Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: My relationship with
God through Christ gives me meaning and direction.
ANNOUNCER: He is by most accounts the most
openly religious president in generations.
E.J. DIONNE, Jr., Author, Sacred Places, Civic
Purposes: The interest in religion is not
made up. It has to do with Bush's self-presentation
and what he thinks he is about.
Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: I'll talk about it,
OK? I've got a personal faith. Billy Graham
came into my life.
ANNOUNCER: From the beginnings of his faith--
MARK LEAVERTON, Midland Men's Community Bible
Study: He told me at that point, he said,
you know, "I realized that I had to be born
again."
ANNOUNCER: --and his mission to become president--
Dr. RICHARD LAND, Southern Baptist Convention:
Among the things he said to us was, "I believe
that God wants me to be president."
ANNOUNCER: --to his embrace of conservative
Christians--
DOUG WEAD, Advisor to Pres. George H.W. Bush:
The message did come home. My God, you could
win the White House with nothing but evangelicals.
ANNOUNCER: --and his ideas on God and government--
Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: We need commonsense
judges who understand that our rights were
derived from God.
ANNOUNCER: Tonight, FRONTLINE examines a president--
Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: I, George Walker Bush,
do solemnly swear--
ANNOUNCER: --and his faith.
NARRATOR: George W. Bush has often said that
to understand him, one must go to Midland,
Texas. And it's in Midland that his religious
journey begins.
WAYNE SLATER, Sr. Political Writer, Dallas
Morning News: The thing to understand about
Midland is that it's probably the most conservative
area of Texas. It's flat. There's nothing
to do here but to make money, if you're in
the oil business, or to work for companies
that make money because of the oil business,
and to go to church.
NARRATOR: Midland's motto is "Where the sky's
the limit," but in the mid-1980s, during the
biggest oil bust in a generation, that kind
of optimism was hard to find. The downturn
lead to bankruptcies, divorce, even suicide.
And it was during those desperate times that
this group was formed, Midland's chapter of
Community Bible Study, or CBS, as it's called.
SKIP HEDGPETH, Midland Men's Community Bible
Study: Men were searching for help, trying
to have an air of confidence for their families
that things were going to be OK. And they
were themselves looking for help to find out
that everything was going to be OK.
BIBLE STUDY LEADER: Tonight in Romans 5, the
Apostle Paul is going to help us discover
the vast riches that are available to all
people through faith in Jesus Christ.
SKIP HEDGPETH: Hard times have a way of making
people draw closer to God. Out of the struggles,
we become aware that, you know, we're not
in charge of everything. And so we start looking
for a power greater than ourselves to help
us when we're in our troubles.
NARRATOR: Facing his own troubles, in the
fall of 1985, George W. Bush joined the Bible
study group.
MARK LEAVERTON: When he came, it was noteworthy.
It was always neat to me because I thought,
"Isn't that wonderful? Here's a guy who has
so much in his life, and yet he has a need,
just like I do."
NARRATOR: Bush had been given so much in his
life. He was from a privileged family with
powerful business and political connections
going back generations. But very little had
gone well in Bush's own life. As his father
had before him, Bush had moved to Midland
hoping to make his fortune in the oil business.
But in the middle of the oil bust, facing
bankruptcy, he had been forced to sell his
company.
WAYNE SLATER: As Bush approached 40 years
old, he found himself as the dark sheep of
the family. He talked about that.
NARRATOR: Wayne Slater is a Texas newspaperman
who has followed George W. Bush throughout
his political career.
WAYNE SLATER: Jeb was the one who was going
to be the political success of the family.
George told the Queen of England one time,
"Well, I'm the black sheep in my family."
NARRATOR: Bush's family were East Coast Episcopalians,
churchgoing but not particularly devout. When
he had married Laura Welsh, Bush had adopted
her family's United Methodist Church.
WAYNE SLATER: His father and mother's church,
the Episcopalian Church, is seen by some Methodists
as a liberal or much too tolerant offshoot.
The Methodist Church gives you an opportunity,
and the Baptist Church even more, to believe
in certain absolutes in an absolute way.
NARRATOR: But Bush had expressed little interest
in religion. Though he had gone to church
every Sunday, by his own admission, he had
been more interested in an active social life,
fueled by heavy drinking. But with a wife
and two young girls, his lifestyle had begun
to cause problems.
DOUG WEAD: He knows he's got a drinking problem.
He loves his daughters, and he was going to
lose his daughters if he lost his marriage.
And he was going to lose his marriage if he
didn't stop drinking. But he's going every
Sunday to this Methodist church with Laura,
for the kids' sake, for the girls' sake. No
matter what he believes, he's there, he's
hearing this stuff. He's already had some
literature that shows that people who are
able to beat their drinking problem often
do by invoking a higher power.
NARRATOR: Then, the summer before he turned
40, he had a conversation with the Reverend
Billy Graham, an old Bush family friend. Years
later, Bush would write, "Graham planted a
mustard seed in my soul." And soon after his
40th birthday, Bush made a decision.
DOUG WEAD: He woke up one morning and he said,
"Eureka. That's it. I'll take God. I'll beat
drinking. I keep Laura and the girls. That
simple. I will never take a drink again the
rest of my life. Done. So where do you go
to sign up? How do you believe? I'll believe."
BIBLE STUDY LEADER: "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus."
Sing it twice.
NARRATOR: The Bible study that Bush joined
was evangelical Christian. To evangelicals,
it is not their Christian denomination that
connects them but a series of beliefs. One
of the most important is committing yourself
to Jesus Christ, or being "born again."
MARK LEAVERTON: We all have that deep yearning
for something genuine, something real. And
I'm sure that's exactly what George was feeling.
He'd changed, and all of a sudden, studying
the Bible was important.
NARRATOR: Bush became one of a 120 Midland
men who began a rigorous study of the Bible.
BIBLE STUDY LEADER: This week's passage provides
a beautiful picture of God's unconditional
love.
NARRATOR: Many of the men in this room today
were in the group 19 years ago when George
Bush joined.
BIBLE STUDY LEADER: If ever there is a Scripture
verse that defines the grace of God this is
this one. So who's got the memory work this
week?
[www.pbs.org: More on Midland's Bible study
class]
NARRATOR: Conservative evangelicals consider
the Bible to be the word of God, and without
error, and reading it daily is more important
even than going to church.
BIBLE STUDY PARTICIPANT: God demonstrates
his own love for us in this. Christ died for
us.
BIBLE STUDY PARTICIPANT: It's Romans 5-8.
BIBLE STUDY PARTICIPANT: Amen to that.
BIBLE STUDY PARTICIPANT: Thanks, brother.
MARK LEAVERTON: I remember after George Bush
had been in CBS for about a year, a year-and-a-half,
my wife and I went to the Yucca Theater, which
is a little downtown theater. And there were
these little tables you could sit at. I sat
down, my wife Vikki, and I. And then George
and Laura Bush came in and set at this little
table with us.
I leaned over to him, and I said, "George.
How have you been enjoying CBS?" Really kind
of conversational. I wasn't trying to get
deep with him at-- you know, at this play.
And he looked at me, and really just very
strong eyes and feeling in his voice, he said,
"CBS has changed my life." I was really taken
aback by the fervor, the way he said it. It
was something deep. And he talked about the
fact that when we had studied about Nicodemus
and how Nicodemus asked Jesus about life,
and Jesus told him, "Nicodemus, you've got
to be born again," and that little story really
impacted him because he told me, at that point,
he said, "You know, I realized through studying
that that I had to be born again."
NARRATOR: But being born again did not solve
all his problems. In 1987, still struggling
with his career, George W. Bush left Midland
and moved to Washington, D.C. His father was
running for president, and he had a problem.
Vice Pres. GEORGE H.W. BUSH, Presidential
Candidate: Let me say we've just gotten the
returns in from Iowa. Round two is over. And
I congratulate both Mr. Dole and-- Senator
Dole and Pat Robertson.
ROBERTSON SUPPORTERS: Hats off for Pat! Hats
off for Pat!
NARRATOR: The Bush campaign was stunned when
their candidate came in third in the Iowa
caucus behind televangelist Pat Robertson.
Rev. PAT ROBERTSON, Presidential Candidate:
Thank you very much! I must say that my campaign
for the presidency has been given an enormous
boost here in Iowa tonight.
NARRATOR: Robertson was the latest in a line
of conservative evangelical leaders who had
been having increasing success in getting
religious voters to the polls. In his campaign,
he had emphasized the moral issues that conservative
evangelicals had been rallying around for
years, such as school prayer and abortion.
Rev. PAT ROBERTSON: You and I know we must
restore the greatness of America through moral
strength!
NARRATOR: But George Bush, Sr., was not an
evangelical Christian, and he was never comfortable
discussing his religion in public. To craft
a better message to religious conservatives,
he had hired evangelical political adviser
Doug Wead.
DOUG WEAD: I was writing a memorandum for
George Bush, Sr. on how to build a relationship
with the evangelical community-- how to define
it, who they are, where they come from, what's
their language.
NARRATOR: Soon it was clear someone other
than Bush, Sr., was reading Wead's memos.
DOUG WEAD: I was churning out hundreds of
pages of memorandum, and he was sending them
back with little notations. And so someone
was talking in his ear about this information
I was feeding him. I suspected it was Billy
Graham. It had to be someone sharp, who understood
evangelical Christianity. But it turned out
he was vetting them with his son.
Obviously, this was part of the equation.
The vice president was receiving this memorandum
from me that had data and facts and demographics
and percentages, and then he was hearing verbally,
at the same time, from his son, saying, "Mom,
Dad, this is real America. This is-- this
is out here. I've tasted it myself."
WAYNE SLATER: If it wasn't for the son, George
Bush the father wouldn't have received as
much support as he did in the evangelical
community. George W. Bush reached out to some
key evangelical ministers, reassuring them
about the values of his father in a way his
father, an Episcopalian, could not do.
DOUG WEAD: I remember one meeting where we
thoroughly prepped the vice president. And
he had been in many sessions already. He was
very good. But we were with a group of evangelicals.
They were really tough. And they started peeling
the onion back so fast that I thought, "Uh-oh!"
And finally, the vice president said, "Hey,
fellas, you need to talk to my son. He's a
real born-again Christian."
NARRATOR: Often, Wead and the younger Bush
would talk to evangelical groups themselves.
DOUG WEAD: We in the Republican Party can
humble ourselves and put down our golf clubs
long enough to welcome in the new evangelicals--
NARRATOR: And the evangelicals liked what
they heard.
GEORGE W. BUSH: No matter how busy George
Bush has been in his past, he's never let
us down as a father.
RICHARD CIZIK, Natl Association of Evangelicals:
Bush indicated on multiple occasions that
he understood us. He wasn't just a fixer who
was trying to fix a political problem, he
was somebody who understood us and had a heart
that was akin to our own.
NARRATOR: Richard Cizik heads up the government
affairs office of the National Association
of Evangelicals. The group represents 45,000
churches.
RICHARD CIZIK: And he was saying, "I not only
share your concerns but I'll do what I can."
And that was all that was needed.
NARRATOR: With his son's help, George Bush,
Sr., won by a landslide.
DOUG WEAD: We lost, as we always do, the Jewish
vote and the Hispanic vote and all those votes.
We lost the Catholic vote. We were the first
modern presidency to win an election -- and
it was a landslide -- and not win the Catholic
vote-- just barely, but we lost the Catholic
vote. And how did we do it? We carried 82
percent or 83 percent of the evangelical vote.
While we were frightened by the fact that
we lost all these votes and still won the
White House, the message did come home. "My
God, you can win the White House with nothing
but evangelicals, if you can get enough of
them, if you get them all."
NARRATOR: And George W. Bush had learned something,
too.
DOUG WEAD: Sometimes, when we would prepare
these memos for his father, we would prepare
a memorandum on a region or a state. And I
remember George W. reviewing the memorandum
on the state of Texas, and he just lit up.
"Ah!" You know, "I could do this in Texas."
You know, "I can make this work in Texas."
I think there was no secret he was talking
about running for governor.
[www.pbs.org: Read the interview with Doug
Wead]
NARRATOR: Bush had already run for political
office once before--
GEORGE W. BUSH: I'm George Bush, running for
the Congress.
NARRATOR: --in 1978, in a failed bid for Congress.
DOUG WEAD: His opponent had played the evangelical
culture card against him by saying everybody
at George's house is going to go out and have
a beer, before the election. You know, "We're
different. Our people are different." And
he got beat.
GEORGE W. BUSH: I welcome the relaxation and
welcome the chance to be alone with Laura
in the house, but it has been tough to unwind.
DOUG WEAD: Now, he had become an evangelical
Christian himself. So he's reading this strategy,
and he's thinking, "Whoa."
GEORGE W. BUSH: [1994 campaign commercial]
I am running for governor to change this state.
We can right the wrongs in Texas if guided
by one basic principle: Individuals should
be responsible and accountable for their actions.
WAYNE SLATER: It was a marvelous transformation
from the outsider, rich wastrel, who would
drink, to the inside Texan--
ANNOUNCER: [campaign commercial] --a family
man active in civic and church programs to
help the disadvantaged--
WAYNE SLATER: --a person who understood the
values, the religious ethic, the social ethic,
the cultural ethic that was so missing in
his first campaign.
NARRATOR: But as Bush learned to blend his
personal faith with public politics, he sometimes
found himself in trouble.
KEN HERMAN, Reporter, Austin American-Statesman:
He was very open about his religion. One of
the theses of my first story of him was differences
between him and his father. Obviously, the
similarities were striking and obvious, but
I found some of the differences to be also.
NARRATOR: Ken Herman was a reporter for The
Houston Post. He interviewed Bush on the day
he announced his intention to run for governor.
As they talked, the new candidate offered
Herman a surprising anecdote.
KEN HERMAN: Him and his mother were having
a difference of opinion about whether you
have to accept Christ to go to heaven, a perfectly
legitimate thing for a family to discuss.
His mother's belief was, as Bush told me,
sort of, "Maybe you don't. But more importantly,
maybe you shouldn't worry about it, just sort
of take care of yourself. And you know, we'll
see what happens when the time comes."
To make the point that this family operates
different than others, through their long-time
contact with Billy Graham, they decided, "Let's
get Billy Graham on the phone"-- you know,
kind of God's right-hand man right on the
planet. As it turns out, Reverend Graham said,
"Just don't worry about it. Live your life
the way you're supposed to. Love everybody
and move on." Bush, however, said he himself
held the personal belief that you have to
accept Christ to get to heaven.
DOUG WEAD: The political ramifications of
that were huge. I mean, if I'm not a Christian,
if I'm Jewish or some other faith, I'm damned?
And so he doesn't talk about that anymore.
NARRATOR: But in Texas, it wasn't a problem.
With overwhelming support from conservative
evangelicals and other religious conservatives,
Bush toppled Ann Richards, one of the most
popular governors in Texas history. On election
night, his supporters cheered to his victory
song. It was called "God Blessed Texas."
SINGERS: God blessed Texas with his own hand.
He brought down angels from the promised land.
And I've been sent to spread the message.
God blessed Texas.
NARRATOR: But it was a more traditional religious
melody that Bush invoked early on as governor.
In this memo to his staff, Bush wrote about
a painting that he had hung in his governor's
office. The painting was titled "A Charge
to Keep" and was based on one of Bush's favorite
Methodist hymns.
WAYNE SLATER: "A Charge to Keep" was about
these Methodist circuit riders, who would
go to one church and preach and then go to
another community and preach. And in that
way, the charge to keep was a charge to spread
the Gospel as broadly as possible.
NARRATOR: The word "evangel" means good news
and spreading the Gospel, or good news, is
an important part of being evangelical. In
his memo, Bush wrote of the circuit riders,
"This is us," and ended with a message, "We
serve one greater than ourselves."
[www.pbs.org: Read the full memo]
WAYNE SLATER: That was the message that George
Bush was saying in that memo, that this was
an administration that was going to express
values-- fundamental values, Christian values,
Methodist-Protestant values.
NARRATOR: Just six months into his term, Bush
was given an opportunity to put his faith
into action. Marvin Olasky, the editor of
the conservative evangelical magazine "World,"
had written a cover story alerting his readers
to a Christian drug treatment group that had
come under fire from the state government.
MARVIN OLASKY, Editor-In-Chief, World Magazine:
There was an anti-drug group in San Antonio
called Teen Challenge of South Texas that
was helping people out of addiction, but it
did it its own way. It did it by saying that
the reason people get into drugs or alcohol
is because they have a hole in their soul,
and we can fill that hole in your soul, or
God can fill that hole in your soul, and fill
it with Jesus.
NARRATOR: When a state agency threatened to
take away Teen Challenge's operating license
for failure to follow regulations, the group
had gone public.
MARVIN OLASKY: The Teen Challenge people organized
a rally, with great Texas symbolism, in front
of the Alamo. There were 200, 300 people there
holding up signs that said things like, you
know, "Thank you, Jesus, for changing my life."
NARRATOR: Bush was reminded of the change
in his own life, and he asked to see Olasky.
MARVIN OLASKY: His whole thing was, "Hey,
this program works. Let's find a way to essentially
call off the dogs, let it work."
WAYNE SLATER: It's a fundamental understanding
that he had that in order to make people's
lives better, you don't just institutionally
give them jobs to a bureaucracy, but you fundamentally
change their heart. And to do that, Bush was
receptive to the idea that the people that
ought to do it would be the people whose hearts
had been changed. Bush believed that people
who had been transformed in their own life,
much the way that George Bush had, were the
perfect kind of teachers.
NARRATOR: "I support faith-based programs,"
Governor Bush said at the time. "I believe
that a conversion to religion, by its very
nature, promotes sobriety." Bush made it known
that he supported Teen Challenge, and his
state agency backed down. Ultimately, his
interest in faith-based programs would lead
to this report published by his office, "Faith
in Action: A New Vision for Church-State Cooperation
in Texas."
"We each bear a responsibility to do justice
and love our neighbors," the report concluded,
"a responsibility that comes from God. We
see no threat to promoting the general welfare
when government contracts with faith-based
social service organizations."
This desire to change the relationship between
churches and government was an idea that Bush
would carry towards his future presidency.
On Tuesday, January 19th, 1999, Bush and his
family attended a private church service in
Austin, Texas. The service was a Texan tradition.
Later that day, Bush would be sworn in for
his second term as governor. He had won the
election in a landslide and was now one of
the most popular governors in the country.
George Bush's political promise suddenly seemed
boundless and talk had begun of a possible
run for the presidency. The invited guests
crowded into the small Austin church that
morning.
RENA PEDERSON, Editor-at-Large, Dallas Morning
News: It was former President George Bush
and Barbara Bush, the Bush daughters, their
very closest friends and closest party supporters.
I attended because I go to the same church
that the Bushes attend, Highland Park Methodist
in Dallas, and I wanted to see what the minister
would have to say on this special occasion.
NARRATOR: The minister's sermon was taken
from the book of Exodus. He talked to his
audience about how God had called on Moses
to lead his people. He said that Moses had
been unsure of himself, uncertain he was the
right man for the task.
RENA PEDERSON: He said that Moses tried to
beg off and said, "Oh, not me. You want somebody
else." You know, "I'm busy. I've got a family.
I've got this speech impediment." But he followed
that by saying, "The country's hungry for
leadership."
And you have to remember the context of the
times. This was 1999. George W. Bush was about
52-- you know, just about time for a mid-life
reckoning. "What do I do with the rest of
my life? How do I do what's meaningful?" The
minister counted off the number of seconds
and minutes in a year and said, "This is how
many seconds in your year in your life. What
are you going to do with it?" He was looking
right at the president. You could just feel
a currency in the air. I think everyone knew
something happened.
NARRATOR: Late that afternoon, Bush gathered
together with some close colleagues at his
residence. In the group was Richard Land,
one of the directors of the conservative evangelical
Southern Baptist Convention.
RICHARD LAND: The day he was inaugurated,
there were several of us who met with him
at the governor's mansion. And among the things
he said to us was, "I believe that God wants
me to be president."
NARRATOR: Twelve years after his father had
finished behind Pat Robertson in the Iowa
caucus, George W. Bush landed at Des Moines
International Airport. He was in Iowa as one
of six candidates battling for the Republican
nomination for president. They had all gathered
for the third Republican debate.
During the debate, the moderator asked the
candidates what political philosopher or thinker
they most identified with. Steve Forbes answered
John Locke. Alan Keyes named the Founding
Fathers.
[December, 1999]
MODERATOR: Governor Bush, a philosopher/thinker.
And why.
Gov. GEORGE W. BUSH (R), Texas: Christ, because
he changed my heart.
DOUG WEAD: I think that was instinctive and
genuine. The media elite and non-evangelicals
see that statement and they think it's calculated.
The evangelicals know it's not calculated.
They know it didn't help him. So they tend
to believe it's true.
JOHN C. GREEN, Ph.D., Author, Religion and
the Culture Wars: It may very well be that
that was just the real Bush speaking. But
it did have a very important political effect.
Evangelical Christians and other conservative
Protestants immediately understood what he
was talking about, and they began to identify
with President Bush.
MODERATOR: I think the viewer would like to
know more on how he's changed your heart.
Gov. GEORGE W. BUSH: Well, if they don't know,
it's going to be hard to explain. When you
turn your heart and life over to Christ, when
you accept Christ as a savior, it changes
your heart and changes your life. And that's
what happened to me.
E.J. DIONNE, Jr., Author, Sacred Places, Civic
Purposes: When he was asked to explain this,
he basically said, "If you haven't had this
experience, you don't know what it is." I
was offended by that because I thought, in
a tolerant democracy, a politician has an
obligation to explain things to people who
don't necessarily accept their religious terms.
I had an assistant at the time who was a Democrat,
no friend of Bush's but an evangelical Christian.
And she was actually upset with me because
she said, "That's how we talk. You should
understand that." And I think it's those moments
when Bush speaks like that that evangelicals
know in their heart that he's one of them.
Gov. GEORGE W. BUSH: Faith gives us conscious
to keep us honest even when no one else is
watching. And faith can change lives. I know
because it changed mine.
NARRATOR: Bush spoke openly about his faith
throughout the 2000 campaign.
Gov. GEORGE W. BUSH: There came a point in
my life when I felt something was missing
on the inside. By chance -- maybe it was more
than chance -- one day, I spent a weekend
with the great Billy Graham.
NARRATOR: The Bush campaign knew their candidate's
ability to reach out to evangelicals as one
of them was key to winning the White House.
Gov. GEORGE W. BUSH: --and decided then and
there to recommit my life--
NARRATOR: By 2000, over 40 percent of Americans
described themselves as evangelical or born
again. Of those who vote, at least 70 percent
are were considered politically conservative.
Gov. GEORGE W. BUSH: And my relationship with
God through Christ gives me meaning and direction.
NARRATOR: But as he worked to appeal to religious
conservatives, Bush was aware of the political
danger of appearing too close to them, a lesson
he had learned from his father's campaign
eight years earlier. By 1992, his father's
'88 rival, Pat Robertson, was now the president
of a powerful organization that mobilized
conservative Christian voters. It was headed
by a young Southerner named Ralph Reed, and
it was called the Christian Coalition.
JOHN C. GREEN: Christian right organizations
like the Christian Coalition were absolutely
critical to moving evangelical Protestants
into the Republican Party.
MINISTER: There is a voter guide on the back
of this insert today--
JOHN C. GREEN: One of the things they did
right was to engage in grass roots mobilization
to actually get information out to people
in the pews that showed that voting for a
Republican candidate was superior to voting
for a Democratic candidate.
NARRATOR: But not just any Republican candidate.
Although conservative evangelicals had given
George Bush, Sr., their support in 1988, his
moderate record as president had angered them.
At the '92 Republican convention, in a last
ditch effort to shore up support among religious
voters, the party gave center stage to a number
of conservative religious leaders, including
Pat Robertson.
Rev. PAT ROBERTSON: To me and to most Republicans,
traditional values start with faith in almighty
God!
DOUG WEAD: That convention was not in the
best interests of the candidate. I mean, Pat
Robertson offered to speak at the national
convention. Well, he wasn't even a candidate
for president. Why should he be speaking?
PAT BUCHANAN: Yes, we disagreed with President
Bush, but--
NARRATOR: After Robertson, conservative commentator
Pat Buchanan addressed the convention.
PAT BUCHANAN: --and we stand with him against
the amoral idea that gay and lesbian couples
should have the same standing in law as married
men and women. We stand with President Bush--
DOUG WEAD: You have to be careful how you
appeal to the evangelical constituency. I'd
have had Bush, Sr. go ride horses with Pat
Robertson on his private estates and say all
kinds of things, and kiss in secret, but not
in public. And he didn't have that kind of
a calculated campaign, and the result was
there was backlash.
PAT BUCHANAN: There is a religious war going
on in this country!
NARRATOR: The convention alienated moderate
voters, and in the end, evangelicals divided
their votes between Bush, Sr., Ross Perot
and even Bill Clinton--
PAT BUCHANAN: And George Bush is on our side!
NARRATOR: And Clinton won the White House.
Eight years later, George W. Bush and his
advisers crafted a message that would appeal
across the Republican political spectrum.
They called it "compassionate conservatism."
Gov. GEORGE W. BUSH: Without support, more
support and resources, both private and public,
we are asking the armies of compassion to
make bricks without straw.
WAYNE SLATER: It's a great way of knocking
off the rough edges. When you say you're a
compassionate conservative, the people who
are conservative say, "Ah. I like that because
he's conservative." The people who are more
moderate say, "He's compassionate. I like
that. That means he's not really conservative."
NARRATOR: And religious voters liked Bush's
plan, too. The compassion that he spoke of
would come not from government-run programs
but from the faith that he believed could
change people's lives.
Gov. GEORGE W. BUSH: Governments cannot make
people love one another. It's been the great
false hope of the past. All you got to do
is pass a law, and people will love one another.
But love comes from a higher calling, a higher
authority. The great strength of America lies
in the hearts and souls of citizens who've
heard that call, not in the halls of government--
NARRATOR: In the end, Bush won the closest
presidential contest in history. And religion,
it turned out, was key.
RICHARD LAND, Southern Baptist Convention:
The single most reliable predictor of how
a person voted in the 2000 election was whether
they went to church or synagogue or mosque
at least once a week. If they went to church
or synagogue or mosque at least once a week,
two thirds of them voted for George W. Bush.
WILLIAM REHNQUIST, Chief Justice of the United
States Supreme Court: --preserve, protect
and defend the Constitution of the United
States.
Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: --preserve, protect
and defend the Constitution of the United
States.
Chief Justice WILLIAM REHNQUIST: So help me
God.
Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: So help me God.
NARRATOR: As he took office, Bush put his
campaign promise of compassionate conservatism
immediately to work. In his first executive
order, he established the Office of Faith-Based
and Community Initiatives inside the White
House.
Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: When we see social needs
in America, my administration will look first
to faith-based programs and community groups.
NARRATOR: In the early days of his presidency,
Bush's faith-based initiative was called his
signature program. Bush asked Congress to
expand on something called "charitable choice,"
a provision that had been passed as part of
the 1996 Welfare reform bill. Championed by
then senator John Ashcroft, a Pentecostal
Christian and a member of the conservative
Assemblies of God church, charitable choice
had opened the door to allow smaller and more
overtly religious groups to receive government
money for providing social services. Now Bush
wanted the principles from Ashcroft's provision
to be applied to most of his government agencies.
RICHARD CIZIK, Natl Association of Evangelicals:
We believe there has to be equality of treatment
towards religious social service providers
so that they're treated the same as secular
service providers, equal competitors for federal
dollars to be able to dispense services.
E.J. DIONNE, Jr., Senior Fellow, Brookings
Institution: I had an argument about this
with a conservative evangelical friend, who
said, "Look, their method is Freud, our method
is Jesus. Why should Freud get the money and
Jesus not get the money?" And I thought that
was an interesting argument. But we still
do have the 1st Amendment, and it raises a
real question.
Rep. ZOE LOFGREN (D), California: Consider
the plain language of the 1st Amendment: "Congress
shall make no law respecting an establishment
of religion." I think that's clear.
NARRATOR: Interpreting the 1st Amendment was
at the heart of the debates in Congress, with
critics charging the president's initiative
threatened the separation of church and state.
Rep. ZOE LOFGREN: Will the Sikhs or Hindus
receive the day care contract? Will the Muslims
or Jews run the nursing home where your mother
will live? Pity the local government who must
decide.
NARRATOR: Proponents of the president's bill
also invoked the 1st Amendment, arguing that
they were trying to reverse years of discrimination
against religious groups.
Rep. CLIFF STEARNS (R), Florida: The 1st Amendment
provides that the government cannot establish
one religion, or religion over a non-religion.
But it also, my colleagues, provides that
the government shall not prohibit the free
exercise of religion.
NARRATOR: Ultimately, Congress failed to move.
But the faith-based initiative did not die.
Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: I asked Congress to
join me and pass what I called the faith-based
initiative, which would help change the culture
of Washington and the behavior of bureaucracies.
They've stalled. So I just signed an executive
order.
NARRATOR: Bush's orders set up faith-based
offices inside seven of his own executive
agencies, such as the Department of Agriculture,
Department of Health and Human Services, the
Labor Department and the Department of Justice.
As he had done in Texas, he ordered these
agencies to actively encourage faith-based
groups to apply for money.
Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: My attitude is the government
should not fear faith-based programs. We ought
to welcome faith-based programs, and we ought
to fund faith-based programs.
NARRATOR: And as he has pushed for access
to more funds, Bush has also defended the
right of these groups to maintain their religious
character, including their right to hire only
members of their own faith.
Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: Government oftentimes
will say, "Yeah, you can participate, but
you've got to change your board of directors
to meet our qualifications." You know, "You
got to conform to our rules." The problem
is, faith-based programs only conform to one
set of rules, and it's bigger than government
rules.
NARRATOR: But critics of the faith-based initiative,
including some evangelical Christians, have
warned that this kind of rhetoric will lead
to the entanglement of the church and the
state, hurting both.
Welton Gaddy is a Baptist minister and heads
up the Interfaith Alliance, an organization
of liberal religious leaders.
Rev. Dr. C. WELTON GADDY, President, The Interfaith
Alliance: Religious institutions, wanting
federal funds, jeopardize the integrity of
their freedom as and identity as religious
institutions because with those federal tax
dollars come federal regulations. President
Bush made a speech, and in the course of his
speech, he held up the Bible and said, "This
is the guidebook, not federal regulations."
Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: The handbook of this
particular child care is a universal handbook.
It's been around for a long time. It doesn't
need to be invented. It's a-- let me see your
handbook there. This handbook is a good book.
It's a good go-by.
Rev. C. WELTON GADDY: The Bible, guidebook
for public policy? Now, President Bush is
the chief executive officer of this nation,
pledged to defend the Constitution. He was
speaking as a religious leader, not worried
about the constitutional implications of that
rhetoric.
NARRATOR: Despite constitutional concerns,
Bush's executive agencies have already gone
ahead and started funding faith-based groups.
The White House acknowledges $1.1 billion
spent so far, but admits it could be millions
more. And determining just how much has been
spent and where this money has gone is difficult.
The only program that specifically records
funding to faith-based groups is called the
Compassion Capital Fund run by the Department
of Health and Human Services. This fund has
given out $65 million dollars to what they
call 'faith-friendly' organizations.
So far, only Christian groups and a handful
of interfaith organizations have received
direct federal funding. Jewish, Muslim and
other religious charities have not, but a
few of them have been supported by those who
did receive the federal money.
[www.pbs.org: More on the faith-based initiative]
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.
NARRATOR: Despite his being the most openly
religious president in recent times, George
Bush has kept his devotional life private.
While he tells his supporters that he reads
the Bible daily, unlike most other presidents,
he is rarely seen even going to church.
The president has stated that while his faith
is central to his life, it does not affect
his policy decisions. Yet as his critics have
pointed out, over the last three years, many
of those decisions have mirrored the agenda
of conservative evangelicals, still his most
important voting block.
Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: John Ashcroft will perform
his duties guided by principle.
NARRATOR: He earned their praise when he nominated
John Ashcroft, a hero to many conservative
Christians, as his attorney general.
Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: Embryonic stem cell
research is at the leading edge of a series--
NARRATOR: He pleased the pro-life movement
when he talked about an embryo as a life in
his decision on embryonic stem cell research.
Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: I worry about a culture
that devalues life, and believe, as your president,
I have an important obligation to foster and
encourage respect for life in America and
throughout the world.
NARRATOR: And again, when he signed the so-called
partial birth abortion ban, the first federal
legislation banning any type of abortion since
Roe v. Wade had made abortions legal.
RICHARD LAND: George Bush is pro-life. And
let me tell you the difference between George
Bush and Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan was
pro-life by gut instinct-- traditional value,
American value, Western civilization kind
of gut instinct with him. With George W. Bush,
it is a settled faith conviction. And I'll
take settled faith convictions over gut instincts
anytime.
[www.pbs.org: Read the interview with Richard
Land]
NARRATOR: Bush has also satisfied his religious
base with the kind of judges he has appointed.
Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: We need commonsense
judges who understand that our rights were
derived from God. And those are the kind of
judges I intend to put on the bench.
NARRATOR: In the last year, in recess appointments,
Bush has pushed through two federal judges,
Charles Pickering and William Pryor, both
outspoken religious conservatives.
And on the debate over same-sex marriage,
an issue that has become the new rallying
cry of conservative Christians, the president
appeared to support their position when he
spoke about the issue publicly for the first
time.
Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: I believe a marriage
is between a man and a woman, and I think
we ought to codify that one way or the other.
And we've got lawyers looking at the best
way to do that.
NARRATOR: But for conservative Christians,
he hadn't gone far enough. And they were dissatisfied
until seven months later, when he met their
demands.
Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: Our nation must enact
a constitutional amendment to protect marriage
in America.
RICHARD CIZIK: There was always this idea,
"Oh, if we could only get a staff person in
the White House who would carry our concerns
to the president"-- well, you know, the private
joke inside the Beltway nowadays is, "We don't
need a staff person. We've got one in the
Oval Office." What do you want, a staff person,
or do you want the president, who understands
you? I'll take the president.
NARRATOR: As the 2004 campaign has begun,
Bush has once again moved to rally this crucial
voting bloc. In the Southeast, Ralph Reed
is his campaign chairman, hoping to appeal
to the same Christian voters he used to mobilize
as the head of the Christian Coalition.
DOUG WEAD, Bush Family Friend: There's no
question that the president's faith is calculated,
and there's no question that the president's
faith is real, that it's authentic, that it's
genuine. I would say that I don't know, and
George Bush doesn't know, when he's operating
out of a genuine sense of his own faith or
when it's calculated.
WAYNE SLATER, Dallas Morning News: In an odd
way, what the Bush campaign is involved in
is a political proselytizing effort, where
they go out and express to those people, those
voters who need to hear the good news of the
Bush campaign -- who he is and what he stands
for -- and recruit them into this effort.
This is about bringing in a community, people
who share not just a few political ideas but
something more fundamental. And to do that,
they will tell and retell the story of Bush
as a man who has had a religious conversion
in his life, has taken Jesus into his heart
and it informs everything he does.
NARRATOR: What began 20 years ago as a personal
religious experience has for George W. Bush
become a factor inextricably linked with his
career as a politician and now with the life
of the country 
as president.
