Religious leaders worry about Bush's use of religion to justify war

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Religious leaders worry about Bush's use of religion to justify war
By ANN McFEATTERS
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Mar 5, 2003, 22:50

Is President Bush using inappropriately religious language as he talks daily
about the possibility of war with Iraq?

Some religious leaders say they are becoming uncomfortable with the strongly
religious tone of Bush's rhetoric, worried that he is usurping the role of
preacher or possibly inciting Islamic fundamentalists with his good-vs.-evil
references. 

In two recent speeches, at the annual convention of the National Religious
Broadcasters and at the National Prayer Breakfast, Bush said he welcomed
faith to solve the nations' deepest problems and was greeted on both
occasions with "amens." To some, however, he sounded more like an
evangelical Christian minister than an elected political leader.

In discussing a likely war in Iraq with Australian Prime Minister John
Howard this week, Bush said freedom for the Iraqi people is not a gift the
United States can provide, but instead "liberty is God's gift to every human
being in the world." To some, his word's implied that a war against Iraqi
leader Saddam Hussein would be a divinely endorsed act of liberation.

Going beyond religious references even of such presidents as Abraham Lincoln
- who once said he hoped to be on God's side rather than calling for God to
be on his side - Bush told religious broadcasters this week: "We're being
challenged. We're meeting those challenges because of our faith."

The White House defends the president's language as expressions of his
personal beliefs and says he has every right to speak with fervor about his
faith. 

But the Rev. William Gaddy, a Baptist minister who heads the Interfaith
Alliance Foundation in Washington, disagrees. "The president of this nation
has as his job to promote the common good. It's not his job to promote
sectarian beliefs," he said.

Elaine Pagels, of Princeton University's Department of Religion, argues that
Bush is betraying the religious diversity of the nation when he speaks of
war in absolutist terms. "This is not political discourse," Pagels said.
"This is the language of religious zealots, Christian and Muslim. When he
speaks of the 'axis of evil,' he is placing those who disagree with him in
the realm of evil."

The effect of injecting religion into a debate about war, Pagels said, is to
halt discourse and to provoke one's target (in this case, mainly Iraq but
also North Korea and Iran) into a shouting match about who is more evil. She
said that while she believes it is appropriate to label some acts (such as
the 911 attacks) as evil, much of the rest of the world is appalled by the
way Bush has been branding countries and certain peoples as evil.

Responding to such criticism, Bush said Monday he will increasingly stress
that his quarrel is with Saddam Hussein, not the Iraqi civilian population.

Gaddy accuses the president of going beyond acceptable limits of
generalizing about religious beliefs, moving instead to active
proselytizing. In analyzing the president's rhetoric in the last few years,
Gaddy said: "You see a growing feeling he (believes) he is, in fact, a
divinely chosen leader in this moment of history. It's as if he discovered
the power of religion late in life and thinks the nation needs to (do the
same)." 

Such groups as the nondenominational National Council of Churches have been
expressing uneasiness over Bush's faith-based initiative - permitting more
flexibility with federal funds to expand the ministries of synagogues,
mosques and other religious entities to assist the needy. When these groups
lobbied Congress to block Bush's proposed law that would allow such
flexibility, the president instead issued an executive order forbidding the
federal government from discriminating against religious institutions when
dispensing funds. But he is still asking Congress to approve it.

After the Columbia shuttle disaster, Bush invoked "the Creator who names the
stars" and quoted the Old Testament prophet Isaiah, saying, "Lift your eyes
and look to the heavens ... ," as a way to comfort the nation.

Religious leaders such as Gaddy do not contest the use of religious
references in such a context. But they do fault his citation of his
Christian faith in justifying a war.

The White House has countered, though, that the president will continue to
use such references because it is how he thinks and because a majority of
Americans agree with him.

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