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Counterpunch - Sep 20, 2007
http://www.counterpunch.org/lawrence09202007.html

War, Power and Professions of Faith:

Bush's Worrisome Use of Religion

By RAYMOND J. LAWRENCE

The news reports * that Bush spends time with Iraq's Prime Minister
Nuri Kamal al-Malaki discussing their shared faith in God, is not good
news. It seems that Bush is an easy mark for anyone who professes a
belief in God.

[* "Bush and Iraq: Frequent Talks, Limited Results," Jim Rutenberg and
Alissa J. Rubin, The New York Times, page 1, July 15, 2007 ]

When Putin revealed the cross he wears on a neck chain, one given him
by his mother, it is reported that Bush further warmed to the Russian
leader. Bush confesses to trust those who profess a belief in God. But
history does not give support the reliability of Bush's approach.
Rather, it suggests that Bush is recklessly naïve in this regard.
Belief in God is not by itself a reliable benchmark of anything of
substance.

In the various cultures of the world many different Gods are promoted,
Gods that represent a wide variety of disparate values, ideals, and
ethics. Has Bush forgotten that Osama bin Laden is also a man of
professed deep faith in God? In Bush's world that should provide the
basis for meeting bin Laden at the table. If we look back over the past
century no political leader anywhere has been more God-fearing than
Adolf Hitler. In numerous public pronouncements he made reference to
God, explicitly claiming divine endorsement for his murderous political
agenda.

Any reference to God made by anyone must be followed by some kind of
curiosity about the particular values, ideals, and ethics that the
referenced God represents. Hitler's God represented political and
national domination by the means of extreme violence. He was not the
first in history to conceive of God as a God of war and domination.

Bush may have been especially pleased to see Putin's cross because that
suggests that Putin embraces the Christian God. That too is illusory.
Even among Christians it is not possible to assume that God-fearers
hold to similar values, ideals, and ethics. The Irish are not the only
peoples to have demonstrated that. Christians worshipping the same God,
using the same language and subscribing to similar doctrines have
slaughtered each other from the beginning of the Christian era. While
they may use the same basic religious language, they have been willing
to attack and slaughter each other, wives and children included.

By giving credibility and weight to a belief in God, Bush has likely
set himself up for ambush, and put the nation at risk. Bush needs to
forget about whether al-Malaki and Putin believe in God, and to wonder
what values, ideals, and ethics they personally hold.

The religious questions Bush ought to be asking himself about all those
persons he has to deal with are more complex questions, and ones that
are not easily answered. Questions like: What kind of vision does this
person have for the social order? What constitutes justice for this
person? Does this person seek an oligarchy of the few, or a
commonwealth for all? Does this person tolerate dissent, or do they
feel free to destroy contrary voices?

When the Soviet Union was collapsing, the atheist Michael Gorbachev had
the military power to make a defensive stand that could have resulted
in a nuclear holocaust. Had Gorbachev been some kind of God-fearing
hyper-nationalist of the "better dead than red" sort, the world would
likely have been an uninhabitable nuclear wasteland by now. But the
humane, atheist Gorbachev was no murderous God-fearing nationalist.
Thank God for that atheist Michael Gorbachev!

Bush's confidence in persons who profess a belief in God is
astonishingly naïve, and puts the nation at risk.

An American president, or any political leader, needs to know if his or
her correspondent is a trickster or a person of humane values. A
professed belief or faith in God will not lead to such knowledge.

[Raymond J. Lawrence is the recently retired Director of Pastoral Care,
New York Presbyterian Hospital, Columbia University Medical Center. He
can be reached at: ]

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