have a vote or any political rights!..and to go with this there is a splendid piece around now by Gore Vidal in which sees Bush’s America in the light of late-Roman society. It draws on an essay by an academic from the Catholic University in Washington,Prof. Morris Berman..in a work called “Dark Age America…The Final Phases of Empire “.It is a must read!!!
A link or hint on where to find that Vidal piece would be much appreciated, brian.
Brian is indeed stronger on exclamation marks than on links. Possibly he is talking about Vidal’s review of Berman in The Nation.
John,
God does not get to vote. So how does it matter?
🙂
Regards,
Terje.
Didn’t Bush’s Washington Church issue an anti-war statement, that provided him with mild embarrassment? Maybe he’s too shamefaced to turn up.
81% of Americans are religious, 77% Christian. In Australia it’s surprisingly not very different, at 75% religious, 71% christian.
Wilful, according to this site nearly three times the proportion of the population turn up to church services in the US. There is a big difference between the US and Australia on this; in fact, there’s a big difference between the US and pretty much every other Western country.
By the way, there’s fairly good evidence that those attendance figures are exaggerated (in both countries). According to this survey, the churches themselves record an attendance in Australia of about 1.5 million people per week, or about 7.5% of the population.
On the way to my church in sunday morning (Bunnings superstore) I pass a number of churches. The only ones that seem to be attracting a crowd these days are the one that has a lot of horn of africa (Sudanese?) refugees, and the one that seems to operate more on a saturday night, which is an evangelical group that has a rock band and hands out cards at the train station frequently (without mentioning god). Otherwise it’s only little old ladies.
TRANSCRIPT OF A WHITE HOUSE PRESS BRIEFING, 2005
“Question: Are you aware of the — there’s a BBC broadcast tonight that’s quoting the Palestinian Prime Minister and Foreign Minister as saying that they were in a meeting with the president in June of ‘03, and there are some very detailed quotes here, saying that the president said to them, “God told me, ‘George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan,’ and I did,� and then “God told me, ‘George go and end the tyranny in the Iraq’� and so forth and so on?
“McCLELLAN: No, that’s absurd. He’s never made such comments. �
The plot thickens. Is McLellan referring to Bush or to God when he asserts:
“He’s never made such comments.”
Thanks for that, James.
One suggestive thesis on what’s-wrong-with-the-whole-world, that I naturally haven’t delved into, is that mainstream religious participation and observance etc severely declined everywhere on the globe over the last few decades, including in the US and Arab countries, which in turn left churches vulnerable to nutcase takeovers, and hence … all the present madness.
George W has never been all that outwardly religious. Certainly, he’s not on the level of a Jimmy Carter with public displays of religion. I’m not surprised that he’s not sitting in church every week.
Katz that is a furphy, Abu Mazen has issued a statement that denies that those words were ever spoken
“This report is not true,” the Abbas statement said today. “I have never heard President Bush talking about religion as a reason behind the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. President Bush has never mentioned that in front of me on any occasion and specifically not during my visit in 2003.”
I never said it was true Rog.
I was just amused by the ambiguity embedded in the word “he” (“He”?) in McLellan’s reply. (McLellan may have been referring to Bush, or he may have been referring to God.)
Just as a matter of interest did the other chap (the Palestinian Foreign Minister) also issue a denial? He was present too.
I guess both of these Palestinian gentlemen have plenty of time on their hands now, since the Hamas victory in the recent elections.
cs,
political party membership has also dropped – I feel with the same effect there.
JQ, How often do you think Bush should go to church?
Or if you don’t have an opinion, what’s your point?
I don’t have a point, JL. I was just surprised to learn this.
However, I have been interested to see how many people (here and at CT) have taken exception to a simple statement of fact.
James Lane Says:
JQ may just be a bit late catching up here, James. But just FYI it’s part of a pattern:
– Bush talks about God at every oppotunity, but isn’t what anyone could consider a “practising” Christian.
– He’s full on about war, and being a “war president”, despite being a something of a draft dodger.
– He preaches about fiscal responsibility whilst cutting taxes and increasing spending, while the US deficit goes through the roof.
– He made some claims about WMDs in Iraq, which turned out to be, er, somewhat inaccurate.
In short, it turns out that Bush, um, lies about stuff. Constantly. Duh.
“However, I have been interested to see how many people (here and at CT) have taken exception to a simple statement of fact. ”
No one here has taken exception to your statement that Bush doesn’t regularly attend church. Perhaps you are confusing the point that no one is terribly surprised by the fact that Bush isn’t singing in church every week with your statement that he doesn’t attrend regularly. My question would be, why does it surprise anyone that Bush (or anyone else for that matter) is or isn’t a regular church attendee? He doesn’t appear to be a terribly religious person, at least in public.