Peggy Noonan says too much God in speech

Peggy Noonan agrees with me that there was too much God in Bush's inaugural address:

The president's speech seemed rather heavenish. It was a God-drenched speech. This president, who has been accused of giving too much attention to religious imagery and religious thought, has not let the criticism enter him. God was invoked relentlessly. "The Author of Liberty." "God moves and chooses as He wills. We have confidence because freedom is the permanent hope of mankind . . . the longing of the soul."

Furthermore, to expound upon my previous post, Bush said that self-government requires character, and character requires some kind of religion, even the Islamic religion. It was not a statement about freedom of religion, it was a statement that a country will have a lousy government unless its people believe in God. Bush once again tells us that atheists aren't welcome in the United States.

It's a pretty demented statment that a country of Muslims will produce a better government than a country of atheists.

And its not a statement born out in fact. In all cases I can think of, democratic movements have been secular, not religious. Our Constitution was not written by Christian fundamentalists, it was written by secular Deists.

Links to other blog posts about Peggy Noonan's column: Professor Bainbridge, No More Mr. Nice Blog, BrothersJudd, Outside the Beltway, Pandagon, Belmont Club, PrestoPundit, Sunny Days In Heaven, PunditGuy, and Inklings. People sure have been pretty busy blogging about her column!