{"id":99,"date":"2010-10-29T08:51:39","date_gmt":"2010-10-29T08:51:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2010\/10\/how-his-personal-faith-and-a-talk-with-john-paul-ii-helped-former-president-george-w-bush-arrive-at.html"},"modified":"2010-10-29T08:51:39","modified_gmt":"2010-10-29T08:51:39","slug":"how-his-personal-faith-and-a-talk-with-john-paul-ii-helped-former-president-george-w-bush-arrive-at","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2010\/10\/how-his-personal-faith-and-a-talk-with-john-paul-ii-helped-former-president-george-w-bush-arrive-at.html","title":{"rendered":"How his personal faith and a talk with John Paul II helped former President George W. Bush arrive at his controversial decision on embryonic stem cell research"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Drudge Report<\/a> is leaking some tidbits from Decision Points <\/i>(due out Nov. 9), <\/i>George W. Bush’s highly-anticipated memoir chronicling the most important decisions in his life. Faith, it seems, played a major role in helping him not only to make those decisions but to stand by them. <\/p>\n

With chapter titles that include Quitting <\/i>(on how he cut out the booze), Day of Fire <\/i>(about 911), and Financial Crisis, <\/i>the former president reportedly reflects on the many issues he has confronted while, refreshingly, refraining from taking potshots at his critics — including President Obama.<\/p>\n

Catholics may find the chapter Stem Cells <\/i>to be the most interesting of all as it details how
he wrestled with the issue of federal funding of embryonic stem cell research in 2001.<\/p>\n

The Church, of course, opposes such research<\/a> since it involves the destruction of a human embryo. The Church, however, supports adult stem cell research<\/a> which doesn’t involve such destruction and, some argue, actually provides a more promising path<\/a> toward developing treatments and cures for human diseases.<\/p>\n

In writing about his decision to restrict federal money used to fund embryonic stem cell research to about 60 existing lines (in which the embryos were already destroyed), Bush recalls an emotional meeting he had with Pope John Paul II (at the pontiff’s summer residence) in which the pope, his body savaged by Parkinson’s disease, urged the president to protect human life in all its forms.<\/p>\n

While he also listened to supporters of embryonic stem cell research (notably Nancy Reagan<\/a>, among many others) he writes that, ultimately, “I
\ndid feel a responsibility to voice my pro-life convictions and lead the country
\ntoward what Pope John Paul II called a culture of life.”<\/i><\/p>\n

On August 9, 2001, In his address announcing his decision<\/a> to the American people, President Bush said “I also believe human life is a sacred gift from our Creator. I worry about a
\nculture that devalues life, and believe as your President I have an important
\nobligation to foster and encourage respect for life in America and throughout
\nthe world.” <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/i>President Obama moved to reverse that decision<\/a> last year — <\/i>though a federal judge recently recently blocked his executive order, maintaining that it violates an existing law that bans federal money from being used to ban embryos.<\/p>\n

The ethical and political battle goes on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Drudge Report is leaking some tidbits from Decision Points (due out Nov. 9), George W. Bush’s highly-anticipated memoir chronicling the most important decisions in his life. Faith, it seems, played a major role in helping him not only to make those decisions but to stand by them. With chapter titles that include Quitting (on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,3,12,5,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-catholic-church","category-christianity","category-current-events","category-vatican"],"yoast_head":"\nHow his personal faith and a talk with John Paul II helped former President George W. Bush arrive at his controversial decision on embryonic stem cell research - Catholics Media and Culture<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2010\/10\/how-his-personal-faith-and-a-talk-with-john-paul-ii-helped-former-president-george-w-bush-arrive-at.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How his personal faith and a talk with John Paul II helped former President George W. Bush arrive at his controversial decision on embryonic stem cell research - Catholics Media and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Drudge Report is leaking some tidbits from Decision Points (due out Nov. 9), George W. Bush’s highly-anticipated memoir chronicling the most important decisions in his life. Faith, it seems, played a major role in helping him not only to make those decisions but to stand by them. With chapter titles that include Quitting (on…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2010\/10\/how-his-personal-faith-and-a-talk-with-john-paul-ii-helped-former-president-george-w-bush-arrive-at.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Catholics Media and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-10-29T08:51:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John W. Kennedy\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How his personal faith and a talk with John Paul II helped former President George W. Bush arrive at his controversial decision on embryonic stem cell research - Catholics Media and Culture","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2010\/10\/how-his-personal-faith-and-a-talk-with-john-paul-ii-helped-former-president-george-w-bush-arrive-at.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How his personal faith and a talk with John Paul II helped former President George W. Bush arrive at his controversial decision on embryonic stem cell research - Catholics Media and Culture","og_description":"The Drudge Report is leaking some tidbits from Decision Points (due out Nov. 9), George W. Bush’s highly-anticipated memoir chronicling the most important decisions in his life. Faith, it seems, played a major role in helping him not only to make those decisions but to stand by them. With chapter titles that include Quitting (on…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2010\/10\/how-his-personal-faith-and-a-talk-with-john-paul-ii-helped-former-president-george-w-bush-arrive-at.html","og_site_name":"Catholics Media and Culture","article_published_time":"2010-10-29T08:51:39+00:00","author":"John W. Kennedy","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2010\/10\/how-his-personal-faith-and-a-talk-with-john-paul-ii-helped-former-president-george-w-bush-arrive-at.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2010\/10\/how-his-personal-faith-and-a-talk-with-john-paul-ii-helped-former-president-george-w-bush-arrive-at.html","name":"How his personal faith and a talk with John Paul II helped former President George W. Bush arrive at his controversial decision on embryonic stem cell research - Catholics Media and Culture","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-10-29T08:51:39+00:00","dateModified":"2010-10-29T08:51:39+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/e5d5ef9caeb6b01bcbf08ca6de6591c2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2010\/10\/how-his-personal-faith-and-a-talk-with-john-paul-ii-helped-former-president-george-w-bush-arrive-at.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2010\/10\/how-his-personal-faith-and-a-talk-with-john-paul-ii-helped-former-president-george-w-bush-arrive-at.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2010\/10\/how-his-personal-faith-and-a-talk-with-john-paul-ii-helped-former-president-george-w-bush-arrive-at.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"How his personal faith and a talk with John Paul II helped former President George W. Bush arrive at his controversial decision on embryonic stem cell research"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/","name":"Catholics Media and Culture","description":"Catholic Church News and More","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/e5d5ef9caeb6b01bcbf08ca6de6591c2","name":"John W. Kennedy","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/d80\/d801bc09698c0995d9ae402b4b55ab61x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/d80\/d801bc09698c0995d9ae402b4b55ab61x96.jpg","caption":"John W. Kennedy"},"description":"John W. Kennedy is the founder and Dir. of Development of The Creative Universe Entertainment\u2122, a media consultation and development company focusing on the creation, development and support of high-quality mainstream entertainment that upholds positive timeless values, including trust in God. Current projects include \"Bryant Park\" (an uplifting romantic-comedy) and \"Photo Finish\" (an award-winning sci-fi TV pilot). He has written over 100 children's novels based on episodes of the Cartoon Network series \"Ben 10\", \"Ben 10: Alien Force\", \"Ben 10: Ultimate Alien\", \"Ben 10: Omniverse\" and \"Generator Rex\" among others. He also writes Beliefnet\u2019s \"Faith, Media & Culture\" blog. Previously, he has produced successful news and talk programming for CNN, Fox News, Pax TV and SiriusXM. Specialties: Script Writing, Movie\/TV Novelizations & Adaptations, TV Content Creation and Development, Creative Consultation, Producing and Booking News and Talk shows. He can be reached for writing, producing and consulting services at 516-640-1182.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/author\/jkennedy"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/225"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}