The True Story of St George

Now, we have all been aware that Mr Shrub is a religious man. Hell, he tells us about it every chance he gets.....how God talks to him and he talks back and how devout he is and that all! We have heard so much about it, you might think that he and Jesus were buddies joined at the hip.
But, that ain't necessarily so.

Amy Sullivan, writing in the New Republic, point out that Bush almost never goes to Church on Sunday or any other day and is not even a member of a church or denomination. Any time you see him sitting in a pew is another of his photo ops. Be seen looking devout and then go do something else after the cameras leave.
Every President that held office during my lifetime, has attended church, his family at his side.

Now, Shrub aides say its not nice to point at this as being a failing of his because its soooooo difficult to go to Church with a war going on. Gosh guys, FDR had a war, Harry Truman had a war, Eisenhower, JFK, Richard Nixon and Lyndon Johnson all had wars but they found time to go to church. Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton also attended church. But the one CinC who wears his piety on his sleeve, never goes.

Do the words "Fucking Hypocrite" ring a bell?

just because he's supposedly one of them, let them know about this! He's not really. He's just pretending!

shuts his eyes squeezed tight as if he were in deep prayerful communication with God?

Well... God is gentle and so is deep prayerful meditation with God.

No need to shut eyes squeezed tight during one of the most peaceful, calming times of people's lives.

And, generationally, religion was a minus in the Bush family, starting with George Walker, W's great-grandfather, whose parents had sent him to the seminary in England because they wanted him to become a priest; a seminary which he left because he did not believe in the priesthood (or possibly because he did not have too many religious feelings) and an action which became a big rift in his family who did not even attend his wedding to a protestant (Episcopalian, I think it was). Yes ... religion and the Bush family ... well, that has been a sour note ever since way, waaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyy back!

of Bush's so-called religion.

(from september)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A24634-2004Sep15?language=printer

snip:

"...But Bush had not actually said that abortion is tantamount to murder. Nor, according to aides, has he ever said that all abortions should be illegal. When asked by reporters during the 2000 presidential campaign and again last fall whether abortion should be banned, Bush said the nation was not ready for that step, without indicating his position.

"George W. Bush is among the most openly religious presidents in U.S. history. A daily Bible reader, he often talks about how Jesus changed his heart. He has spoken, publicly and privately, of hearing God's call to run for the presidency and of praying for God's help since he came into office.

"But despite the centrality of Bush's faith to his presidency, he has revealed only the barest outline of his beliefs, leaving others to sift through the clues and make assumptions about where he stands. Bush has said many times that he is a Christian, believes in the power of prayer and considers himself a "lowly sinner." But White House aides said they do not know whether the president believes that: the Bible is without error; the theory of evolution is true; homosexuality is a sinful choice; only Christians will go to heaven; support for Israel is a biblical imperative; or the war in Iraq is part of God's plan.

Some political analysts think there is a shrewd calculation behind these ambiguities. By using such phrases as the "culture of life," Bush signals to evangelical Protestants and conservative Catholics that he is with them, while he avoids taking explicit stands that might alienate other voters or alarm foreign leaders. Bush and his chief speechwriter, Michael J. Gerson, are "very gifted at crafting references that religious insiders will understand and outsiders may not," said the Rev. Jim Wallis, editor of the evangelical journal Sojourners. ..."

And here's the infamous Gail Sheehy story from Vanity Fair from 2000. This shows how hollow Bush's supposed "conversion" really was. It makes me sick.

http://gailsheehy.com/Politics/polimain_bush3.html

"... Bush's drinking had become more than just an embarrassment to the whole family. Laura Bush, a Midland librarian whom Bush had married when he was 31, tried the soft sell, taking him, along with the Evanses and the Joneses, to a religious lecture series given by Christian author and broadcaster James Dobson. But Bush refused to behave himself. "Laura would be sitting next to George, and George would come around to sit next to me" so the two could crack jokes, says Jones. "What kind of pants did the Levites wear?" Bush would whisper.

"...In 1985, Don Evans urged Bush to join a new kind of men's group—a franchised Community Bible Study program for men, a precursor to the Promise Keepers. ... But Jones doesn't remember Bush taking that spiritual exercise very seriously either. The pastor would ask a question from the lesson: "What happened to the Jew on his way to Jericho?" "He got his butt whipped," Bush shot back. ... And when his attention span was exceeded, he set his watch to go off in the middle of the pastor's spiel. The other men guffawed, and the following week they all set their watches and the class turned into a cacophony of alarm bells.

Jones, who can point to the exact date when he became a born-again Christian, never heard Bush describe a conversion experience. "He never said he was spiritually empty. It's my understanding that his profession of faith was made in 1986, after the Reverend Billy Graham visited."

"... Probably mindful of Big George's savaging by the Christian right, Mrs. Bush told reporters that her son has always read the Bible. (Bush challenged that myth in a recent interview with The Washington Post: "No, I wasn't reading the Bible when I was younger.") It is also his mother who likes to tell the conversion story ... "