I guess it’s hard to really know someone who is in public life. I was a bit surprised at some of the things President Bush said in a recent interview. (At least, this is what Fox News is reporting.) Here is the article. It’s not that long.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2008/12/09/bush-says-creation-incompatible-evolution/
President Bush believes the Bible is “probably not” literally true. What? 
Well, I guess it serves us right for assuming things. I think myself and many other conservative Christians were thinking that the President was pretty close to being an Evangelical. Turns out he is closer to being a liberal Christian than an evangelical Christian. 
(And when I say liberal I don’t mean politically, but rather theologically.) I like President Bush, and I think there is still a chance that he is a Believer. However, it seems he is not the “Bible-believing, Godly man” I thought he was. Let us all be cautious of politicians who claim the name of Christ. They know evangelical Christians are a very large voting block. Let’s judge a leader based on his fruit, not his claims.
Click
Jason_Devine
Would it be unfair to compare how radical conservatives (not saying you’re one) use much imagination to prop up their “evangelical” veiw of G.W. to the way that liberals also use their imagination to prop of their “Chosen One” veiw of B.O.? My point being, the libs aren’t the only ones who do it and are blind to it, and we HAVE to be careful about how we let our idealism dictate our perceptions. Again, not chiding you here– the rest aside, praise God for illumination! Thanks for your open and honest post. I totally agree with you.
Havlik
Right on. We should never lose our head in zeal to support a person or cause. It is correct to look at fruit rather than claims. The most important thing in politics is to not pretend that a politician is “just like me.” Most of our presidential choices are individuals that appeal to a large base. It seems highly unlikely that a conservative Christian could compete in the blood thirsty world of American politics right now. Always keep in mind that our government is a man-made institution and has never been Bible-based (many of the founders were deists). In support of candidates, Christians must focus on voting to maintain their rights to freely fulfill God’s calling in their lives. There will be no perfect ruler until Christ reigns in the Millennium.
LLroomtempJ
“Let us all be cautious of politicians who claim the name of Christ.
They know evangelical Christians are a very large voting block. Let’s
judge a leader based on his fruit, not his claims.”
amen.
PreacherBoy80
@Havlik – “Always keep in mind that our government is a man-made institution and has never been Bible-based (many of the founders were deists).” I don’t disagree with anything in your comment except this sentence. Though perhaps our government is “man-made”, it is greatly founded on Biblical principles. For instance, in Scripture it was often the Elders that governed, or at least helped to make decisions. These Elders represented their families and their concerns in the decision making process. (70 elders with Moses, Elders of the early church, etc.) This is very similar to our representative system. But greater than that is the historical fact that most of the concepts and principles that led to the foundation of a new nation were based on the sermons the preachers of the day were preaching. These were biblical concepts that shaped the Founders’ thinking as they created a new government.
As to the Founders being deists, you are right that many of them did follow that type of doctrine. But at that time the deists were not what they are now. Deism is now very much a cult/false religon. At the time of the founding of our nation it was not a conflict to be a Christian (believing Christ was the only way to heaven, inerrancy of Scripture, etc.) and also a deist. In our day now it would be nearly impossible to reconcile the two positions. (Deism and Christianity.)
I appreciated your comment my friend, but you are incorrect in this one area. Our government is actually very much based on Biblcal principles.
Havlik
@PreacherBoy80 –
You know, I want to retract my statement about our government not being “Bible-based.” That is not what I meant.
Our representative government draws many of its principles from the Bible, but from my reading and understanding of the early days of our democracy it becomes very clear that though many of these men were moral, there were great conflicts as to how the government was to function. It doesn’t seem that many of these arguments were based on biblical arguments, but on rationalism and logic (i.e. the Federalist Papers). After the Revolutionary War, our government was barely more than a confederacy for necessity that had very little power and influence on American society. This worked for the time, but more structure was needed to keep the union intact and healthy. Madison and his associates later succeeded in drafting the US Constitution which gave us the groundwork for the Republic we see today. Disagreements between Federalists and Democrats caused great upheaval in our government during the first three presidential administrations (America’s infancy). When one studies the personal lives of men like Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, and Hamilton it is truly amazing that our form of government turned out so well. Each of these men had a form of outward morality, but had little time for Church or Christianity. For example, Jefferson reportedly owned a Bible, but cut out references that he judged to be incompatible with his view of Christ. It must also be noted that black slavery and suppression was still an acceptable practice and a blatant hypocrisy that a government condoned to keep peace rather than to honor the Creator. Only the mercy of God in the two Great Awakenings kept America from drifting away from Christ and biblical thinking. True that the churches did play a major role in grafting Biblical thinking into the hearts of the population. There were a good number of Christians among the founders, too, but this did not make the US government “Christian.”
The tendency is for Christians to glorify our government into a Christian institution that was hijacked (i.e. David Barton). That is just not true to reality. Our government originally acknowledged God, but has always been imperfect and ever changing because it was drafted by men. Too many Christians are distracted with the notion that if we only installed Christians in office all our problems would melt away. God has been gracious to our people in His preservation of our land and freedoms under the protection of government in spite of us. Our security lies in the state of the church in this country. A few of our founding fathers correctly stated that without [biblical] morality, the US government would crumble. That is why the battle for America is not really in government (though we still need to vote and influence our representatives to maintain our freedoms), but in the spiritual lives of our population.
Thanks for pointing out my error in communication. I would be interested to hear your response to my thoughts.