Posted on 09/29/2004 2:34:53 PM PDT by truthandlife
Any discussion of President Bush’s presumed evangelicalism is complicated. Evangelicalism is a style of worship, not a set of beliefs, and to a large extent evangelical Protestants are defined by their personal stories of faith and by whom they choose as their pastor. But core to many evangelicals’ identity is the “born-again” experience described in John 3:3, when a sinner undergoes an intense conversion during a personal interaction with the Holy Spirit, often Jesus Himself.
George Bush has not said directly that he was ever born again. He has often said he wwas pointed on the path to God after a discussion with evangelist Billy Graham in 1985.
“Over the course of that weekend, Reverend Graham planted a mustard seed in my soul, a seed that grew over the next year,” Bush wrote in his 1999 campaign autobiography, “A Charge to Keep.”
The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.
— Matthew 13:31-32
The “mustard seed” is an allusion to verses in the Gospels relating faith to a bush that grows slowly, taking over the field only over time. It is not the searing thunderbolt of awakening that is commonly accepted as characterizing the born-again conversion.
There is a second story about how Bush started on the road to salvation, one that is more in line with the common narrative. While Bush has never confirmed it, he has also never contradicted it, nor has he apparently sought to reconcile the two accounts.
Evangelist Arthur Blessitt, best known for carrying a 12-foot cross around the world, writes that in 1984, Bush asked to see him and told him: “Arthur, I did not feel comfortable attending the meeting, but I want talk to you about how to know Jesus Christ and how to follow Him.”
The two men and an aide prayed together and discussed salvation, Blessitt says in a long article on his Web site, which comes complete with photographs of Bush and Blessitt together and of personal, handwritten notes Bush wrote to him as late as 1998.
“It was an awesome and glorious moment!” Blessitt writes. “We were just three brothers rejoicing in Christ. I said ‘There is rejoicing in Heaven now! You are saved!’”
Bush does not mention the episode in his autobiography. The Republican National Committee, however, approved the screening of a film, “George W. Bush: Faith in the White House,” at off-the-floor events during its national convention this month in New York; the film recounts the story and implies that Bush’s meeting with Blessitt was the true beginning of his spiritual rebirth.
Richard J. Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif., said this month at a conference of religion writers that the ambiguity surrounding Bush’s religious beliefs was, if not intentional, at least a fortuitous development for the president’s campaign.
“I don’t think Bush says, ‘I’m God’s man,’” Mouw said. “But he doesn’t correct it when others say that.”
Second, forget about what they say about there beliefs, how do they act upon them? Who will stand in defense of marriage? Lets forget about any argument that might be tried to blur Gay/Straight distinctions. Who made marriage? GOD DID. To make it anything other than what HE intended is an attack upon Him,not our constitution.
Obviously, I stand in our Presidents corner. But its more by what I see, than what I hear. Our last President "talked" about his "faith", in fact the pastor of my church was one of his "spiritual advisors", but to me, our former President talked more about his faith than lived it. Our current President seems to live it more than talk about it.
Obviously I don't know the hearts of either man. And maybe, just maybe the DUers are right, and that there is this vast Bush conspiracy that has everybody fooled. Well, I'm just a simple man, evaluting the things I see and hear as best I can. And making decisions based on that. But when one man talks about his "faith", and everything rings hollow. And another man seems to walk the walk, more than talking the talk, he is the man I'll believe more.
Unfortunately today, we have "Christians" who listen more to the world instead of the Word. People who are more interested in What Would Jesus Drive, instead of What Jesus Did. People seem more concerned about externals than internals.
We have two candidates that have been under the microscope long enough to see what they are both made of. The Bible tells us "whatsoever a man thinks in his heart, so is he". Watch a man close enough and long enough you'll see whats in his heart.
Now, I will write an article on what it is like to grow up as a black Jewish woman in Russia.
Dan
I suppose they have documents to back this up.
Bush reads Oswald Chambers on a daily basis, as I have heard him say. I do believe he is "born again", although that may not be terminology he is accustomed to using.
Judge the man by his fruits, and his are definately godly.
So what is your point anyway?
I hope your evidence for this accusation is well founded in facts that can be verified outside of this little conspiracy theory book.
Good post, and excellent Scripture!
Please don't ping me to nonsense like this.
We post things on FR to have a discussion. This is from MSNBC and you can see it is a desperation attempt by the MSM to try to get part of Bush's base to stay home. The article is a pretty weak attempt.
When the media talks or writes about christianty I wonder what country have they grown up in. The only people I see so worried about christianty are the athiests and those who don't understand one thing about it. I always wonder why they complain soooo much. Born again,evangelical, fundamental are all words they seem to have no understanding of. Any christian is born again spiritually, there is what is called the great comission, and fundamental means believing in the bible as the inspired word of God. They try to write mumbo jumbo into these terms and make a mountain out of a mole hill.
He's got my vote and the votes of my family.
And every thinking Jew I know is voting for Bush since he's one of the few Presidents who is actually protecting Israel with more than talk.
If you've been raised as a Christian, sometimes it's not a thunderbolt.
Geez. Everyone's acceptance is different.
I think people like me that were already goody two shoes don't have thunderbolt conversions.
I think people that have strayed far, sometimes have really thunderbolt conversions.
I actually like it when someone has strayed far and then becomes a Christian. They are really alive with faith, and I wish my faith was as strong as theirs. Their conversions inspire me.
In fact, if you look at Scripture, the vast majority of people are saved by... growing up in believing households. Dramatic conversions, while they do happen, are extremely rare by comparison.
As one Bible scholar has noticed, how often do we see a 35 year old man come to the Lord out of unbelief and debauchery, join the church, and then two years later go back to his old ways? Prov. 26:11 As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.
The Lord must change the heart for true conversion. He works on His timetable.
Silly. Remember Iowa, early 2000. "Christ, because he changed my heart."
B I N G O!
I love it when the heathen pretend to know more about Christianity than the Christians. LOL!
That wouldn't surprise me as much if Bush belonged to a Reformed congregation, but he doesn't.
I have a close friend like that. So much so that he told me a few weeks ago that a movie about his life is in the works. I asked him what he thought of the script, and he said that they made him out to be too crazy, but that it was better than the first time when they portrayed him as too cruel.
The story of his thunderbolt is frankly astonishing.
Politicians! The "D" must stand for "Dinosaur" while the "R" stands for "Reptile".
Yes I agree
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