Faith No More

This week there was an excellent article by Ron Suskind in the New York Times Magazine entitled "Faith, Certainty and the Presidency of George W. Bush." Many of you may have read or at least heard about it by now. For those who haven't, the title pretty much says it all. It should come as no surprise to learn that we have a president "of faith." What should surprise, and shock, and appall, is the extent to which he relies on this faith of his to run the country.

But maybe I'm being too demanding of the readers, and of the voters. Because the truth is, I myself am not shocked by this article. The reason I'm not shocked is because I've become slowly acclimated to the idea that the president, like Nancy Reagan before him, feels that his actions, actions that affect the lives and fates of literally millions of people, are guided directly by a higher power working through him. And because he calls that power "God" instead of "the voices in my head" or "my invisible friend Harvey," people buy it, accept it, shrug it off, downplay it, or roll-around-on-the-floor rejoice over it, depending on their own points of view.

George Bush has his fans, no doubt about it. And my assessment is, this article won't, and perhaps shouldn't, have any effect on the vast majority of them. A lot them fall into the category of, "I don't care if he speaks in tongues and foams at the mouth, as long as he cuts my taxes and goes out and kicks the world's ass!"

Others do believe like him. Or at least believe him. Yes they do. God help us.

We are no longer permitted to be secular in this nation. It's just not tolerated. We will not be suffered to not tow the line. The longer and harder we are driven to fight the religious extremists in other countries, the more and more religious we are required to be in the public realm. I'm not given to conspiracy theories, and I'm not one to draw a hard line on too many issues. (One of those rare, hated types of people who see grey areas in almost everthing. Obviously, I have no morals.) But I do believe this, that religion is being more and more embraced every day in the public realm. Everyone, whether they're on the left or right, is dragging their religion out into public, brandishing it, and using it as a political sword or safety net. I seriously doubt if I could find anyone in this country, this completely divided country, who believes that an atheist, or even an agnostic, could make a serious run for president. It simply couldn't happen. You've either got to have the faith, think you have the faith, or pretend you have the faith.

Suskind's article merely sums up what should be obvious to anyone who has watched Bush over the last four years. Bush's faith is not only worn on his sleeve, it's practically branded onto his forehead. It's been out there from the start, from the faith-based initiative to the biblical language that always makes its way into his speeches to his hard-line stances on reproductive rights, stem-cell research, and gay marriage, to his lust for preemptive war. The longer he's in office, the more his crusade reveals itself. The goal is to make his faith your faith, my faith, whether we like it or not. Sound familiar?