White House scribe Michael Gerson\u2019s telephone rang with a vengeance after the 2003 State of the Union address and its claim that there is \u201cpower, wonder-working power, in the goodness and idealism and faith of the American people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
In the age of Google, it was easy to connect this with the gospel hymn \u201cPower in the Blood,\u201d which says there is \u201cpower, wonder-working power, in the precious blood of the Lamb.\u201d Soon, journalists were calling Gerson\u2019s West Wing office asking him to underline all the evangelical \u201ccode words\u201d hidden in major speeches.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThey\u2019re not code words. They\u2019re our culture. \u2026 They are literary allusions understood by millions of Americans,\u201d Gerson told 24 journalists at a recent Ethics and Public Policy Center seminar in Key West, Fla. \u201cIt\u2019s not a strategy. It\u2019s just the way that I write and the president likes it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
George W. Bush is not speaking in an unknown tongue.<\/p>\n\n
Anyone who studies what presidents \u2014 from George Washington to Bill Clinton \u2014 have said in times of triumph and tragedy knows that faith language is normal. If anything, said Gerson, today\u2019s imagery has become more nuanced. It\u2019s hard to imagine Bush delivering anything resembling Franklin D. Roosevelt\u2019s 1942 address warning that the Nazis yearned to spread their \u201cpagan religion\u201d worldwide, replacing the \u201cHoly Bible and the Cross of Mercy\u201d with the \u201cswastika and the naked sword.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
The historical patterns are easy to find. In addition to literary allusions, said Gerson, presidents have consistently used religious language when:<\/p>\n\n
* Offering words of comfort. Presidents cannot face the nation after shocking tragedies and say that \u201cdeath is the end, life is meaningless and the universe is a vast, empty, echoing void,\u201d said Gerson. Instead, they use words similar to Bush\u2019s remarks after the space shuttle disaster: \u201cThe same Creator who names the stars also knows the names of the seven souls we mourn today. The crew of the shuttle Columbia did not return safely to Earth; yet we can pray that all are safely home.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
* Praising the influence of faith on efforts to promote justice. Thus, in a 2003 speech on Goree Island, Senegal, Bush bluntly described America\u2019s sinful history of slavery. But he added: \u201cIn America, enslaved Africans learned the story of the exodus from Egypt and set their own hearts on a promised land of freedom. Enslaved Africans discovered a suffering Savior and found he was more like themselves than their masters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
* Asking citizens to help their neighbors. For Bush, this \u201cfaith-based rhetoric\u201d has been closely connected with \u201ccompassionate conservatism\u201d and his efforts to allow religious groups to find niches within wider government programs to help the needy.<\/p>\n\n
* Alluding to divine providence in national life. Here, the rhetorical bar has been set especially high by Abraham Lincoln, who insisted that Americans can hope to be on God\u2019s side, but cannot claim that God is fighting on their side.<\/p>\n\n
Presidents use religious language in wartime, said Gerson. Nevertheless, critics of the war in Iraq have attacked Bush\u2019s consistent use of these words: \u201cFreedom is not America\u2019s gift to the world. It is almighty God\u2019s gift to all humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
The president wrote those words, noted Gerson. Working together, they have tried to emphasize that Bush rejects what scholars call \u201cAmerican exceptionalism\u201d \u2014 the belief that America is uniquely God\u2019s instrument in history. The president\u2019s stance is best expressed in the 2003 State of the Union address, said Gerson.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cWe Americans have faith in ourselves, but not in ourselves alone,\u201d said Bush. \u201cWe do not claim to know all the ways of Providence, yet we can trust in them, placing our confidence in the loving God behind all of life, and all of history.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Those anxious to criticize how the Bush White House has used religious language should dig into the speeches of Woodrow Wilson, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and many other American leaders, said Gerson. Would critics prefer Republicans to limit themselves to the libertarian logic of big business?<\/p>\n\n
\u201cAs a writer, I think this attitude would flatten political rhetoric and make it less moving and interesting,\u201d he said. \u201cBut even more, I think the reality here is that scrubbing public discourse of religious ideas would remove one of the main sources of social justice in our history.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
White House scribe Michael Gerson\u2019s telephone rang with a vengeance after the 2003 State of the Union address and its claim that there is \u201cpower, wonder-working power, in the goodness and idealism and faith of the American people.\u201d In the age of Google, it was easy to connect this with the gospel hymn \u201cPower in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[282,388,554,1544,1546,916,925],"class_list":["post-1311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dc","tag-george-w-bush","tag-michael-gerson","tag-politics","tag-religion","tag-washington","tag-white-house"],"yoast_head":"\n