LIBERTY OR CHRIST? ONLY BUSH KNOWS

Rolling Stone has a great post on its blog about Bush's inaugural speech and his so-called religious faith. I was speaking to The Sage about that very topic this morning.

In a nutshell, Christians are taught, and generally believe, that the only force that can change men's hearts is salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. It is why there is never a hint in the Bible that the world can or will be transformed by any earthly means. That teaching completely contradicts Bush's "grand, bold vision" of ending tyranny in the world. In other words, there will ALWAYS be bad guys, corruption, etc. and no form of government, no democratic movement, not even "freedom" can do the trick.

I'm no theologian. I don't claim to understand exactly what Bush is doing here. I only know enough to be creeped the fuck out. What's clearly evident here is Bush's messianic streak, front and center. I don't know if Bush sees himself as an agent of God spreading liberty in Jesus' name. Or whether he actually aims to spread Christianity, in the guise of liberty. Either way I'm not happy about it.

Even Republicans are wincing. "It was a God-drenched speech," wrote Peggy Noonan, a former Reagan speechwriter, in The Wall Street Journal, adding that its push for world freedom fell somewhere "between dreamy and disturbing." Quipped Noonan: "Tyranny is a very bad thing and quite wicked, but one doesn't expect we're going to eradicate it any time soon. Again, this is not heaven, it's earth."

Either Bush is using secular language to disguise a Messianic crusade on the part of the American government to convert the world to Christianity, or he's giving evidence that he doesn't know, or believe, diddly squat about his so-called "faith."

Either way, it's more than creepy.