Thursday, January 13, 2005

Underreaction to Bush's religion interview

Searching Google News, I haven't found a single domestic newspaper picking up on George Bush's Washington Times religion interview. Just a few foreign news sources, for example the Telegraph which offers the following analysis:

His comments were none the less sure to prompt renewed outrage from those in America and abroad who see in Mr Bush a Christian fundamentalist let loose on the Oval Office and pandering to the powerful Evangelical movement in the country.

Given the lack of attention being paid to to this story so far, I don't see there being much outrage. The next comment in the Telegraph story, perhaps, explains the lack of outrage:

But professions of religious faith are nothing unusual from occupants of the White House. Jimmy Carter preached in church while in office and Bill Clinton regularly took part in religious services.

I mentioned in a comment a while ago that Europe is cooler than the United States. One of the reasons why is because it's common for Europeans not to believe in God, but depending on which survey you believe, 79% to 95% of people in the United States believe in God. (With such a huge difference between "surveys," the exact percentage of God believing Americans is a mystery. All we can say is that it's a large percentage.)

In the United States, people fear being branded an atheist, so maybe people are keeping their criticism of Bush's religious statment to themselves. Certainly none of the hypocrites on the left had much criticism of Bill Clinton's public demonstration of his religious faith (in between Oval Office shenanigans).

4 comments:

R said...

" One of the reasons why [Europe is cooler than the United States] is because it's common for Europeans not to believe in God."

What does this have to do with anything? You can be an atheist just fine here in the United States. If you're afraid of voicing your religious, or lack thereof, choice, then that's your own damn problem.

Why not say that the Euro is going to kick ass in five years as a reason why Europe may be cooler than the United States? Why not use its culture or history? Christ Almighty, that's like admiring a fine rum because it has a shiny label.

HarryDisco said...

Wow! Now I understand why people might think you're a man. You're very agressive.

What the hell do you care how religious Bush is? Hey as long as he doesn't send the army to force convert you, you have no right, just like he has no right to tell you how to worship or not worship.
You might be a libertarian, but you're also a militant atheist. The elections must have taught you that the majority of Americans don't agree with you. You gotta respect their view too, you know.

The New Democrat

Matt said...

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Old Blind Dog said...

LG, a number of commenters seem to be asking you the question "What the hell do you care..." about whatever subject. Which indicates you know how to get to the point, doesn't it?

To those commenters that don't get it I'd like to point out that not all conversations start with "Do you want fries with that?"