"Mr. President, when you talk about peace in the Middle East, you've often said that freedom is granted by the Almighty. Some people who share your beliefs don't believe that Muslims worship the same Almighty. I wonder about your views on that."
Bush responded:
"I do say that freedom is the Almighty's gift to every person. I also condition it by saying freedom is not America's gift to the world. It's much greater than that, of course. And I believe we worship the same God."
Since I am an evangelical who would be included in the reporter's description of "some people" who "don't believe that Muslims worship the same Almighty," I wish the President had answered the question differently. I would have said that freedom is the unalienable right of every human being, because the Creator endowed each person with that right as a part of His creation process as is asserted in our nation's Declaration of Independence. This right to freedom is thus the legacy of every human being, regardless of their nationality or ethnicity, and regardless of their personal faith or lack thereof.
As President, I would have declined to answer the reporter's second, and at best tangential question, as Prime Minister Blair chose to do.
Alas, the President answered the second part of the question, and I believe he answered it incorrectly. When reporters called to ask for my response to the President's statement, I told them that like many other Americans, I applaud the President as a man of deep religious faith who attempts to bring those convictions to bear on public policy. I immediately added, however, that he is Commander-in-Chief, not theologian-in-chief. And when President Bush concludes that Muslims and Christians worship the same God, he is simply mistaken.
The Bible is very clear about this. There is only one true God and His name is Jehovah, not Allah. Furthermore, the Bible tells us that Jehovah's only begotten Son is Jesus Christ, of the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, born of the Jewish virgin Mary. And this Jesus, the Son of the only true God, has proclaimed in no uncertain terms, "I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man cometh unto the Father, but by me" (John 14:6).
