The Fromson File

Bush and God No doubt, President George W. Bush is a believer. If you watched a riveting hour-long Frontline documentary (“The Jesus Factor”) on Thursday evening (April 29), you could not but be convinced of his faith and commitment. Their intensity and sincerity constitute the kind of Christian values that inevitably will galvanize the so-called compassionate conservatives on election day next November. But imagine if you were a Muslim, had taped the PBS program and put it in the hands of the people who run al Jazeera and every other television station in the Muslim world? It would be not be difficult to predict the consequences. It would be enough to convince viewers from Morocco to Malaysia that the U.S. president is the Crusader of the 21st Century, that George W. Bush is not only committed to promoting democracy in the Muslim world but to spreading the gospel of Christ. That, it can be said with some certainty, is a recipe for an on-going clash of civilizations;Iraq being only the first phase of that confict. The Frontline documentary is an evenly-balanced examination of where President Bush came from, how he has gotten where he is and the agenda he intends to promote if he is re-elected next November. For evangelicals who believe as he does, the program will be re-assuring evidence that Bush is one of them. For those who believe in a secular American society and the separation of church and state, it will be a chilling reminder of how little understanding the President has of what the Founding Fathers had in mind when they drafted the U.S. Constitution. Quite aside from Mr. Bush’s views about good and evil that come straight out of the Bible, consider his words and actions since he became a Born Again Christian. While you are at it, contemplate this statement he made to a group of supporters on the day of his re-election as governor of Texas: “I believe that God wants me to be President.”