Michael Irvin's induction speech

Sorry Jimmy, but once you tell the electorate that you take your orders from a higher Father, your faith's in play. In what way has he demonstrated the depth and breadth of his faith to any of us? Are we not allowed to ask? That was the hypothetical Alma and I were working from.

 

And if you're a Christian, that's a problem. A Christian life without conflict is not a Christian life. God doesn't call anyone to tell 20,000 people to pray for a good parking spot.

 

I didn't say not to question it. I was commenting on the assumptions being made. Question away! I think it is actually one of the most important areas in a politician's life and is something that gets short shrift. I would love to read in-depth interviews with all the major candidates where they are asked probing questions about their faith, or lack thereof.

 

Exactly - and it's more than a matter of arming yourself with a handful of Scripture. Rather, I think you have to let him unspool, in detail, and by asking the right questions, the nature of his relationship to his personal savior and how that private relationship informs his public works.

 

The only idea I have is what I have read (which reveals...not much), his own comfy testimony, his wife's testimony, the people he surrounds himself with and the decisions he makes.

When a Christian's political advisor is an admitted agnostic in Karl Rove...well now...that ain't the place to start. Bush's family is not Christian. Certainly not his mother, whom he admits he is most like.

We actually know...not much. And yet it is his guiding force. The media is to blame. They absolutely refuse to go there.

Wouldn't we all like to see what Bush thinks of Romans 12:17-21? Wouldn't it be interesting for a reporter to simply stand up at a press conference, read those verses, and ask Bush to reconcile his foreign policy with those verses? Could he? I'd like to see him try.

 

As would I. Thanks for the illuminating discussion, Alma. I'm done for tonight.

 

Two thoughts on that Alma:

1) Applying your thinking about Bush and faith, the liberals ought to fall in love with Bush because that, ahem, is a (drum roll, libs) a SEPARATION of CHURCH and STATE in his policymaking! In their view that is.

2) OK, so which presidential candidate who claims to be Christian would be most likely to reconcile any policy with his faith?

 

But your presumption, at the very beginning of this discussion was...why go into this at all? Wasn't it? Lest we do so for every world leader, yes?

The media has abjectly failed. Supposedly objective, willing to scour all the issues, it has allowed the leader of the free world to hold a magic card because of its sheer discomfort of dealing with the subject. A media fearless to explore the many partners of Paris Hilton's crotch cannot tread on this. It's hilarious. Liberals wonder why we have a nation of fools who worship guns and soldiers and tanks and flags, why people actually believe God has drawn a <i> covenant </i> with the United States.

 

He did establish such a covenant with Israel, so it wouldn't be the first time.

Despite the neocon/John Birch, etc., whisperings regarding me, I think God has this advice, given originally to Israel, aimed at the US of A:
"If My people which are called by My name shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land" (2 Chron. 7:14).

 

Well, uh, I don't. Israel's Israel. It's not even the place as we know now it; it's a bloodline. America ain't it.

The verse you quote is a nice thought, and I wish it were for me, but it is not. I was grafted in. Not an original branch.

Romans 11 is a fine counter-argument.

 

I think we're tossing around "Christian" like the born-again, premillenarian splinter form of it is all there is. Bush's family is Christian, high Episcopalians, as I recall. Do I believe W's faith is an inch deep and a mile wide? Yes. Can I prove it? Even with close questioning, Alma, I don't think anyone really could. You could prove he's as unlettered theologically as he is in everything else, but that doesn;t touch the depth of his faith, whatever its source.

 

Should writers start using the same language they use when referring to a recovering addict who says he hasn't used in xx months.

Joe Blow, who says he's a born-again Christian, said "Praise be to God"

How do we really know if someone is a devout Christian, Buddhist or whathaveyou?