Faith-basic.
When you don't believe in God (at least not in any conventional way), it's always a bit weird trying to wrap your head around how much He figures into other people's lives... what they think, what they do, how they justify things. It also makes it doubly strange, doubly mindnumbing and doubly infuriating to read things like this:
Bush claimed God told him to invade Iraq, Afghanistan: BBC.
LONDON (AFP) - US President George W. Bush allegedly said God told him to invade Iraq and Afghanistan, a new BBC documentary will reveal, according to details.
Bush made the claim when he met Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas and then foreign minister Nabil Shaath in June 2003, the ministers told the documentary series to be broadcast in Britain later this month.
The US leader also told them he had been ordered by God to create a Palestinian state, the ministers said.
Shaath, now the Palestinian information minister, said: "President Bush said to all of us: 'I'm driven with a mission from God.
'God would tell me, 'George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan'.'
"And I did, and then God would tell me, 'George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq...' And I did.
"'And now, again, I feel God's words coming to me, 'Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East.' And by God I'm gonna do it'," said Shaath.
In defence of Christians, I think my God-fearing friends will be disgusted by this as well. But if, like me, you don't believe in God to begin with, and on top of that you think Bush's Middle Eastern policy has been a fucking faith-based disaster, then reading things like the above really makes you want to head to bang your head against a wall. It's a horrible cliche I know, but it really does make you want to despair of any race of beings smart enough to build a nuclear bomb and dumb enough to choose leaders who think like this.
Of course, if one gets tired of faith-based imperial arrogance, one can always resort to some good, solid faith-based thumb-sucking. Via Kevin Drum, I read David Kuo at Beliefnet (home of the very awesome God-o-meter)), praising Harriet Miers for "shooting from the heart". Prepare to be underwhelmed:
It seems pretty clear that the second choice is the most logical. As Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention said in his Tuesday statement about Miers, “This President has kept no promise more faithfully than his promise in 2000, and again in 2004, that he would nominate only strict constructionist, original intent jurists to the Supreme Court.” What Land refers to is the fact that President Bush has continually nominated conservative judges to every available open seat. Why, Land asks, should conservatives doubt that he has suddenly changed course?
They shouldn’t. First, as everyone now knows, she is an “evangelical Christian” a fact that is intended to assure conservative Catholics and Protestants that her theological orthodoxy translates into a legal orthodoxy as well. Second, as the president’s supporters know, George W. Bush does and says what he pleases. Indecisiveness is not a major character trait. It is precisely that cowboy attitude that has so endeared him to conservatives when it comes to the war on terror, cutting taxes in the face of massive deficits, and other initiatives. Conservatives elevated President Bush to near-Reagan levels just a year ago during the 2004 campaign. If he was worthy of the voters trust then, why isn’t his choice worthy of their trust now?
Perhaps that is true. Maybe she isn’t a “true conservative” although I tend to believe that she will be more conservative in her jurisprudence than Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. But I do know that her character isn’t going to change. And I believe she has the core convictions of a true Christian, in the best sense of the word.
Honestly, I don't mean to sneer at this article completely because I think it matters a lot whether Harriet Miers is compassionate -- does Scalia seem compassionate to you? -- and whether she justifies that compassion with secular humanism or with Christian teachings is all the same to me. But...but...but...Head. Banging. Against. Wall. Her theological orthodoxy translates into a legal orthodoxy as well -- is God going to tell her how to rule on cases then? And if so, what is God's position on pregnant teens, on visitation and inheritance rights for gays, on the legal rights of workers injured on the job, on affirmative action, on funding for the arts? "Compassion" all around? Is it all part of the Divine Mystery, just like the war in Iraq and the Israeli security fence? There is, afterall, a reason we separate Church and State.
Yeah, yeah, the US is a Christian country. But it's really horrible when you get two casual reminders in a siingle day that the US government is run by, and supported by, people who literally think Jesus has got his hands on the wheel -- and then you stumble on articles like this one or this one that suggest that Bush's success, his motives, his choices are only the tip of the faith-based iceberg -- that, frankly, it would almost be amazing if he didn't think he was divinely inspired.
Of course, God doesn't cause hurricanes (contrary to the apparent opinion of 23% of Americans) or intervene in politics. But if He did do the latter, I like to think it would be less along the lines of telling Bush where to invade and more along the lines of this -- minus the boils and the leprosy though; I believe in belief in a compassionate God.
Bush claimed God told him to invade Iraq, Afghanistan: BBC.
LONDON (AFP) - US President George W. Bush allegedly said God told him to invade Iraq and Afghanistan, a new BBC documentary will reveal, according to details.
Bush made the claim when he met Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas and then foreign minister Nabil Shaath in June 2003, the ministers told the documentary series to be broadcast in Britain later this month.
The US leader also told them he had been ordered by God to create a Palestinian state, the ministers said.
Shaath, now the Palestinian information minister, said: "President Bush said to all of us: 'I'm driven with a mission from God.
'God would tell me, 'George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan'.'
"And I did, and then God would tell me, 'George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq...' And I did.
"'And now, again, I feel God's words coming to me, 'Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East.' And by God I'm gonna do it'," said Shaath.
In defence of Christians, I think my God-fearing friends will be disgusted by this as well. But if, like me, you don't believe in God to begin with, and on top of that you think Bush's Middle Eastern policy has been a fucking faith-based disaster, then reading things like the above really makes you want to head to bang your head against a wall. It's a horrible cliche I know, but it really does make you want to despair of any race of beings smart enough to build a nuclear bomb and dumb enough to choose leaders who think like this.
Of course, if one gets tired of faith-based imperial arrogance, one can always resort to some good, solid faith-based thumb-sucking. Via Kevin Drum, I read David Kuo at Beliefnet (home of the very awesome God-o-meter)), praising Harriet Miers for "shooting from the heart". Prepare to be underwhelmed:
It seems pretty clear that the second choice is the most logical. As Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention said in his Tuesday statement about Miers, “This President has kept no promise more faithfully than his promise in 2000, and again in 2004, that he would nominate only strict constructionist, original intent jurists to the Supreme Court.” What Land refers to is the fact that President Bush has continually nominated conservative judges to every available open seat. Why, Land asks, should conservatives doubt that he has suddenly changed course?
They shouldn’t. First, as everyone now knows, she is an “evangelical Christian” a fact that is intended to assure conservative Catholics and Protestants that her theological orthodoxy translates into a legal orthodoxy as well. Second, as the president’s supporters know, George W. Bush does and says what he pleases. Indecisiveness is not a major character trait. It is precisely that cowboy attitude that has so endeared him to conservatives when it comes to the war on terror, cutting taxes in the face of massive deficits, and other initiatives. Conservatives elevated President Bush to near-Reagan levels just a year ago during the 2004 campaign. If he was worthy of the voters trust then, why isn’t his choice worthy of their trust now?
Perhaps that is true. Maybe she isn’t a “true conservative” although I tend to believe that she will be more conservative in her jurisprudence than Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. But I do know that her character isn’t going to change. And I believe she has the core convictions of a true Christian, in the best sense of the word.
Honestly, I don't mean to sneer at this article completely because I think it matters a lot whether Harriet Miers is compassionate -- does Scalia seem compassionate to you? -- and whether she justifies that compassion with secular humanism or with Christian teachings is all the same to me. But...but...but...Head. Banging. Against. Wall. Her theological orthodoxy translates into a legal orthodoxy as well -- is God going to tell her how to rule on cases then? And if so, what is God's position on pregnant teens, on visitation and inheritance rights for gays, on the legal rights of workers injured on the job, on affirmative action, on funding for the arts? "Compassion" all around? Is it all part of the Divine Mystery, just like the war in Iraq and the Israeli security fence? There is, afterall, a reason we separate Church and State.
Yeah, yeah, the US is a Christian country. But it's really horrible when you get two casual reminders in a siingle day that the US government is run by, and supported by, people who literally think Jesus has got his hands on the wheel -- and then you stumble on articles like this one or this one that suggest that Bush's success, his motives, his choices are only the tip of the faith-based iceberg -- that, frankly, it would almost be amazing if he didn't think he was divinely inspired.
Of course, God doesn't cause hurricanes (contrary to the apparent opinion of 23% of Americans) or intervene in politics. But if He did do the latter, I like to think it would be less along the lines of telling Bush where to invade and more along the lines of this -- minus the boils and the leprosy though; I believe in belief in a compassionate God.
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