I actually think (partly) why we went to war with Iraq is the convert Iraq into christains. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if the Iraq PM had to believe in the bible before we choose who would be Iraq's leader. Tho, I know very little about Iraq's government or anything about it's leader.
Were sending them over pretty damn fast. Most of the contractors over there are heavily tied to religion IE faith based charity. But this makes sense to me since, if you read the bible most wars are fraught over religion. Millions of dead people because god thought it was a good idea!
Look, what 90% of Americans believe in God, so wouldn't you think that if were bringing democracy to your country then part of the price is bringing over the bible (better read it) or we'll kill more of your kind... Oh, thats not working? Well, well secretly throw your own religion against it self and out of control (Civil War). Depressing? Yeah, I think so. Thanks Bush! Damn born again creep.
From the so called command and chief...
RICHARD CIZIK, Natl Association of Evangelicals: The secularist believes that we're undoing the American experiment, that we are trampling upon the separation of church and state. The secularist, you see, wants to relegate religious belief to the margins of public life, and the evangelical, with his pietistic influence, says, "Absolutely not. I'm going to bring those religious values right into the center of all of life."
NARRATOR: On September 14th, 2001, Bush gathered with spiritual and political leaders from around the nation at the National Cathedral. The president had declared a national day of prayer and remembrance for the victims of the September 11th terrorist attacks. In the wake of those attacks, as he brought the nation into the war on terror, Bush's public expression of religion took on a new tone, no longer speaking merely about personal salvation but of biblical themes of good and evil.
Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: We are here in the middle hour of our grief. Americans do not yet have the distance of history, but our responsibility to history is already clear: to answer these attacks and rid the world of evil.
JIM WALLIS, Editor-in-Chief, Sojourners Magazine: After September 11th, Bush's role changed dramatically, his notion of himself, and his place in history.
NARRATOR: Jim Wallis is the editor of the liberal evangelical magazine Sojourners and has written extensively on the president's use of religion since 9/11.
JIM WALLIS: He had been sort of a self-help Methodist, meaning someone whose faith had made a difference in his personal life-- solved some drinking issues, and some family issues, kind of a 12-step God. Then September 11th came, and the self-help Methodist became now almost a Messianic American Calvinist speaking of "the mission of America."
Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: In every generation, the world has produced enemies of human freedom. They have attacked America because we are freedom's home and defender, and the commitment of our fathers is now the calling of our time.
RICHARD LAND, Southern Baptist Convention: As an evangelical Christian, I was completely in sync with the way the president put this in context for the nation. Romans 13 says God instituted civil government to punish those who do evil and to reward those who do that which is right.
NARRATOR: But in the weeks and months to come, the president's religious language of absolutes made others uncomfortable.
Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: We will rid the world of the evildoers. We've never seen this kind of evil before. But the evildoers have never seen the American people in action before, either, and they're about to find out. Thank you all very much.
JIM WALLIS: To not acknowledge, see, name evil in the world is bad theology. And yet Jesus says in the Gospel of Matthew, "Why do you see the speck in your neighbor's eye, your adversary's eye, your enemy's eye, and not see the log in your own eye? Why do you see the evil in them but not in yourself?"
Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: Every nation in every region now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.
JIM WALLIS: To say that they are evil and we are good, and that if you're not with us, you're with the terrorists-- that's also bad theology.
Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: Freedom and fear, justice and cruelty have always been at war. And we know that God is not neutral between them.
RICHARD LAND: The problem with the left is that some of them don't think God has a side. George Bush and most of George Bush's supporters believe God has a side. And we believe that side is freedom. We believe that side is democracy. We believe that side is respect for basic human rights.
Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: Ours is the cause of human dignity.
NARRATOR: A year after 9/11, Bush again drew his message from the Bible.
Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: This idea of America is the hope of all mankind. That hope drew millions to this harbor. That hope still lights our way. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness will not overcome it.
JIM WALLIS: "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." Well, that's from the Gospel of John. But it's about the light of Christ and the word of God, which is the light that shines in the darkness and has never been overcome. Now, all of a sudden, it's meant to be America as a beacon of light to the world. He changed the meaning of the text. It's no longer about the word of God, the light of Christ, it's about us. It's about we being the hope of the world. That's, again, bad theology.
RICHARD LAND: I can understand that there are a lot of people on the left who think that-- who are uncomfortable with the concept that someone thinks they're doing God's will or that they're on a divine mission. That says more about the left than it does about George W. Bush. George W. Bush is standing squarely in the middle of American history and American tradition in believing in American exceptionalism. Does that mean that America's God's chosen people? No. No. Does it mean that we believe that an angel still rides in this storm, as they did at the founding? Yes. Yes.
JIM WALLIS: This language of righteous empire, of God being on our side and our having this divine mission-- I think this creates a framework for the misuse of religion. And I think the rest of the world hears this and it frightens them, particularly in the Arab world because they are afraid that we see this as a clash of civilizations and that this is a religious war.
After 9/11, Bush called the American invasion of Afghanistan ?a crusade? -- until advisors told him that he was implying it was a ?holy war? or a ?jihad.? He repeatedly referred to the fundamentalist Muslims as ?evil-doers.? Bush said, ?This will be a monumental struggle of good versus evil, but good will prevail.? Bush also labeled his enemies as the ?axis of evil,? a term that was theologically and morally loaded. If the ?axis of evil? were so evil, terrorists would also have attacked other democracies across the globe. (The Nation, December 4, 2003)