The Obsession with the President's Religion

Joseph Knippenberg of the Claremont Review of Books reviews three books on the subject [via Arts & Letters Daily]:

A review of A Man of Faith: The Spiritual Journey of George W. Bush by David Aikman

The Faith of George W. Bush by Stephen Mansfield

George W. Bush on God and Country edited by Thomas M. Freiling

I certainly don't plan to read the books anytime soon. And the quotes in the Knippenberg review are mostly familiar ones; I blogged a little about them in April. The question we should be asking, it seems to me, isn't about what George W. Bush believes, but about how he justifies what he says and does politically.

When he says his faith guides him, it doesn't bother me. But when he describes the American War on Terror as an extension of God's judgment, I do worry. ("The course of this conflict is not known, yet its outcome is certain. Freedom and fear, justice and cruelty, have always been at war, and we know that God is not neutral between them.")