{"id":326,"date":"2008-12-11T14:25:32","date_gmt":"2008-12-11T14:25:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/progressiverevival\/2008\/12\/is-the-bible-literally-true-pr.html"},"modified":"2008-12-11T14:25:32","modified_gmt":"2008-12-11T14:25:32","slug":"is-the-bible-literally-true-pr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/12\/is-the-bible-literally-true-pr.html","title":{"rendered":"George Bush’s (liberal) Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"

George Bush revealed that his approach to the bible, evolution and to other religions has more in common with liberal protestants than with his\u00a0fundamentalist\u00a0political amen corner. \u00a0This was made clear in a surprising ABC Nightline interview<\/a> on Monday.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
When asked by Cynthia McFadden if he thought the bible was literally true President Bush answered: \u00a0<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
\n

“You know. Probably not. … No, I’m not a literalist, but I think you can learn a lot from it, but I do think that the New Testament for example is … has got … You know, the important lesson is ‘God sent a son,'”\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n


<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

When asked if he prays to the same God as those with different religious beliefs he said:\u00a0<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

“I do believe there is an almighty that is broad and big enough and loving enough that can encompass a lot of people,”\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n


<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And when asked\u00a0about creation and evolution the President answered:\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

“I think you can have both. I think evolution can — you’re getting me way out of my lane here. I’m just a simple president. But it’s, I think that God created the earth, created the world; I think the creation of the world is so mysterious it requires something as large as an almighty and I don’t think it’s incompatible with the scientific proof that there is evolution.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/div>\n
Check, check, check, – Oh, my God, George Bush and I have have the same world view!!!<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
It is worth noting that his beliefs on biblical literalism, religious pluralism, and evolution are just coming out now. \u00a0Contrary to popular belief, George Bush is no dummy. \u00a0 During the last eight years Rove and Bush have cynically allowed fundamentalists and conservative\u00a0evangelicals\u00a0to project their world view onto the president. \u00a0In his last month in office, he may be seeing that fundamentalism, while useful to him in office, is not something he wants to carry with him into civilian life, or believes should be promoted within American society. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
George Bush was trusted by a large segment of the Christian population because he \u00a0publicly\u00a0articulated a profound personal experience of God through Jesus Christ.\u00a0\u00a0This interview reveals that someone can have an \u00a0authentic religious experience without the burdens of\u00a0Biblical\u00a0literalism, anti-science\u00a0suspicions\u00a0and Christian triumphalism. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
Hopefully other political and religious figures on the right will follow suit. \u00a0Governor\u00a0Huckabee?<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

George Bush revealed that his approach to the bible, evolution and to other religions has more in common with liberal protestants than with his\u00a0fundamentalist\u00a0political amen corner. \u00a0This was made clear in a surprising ABC Nightline interview on Monday. When asked by Cynthia McFadden if he thought the bible was literally true President Bush answered: \u00a0…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christians","category-evangelicals"],"yoast_head":"\nGeorge Bush's (liberal) Faith - Progressive Revival<\/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\/progressiverevival\/2008\/12\/is-the-bible-literally-true-pr.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"George Bush's (liberal) Faith - Progressive Revival\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"George Bush revealed that his approach to the bible, evolution and to other religions has more in common with liberal protestants than with his\u00a0fundamentalist\u00a0political amen corner. \u00a0This was made clear in a surprising ABC Nightline interview on Monday. 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Paul B. Raushenbush is the moderator of the Progressive Revival blog and the Associate Dean of Religious Life at Princeton University. .An ordained American Baptist minister, Rev. Raushenbush speaks and preaches at colleges, churches and institutes around the country including the College of Preachers at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C., The Chautauqua Institute in upstate New York, and the New America Foundation. Rev. Raushenbush has served at Seattle First Baptist Church, the Presbyterian Chaplaincy at Columbia University and as College and Young Adult Minister at The Riverside Church in New York City. He has appeared on ABC World News Tonight and is a repeated guest on CNN. He has been quoted in The New York Times and The Washington Post and is a contributing editor for Beliefnet.com. His first book, Teen Spirit: One World, Many Faiths (HCI) was released in the Fall of 2004. He is the editor of the 100th Anniversary edition of Walter Rauschenbusch\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s book Christianity and the Social Crisis \u00e2\u20ac\u201c In the 21st Century (HarperOne). His work at Princeton includes strengthening the interfaith community on campus. He is the Co-Director of the Program on Religion, Diplomacy and International Relations at The Liechtenstein Institute on Self Determination at Princeton University. Rev. Raushenbush studied religion at Macalester College before attending Union Theological Seminary in New York City where he graduated with distinction.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/author\/praushenbush"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}