Bush the Evangelical?

That was what I asked after reading He’d rather talk about sex than God in the London Times.

Not much out of the ordinary with this opening - until the last sentence:

One of the defining aspects of George W Bush’s presidency is his professed belief in God. Yet what really are his religious beliefs? The question, which seems central to understanding his presidency, never receives a satisfactory answer. Indeed, one religious figure close to him soon after his conversion was shocked to find that he talked about sex rather than theology and says that a lot of his faith seemed to be politically calculated.

But for Bush wouldn't it be talking about philosophy than theology? Still, not so odd - we all know that ideas and thinking are not George W. Bush's strong suits. With the next paragraph, things start opening up:

Bush’s religion has often been described as evangelical. But unlike most other evangelicals, he blithely uses profanity and as governor of Texas he would play poker. He doesn’t pay tithes, he doesn’t try to convert others – one of the central obligations in most evangelical denominations. And he didn’t raise his daughters in the faith.

What then makes him an evangelical? Profanity, gambling, and no professing the faith? Er, no, these things are all what the evangelicals are against. Maybe he does not talk about theology because he really has no idea about theology?

What Bush clearly does believe in is the personal, transforming and sustaining power of belief in God. Having a personal relationship with God, praying and reading the Bible daily were the tools he used to get control of his life more than 20 years ago.

So, God and the Bible have a utility for George W. Bush? Which flips the relationship between the faithful and God. Then this paragraph sheds some more light:

As he and Rove later mapped out his presidential bid, Bush faced a new problem: how to retain the support of the right-wing evangelical leaders that he privately called “wackos” without being so closely identified with them that the association would alienate other voters. The answer was to expand his support for religiously based treatment for drug and alcohol abuse into “faith-based initiatives”, his signature social policy.

Hmmm, I say George W. is not only Liar-in-Chief but Hypocrite-in-Chief.

Odd, a foreign newspaper (and one that ought to be sympathetic to Bush) prints this and not an American paper. Read the whole thing, please.