BOOK: BUSH AND PUTIN DISCUSS JESUS CROSS

Drudge Report ^ | 11/04/2001 | Matt Drudge

[Pokey78]

XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX SUN NOV 04, 2001 20:01:39 ET XXXXX

BOOK: BUSH AND PUTIN DISCUSS JESUS CROSS

U.S. President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin bonded and looked into each other's souls -- over talk of a Christan cross that Putin had blessed in the Holy Land, a new book reveals!

The stunning Bush/Putin revelation is reported for the first time in bestselling author Peggy Noonan's upcoming book WHEN CHARACTER WAS KING.

"[Putin] basically seemed he was saying there was a higher power," Bush tells Nooonan of his meeting with the Russian leader last summer.

The report emerges as the two presidents are set to meet again next week in Washington and at Bush's ranch in Texas.

Bush tells Noonan that he said to Putin: "I think you judge a person on something other than politics. I think it's important for me and you to look for the depth of a person's soul and character... I was touched by the fact your mother gave you a cross."

Putin explained to Bush that he has taken to wearing the cross, which he had blessed in Jerusalem.

Putin said that one day he feared the cross was lost in a house which burned down.

Bush tells Noonan in an Oval Office interview: "Putin said to me, 'The thing I was most worried about was I lost my cross that my mother had given me. And a worker came.' He wanted to tell the worker, 'Go find the cross -- I lost my cross.' The worker came over."

Putin gestured toward Bush as he acted out the story. The worker walked up to Putin and put out his hand and opened it up.

"And the cross was there."

Putin told Bush: "It was as if something meant for me to have the cross."

Bush shares with Noonan: "I said, 'Mr. Putin, President Putin, that's what it's all about -- that's THE story of the cross."

Noonan writes: "I thought later, after I had left the White House, that Bush, as a believer who feels he has been born again in Christ, would likely have interpreted what happened between them with great simplicity: God is here, is operating through us, wants good for the world, performs miracles."

Noonan explores the Bush/Putin cross conversation along with other stories of morality and faith in public life in her new book WHEN CHARACTER WAS KING, A STORY OF RONALD REAGAN, set for release November 12 by VIKING. [Ranked #1423 on AMAZON's sales list Sunday evening.]

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[patent]

Interesting, thanks for the bump.

[Pericles]

Ever read it in the Greek original? To be honest I do not care much for organized religion myself, but some people put to much faith in religious movements founded by Northern Europeans removed from the original Apostolic founders. Probbaly why Protestant Europe is the least religous place on Earth (but they arent to bad off either).

[Salvation]

It was blessed in the Holy Land.

[David Gould]

:) I guess by old-time, I meant the period from about 300 AD up until about 200 years ago.

[Pericles]

Dead language? You speak Greek every day. Christ, democracy, police, metropolis, geometry, drama, comedy, television, automobile, skeleton, stomach, physics, astronauts, genesis, apocalypse, pyramid (yup it's a Greek word), etc. You name your children Greek names, Alexander, Christopher, Philip, Jason, Melissa, Peter, George, etc. You think in Greek everyday. It is a Greek inspired intellectual world you inhabit.

And as for why? Gee maybe your translations a little off. You know like thou shall not kill murder. Oh well better luck next time.