The influence of evangelicals is almost everywhere – from places of political power like Congress to cultural status markers like the New York Times’ best-seller list, where titles like “The Purpose Driven Life” reside.
The influence of evangelicals is almost everywhere –
from places of political power like Congress to cultural status markers
like the New York Times’ best-seller list, where titles like “The
Purpose Driven Life” reside.
But the person many evangelicals consider the most
prominent member of their fold – President George Bush – does not use
that term to describe himself publicly and neither does the White House.
So, is he or is he not?
Evangelical leaders generally concur the president
is one of them. But some observers of religion and politics say his
outreach to Muslims and attendance at a mainstream Protestant church
demonstrate he may not neatly fit the definition.
Bob Wenz said he does not mind that Bush will not
embrace the particular word. “From an analysis of what the man does
believe, I think we can categorize him in-house as an evangelical, but
if he chooses not to use the term, I don’t think it’s an affront to
evangelicals,” said Wenz, vice president of national ministries of the
National Association of Evangelicals.
Washington Monthly Editor Amy Sullivan said Bush has
positioned himself in a way that allows him to be accepted by
evangelicals while not offending others taken aback by that label. “He
can be all things to all people by not explicitly defining himself as
evangelical,” she said.
Bush himself is a baptized Episcopalian, a former
Presbyterian Sunday School teacher, and now a United Methodist. He has
several attributes that most evangelicals think put him in their fold:
• He has had a “transformation.”
Evangelicals believe in “personal transformation,” a
spirit-driven change in behavior. Evangelicals cite Bush’s cold-turkey
end to his drinking habit, which occurred within a couple of years
after he had encounters with well-known evangelist Billy Graham and
others as evidence of his own transforming experience.
• He talks like evangelicals.
The president speaks like other evangelicals but
often in ways non-evangelicals might miss. He ends some speeches with
the abbreviated colloquialism “God bless.” And he cited the
“wonder-working power” of the American people in his 2003 State of the
Union speech, an allusion to a hymn about the “wonder-working
power” of blood of the Lamb.
• He spends time with evangelicals.
“His friends are evangelicals,” another observer
commented. “He likes evangelical preachers. He started his faith in a
community that was unquestionably evangelical. … He’s got all the
vital statistics of an evangelical.”
• He has devotional times.
The president says he prays “all the time,”
sometimes in the Oval Office. Authors speak of his regular Bible and
devotional book reading. Once or twice a month when he is in
Washington, Bush attends St. John’s Church, an Episcopal congregation.
That affiliation raises some eyebrows because Episcopalians elected
their first openly-homosexual bishop in 2003. Still others point to
Bush’s past church attendance as more telling.
But other evidence of evangelicalism – such as
belief in the authority of the Bible and the need to “accept” Jesus for
salvation – is harder to find with Bush.
“Theologically, I think he believes some things that
disqualify him as an evangelical,” said Shaun Casey, an associate
professor of Christian ethics at Wesley Theological Seminary in
Washington.
Casey recalled how Bush rankled some evangelicals in
2003 when he said Christians and Muslims “worship the same God.”
Some evangelicals flatly said the president was wrong, including
Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission President
Richard Land.
Christianity Today editor David Neff agreed Bush’s
openness to Muslims may be unusual among evangelicals, but it reflects
the president’s personality. “He’s a person with a very generous spirit
… who sees this as a way of affirming something fundamental about a
faith stance in the public square,” Neff said. “I would say
that’s not typical of evangelicals, but it’s not contrary to being an
evangelical.”
Catholic priest Richard John Neuhaus said he
suspects there always will be questions about who fits the definition
of an evangelical. “I’m sure you would find people who do not think
that President Bush or a good many others are evangelicals,” he noted.
“But this (debate) has been going on for centuries and is likely to
continue until our Lord returns.” (RNS)