Bush Chosen By God?
Stephen Harris
It’s October 9, 2004, late afternoon. Last night I watched a debate between George W. Bush and John Kerry. There were several points at which I could physically feel my jaw drop. I saw a caricature of a person posing as president. It was like strings were twitching him. His cavalier responses to important questions seemed like obvious attempts to hide his ignorance. I also saw an inspirational John Kerry being knowledgeable about many different issues. He explained his position on virtually every topic discussed, and he did it clearly and with confidence. I thought, wow this is amazing. I’m seeing a president unravel before my eyes in front of the whole world. I thought this moment would go down in history.
And now, today I am amazed. It’s like it never happened. It hasn’t even been a whole day! The damage control has been distressing. It’s like it was preemptive and it made the media look rather helpless in the process. Right after the debate the announcers I heard where making vague statements about John Kerry doing a better job, followed by stuff like “we won’t know for sure who did better until tomorrow.” They were being careful not to go out on a limb by waiting for poll numbers. Meanwhile, there are all of the people watching, waiting for the news to tell them who won. And the news is waiting on them. This seems confusing. Is everybody really waiting for themselves to tell them what to think?
Let’s say they are. That seems like it would be a sketchy situation. A vulnerable population in a world torn by violence waiting for a leader to lead them. In walks a clearly competent candidate and the world is too nervous to believe it. That doubt is then utilized by the group of people and organizations that are behind President Bush. They are poised to explain how great a job George did in the debate whether he did or not. And there you go. The confusion continues. The media, too scared to declare a winner, gets relieved of that duty by quoting representatives of both sides who of course declare victory. That settles it, it’s a tie. It doesn’t matter that the president could have pulled his pants down, it still would have been a tie. It’s a tie. But it kind of sounds like cheating to me.
I heard that President Bush is sending DVDs to churches apparently explaining that he has been chosen by God to do what he is doing. Can he really do that? Send videos to churches to convince them he’s a prophet? It’s sort of like telling the world that you won the 2000 Presidential election and lo and behold we lost President Gore because of scrappy power grabbing. Bush is not a leader elevated by the people he leads, but rather a leader that scrambles for power by any means.
The problem with declaring that you are chosen by God is that it is true. We are all chosen by God. To blatantly and explicitly leverage that fact to gain power from the church is not only an unethical abuse of the church it also looks to me like a violation of the separation of church and state. Church and state are separate because separately they are powerful enough.