President Bush raised some eyebrows with his declaration that he can’t imagine anyone serving in the Oval Office "without a relationship with the Lord" and this Washington Times story has some interesting observations:
Abraham Foxman, national director of the Jewish Anti-Defamation League, [said] that he doesn’t think "anyone should be upset or worried" about
Mr. Bush’s words — even if his reference to "the Lord" means Jesus
Christ.
"I haven’t heard him say his faith is the only truth, the one
truth," Mr. Foxman said. "He talks about respect for people’s faith or
nonfaith."
Mr. Foxman is right – President Bush never speaks of his religion as the one truth faith and even said during the campaign that he believed Christians and Muslims worship the same God. Now this doesn’t mean the President’s religious beliefs don’t influence him, possibly for the better, and it doesn’t mean he can’t be quite a good president, but it does mean that either a) The President holds very shallow, nonsensical and heretical theological views about the nature of God or b) The President lies about his true theological beliefs for political expediency. Either way, it should put those who think he is going to usher in some sort of golden age of Christian moral culture on notice.
In another part of the same story, there is good quote from Tom Minnery, vice president of public policy at Focus on the Family:
Mr. Minnery noted that even religious tolerance is part of the Christian tradition.
"People who do not believe in the Christian faith ought to be
thankful that this is a Christian country," Mr. Minnery said.
"Christianity is voluntary. No Christian can force anybody to accept
the Christian faith.
"Christians, above all, recognize freedom of conscience. They
realize some will turn away," he said. "Therefore, a country governed
by Christian principles is a country that guards religious freedom
religiously."
This is very important to remember. Without Christianity, we likely wouldn’t have the religious freedom to reject it. Those who wish for a explicitly "secular" state should be careful what they wish for. Just look at the communist legacy of repression, or even France, where religious freedom consists of Muslim head scarves being banned.