President Bush has never been shy about expressing the religious faith he acknowledges directed him away from his "young and foolish" ways, but references to his strong Christian convictions are on the upswing as a possible war with Iraq nears.
Oftentimes the president's recognition of the deity comes at the conclusion of prepared remarks, where it has become standard for him to tell audiences, "may God bless you all and may God continue to bless America."
But God and religion occasionally play a more central role in Bush presentations. In his State of the Union address in January, a speech usually reserved to express the challenges facing the nation in the year ahead, the president told assembled lawmakers that people cannot "claim to know all the ways of Providence."
"Yet we can trust in them, placing our confidence in the loving God behind all of life and all of history," he said. "May He guide us now."
The invocation of religious language, repeated to a greater extent during recent appearances before a group of religious broadcasters in Nashville and at the annual National Prayer Breakfast, establishes that Bush has constantly prayed about the Iraq situation and "come to the conclusion that the man must be disarmed for the safety and security of the American people."
"I'm reading the Bible every day," Bush told a group of reporters invited to the Oval Office for a sit-down interview this week. "I've thought long and hard about this issue, as you can imagine. This is a difficult decision for any president to make. I've thought about the consequences of doing nothing."
Throughout, the president said, he is "sustained by the prayers of the people."
Some on the antiwar side are not impressed with the president's piety, particularly critics on other continents. A member of the British parliament, during debate on the Iraq question, recently dismissed the president as "a rightwing Christian." English playwright Harold Pinter has described Bush as "a hired Christian thug."
Le Monde, the influential Paris daily, said in one editorial that Bush "is convinced that he is inspired by God, and he is dangerous."
Neither the president nor his aides in the White House appear deterred by the characterizations. Ari Fleischer, Bush's press spokesman, said he isn't aware of any controversy that the president's religious remarks might be sparking overseas.
"The president speaks as he speaks because he believes as he believes," Fleischer said.
Bush's embrace of religion has often been told. He became a self- described born-again Christian, at least in part, because of a battle with the bottle. He hasn't had a drink of liquor since 1986. Born an Episcopalian, he is now a Methodist, the original church of his wife, Laura Bush. He prays daily and often participates in West Wing Bible studies.
When he isn't reading the Bible, Bush often devotes his rising hour to other religious texts. The first lady recently revealed that the president currently is engrossed in "My Utmost for the Highest," a collection of sermons from the late Scottish preacher Oswald Chambers.
"I pray," Bush told those gathered for the National Prayer Breakfast. "I pray for strength, I pray for guidance, I pray for forgiveness. And I pray to offer my thanks for a kind and generous almighty God."
While history establishes the sincerity of the president's convictions, public religious remarks may help politically as well. Bush lost the popular balloting to his Democratic rival, former Vice President Al Gore, by more than 500,000 votes in November 2000. Part of the reason, according to Karl Rove, the White House's top political adviser, is that as many as 4 million Christian conservatives failed to reach the polls.
Rove has privately told Republican groups that the White House intends to expend considerable political capital bringing Christian conservatives back to the fold. And the president has spoken directly to those groups.
At the Opryland Hotel in Nashville, speaking to Christian broadcasters, Bush said he believes the nation's great strength can be traced to the public's "deep and diverse religious beliefs."
"And the faith of our citizens is seeing us through some demanding times," Bush said. "We're being challenged. We're meeting those challenges because of our faith."
in·san·i·ty n. 1 a : a deranged state of the mind usually occurring as a specific disorder (as schizophrenia) and usually excluding such states as mental retardation, psychoneurosis, and various character disorders
b : a mental disorder
2 : such unsoundness of mind or lack of understanding as prevents one from having the mental capacity required by law to enter into a particular relationship, status, or transaction or as removes one from criminal or civil responsibility
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