Re: President Bush succeeded in selling ‘theology of war’
The Tacoma News Tribune offers an interesting piece on the political strategy that arguably won Bush the White House. Professors David Domke and Kevin Coe argue "Under the mantle of a 'war on terrorism,' the president and his administration have converged a religious fundamentalist worldview with a political agenda."
These two have analyzed Presidential speeches for several decades and found that Bush claims divine intervention in a way only touched upon by Reagan. Although they do not present their findings in a scientific way, the approach is an interesting one.
All Presidents have, at one time or other, called upon God to lead the nation through a crisis. Bush, the writers argue, has essentially claimed that God has called Bush to lead the nation through a crisis of terrorism. No recent President has ever done this before, they say.
Theologists generally call it divine mission. Secularists generally call it megalomania.
Disclosure: I am a practicing and faithful Christian. I understand the Muslim faith is fundamentally at odds with Christianity. I also understand that certain radical Muslims have declared war on America. And that calls for appropriate defensive strategies. What it doesn't call for is an invasion of a Muslim country that hasn't been shown to have been harboring the terrorists responsible for 9/11, on a pretext that proved to be unfounded, impose a police state that really isn't much different from Saddam's and then to play basketball in its mosque sanctuaries.
The fundamental teaching of Jesus is love, not war. I agree with the secularists.
These two have analyzed Presidential speeches for several decades and found that Bush claims divine intervention in a way only touched upon by Reagan. Although they do not present their findings in a scientific way, the approach is an interesting one.
All Presidents have, at one time or other, called upon God to lead the nation through a crisis. Bush, the writers argue, has essentially claimed that God has called Bush to lead the nation through a crisis of terrorism. No recent President has ever done this before, they say.
Theologists generally call it divine mission. Secularists generally call it megalomania.
Disclosure: I am a practicing and faithful Christian. I understand the Muslim faith is fundamentally at odds with Christianity. I also understand that certain radical Muslims have declared war on America. And that calls for appropriate defensive strategies. What it doesn't call for is an invasion of a Muslim country that hasn't been shown to have been harboring the terrorists responsible for 9/11, on a pretext that proved to be unfounded, impose a police state that really isn't much different from Saddam's and then to play basketball in its mosque sanctuaries.
The fundamental teaching of Jesus is love, not war. I agree with the secularists.
posted by Richard Shepard | 9:12 AM
1 Comments:
How true! One can never substantiate or justify the reason for going to war. Violence can never be condoned and I don't believe that there can be any "good war".
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