I suppose we have to call it his church. He and Karl Rove have made a point of courting the evangelical vote for a very long time now. There was a show on PBS I recorded a couple of months ago that gave a long history on Bush's involvement with evangelical Christianity.
Well, I'm here in the home of the "mega-church"--Dallas. I drive by them every day here. You know the type (or maybe you don't if you're lucky). They see, oh, five or six thousand per sitting. They are small malls, offering all kinds of services including entire schools that will occupy your kids while you pray and socialize.
The Guardian (them agin!) has a good article on how the Republican machinery is gearing up to use their parishoners as the front-line troops in the election.
Scary to think that 25% of the electorate is "evangelical" and that 80% of them will vote Bush blindly. Very scary.
Posted by artandscience at July 3, 2004 02:15 PMI've been amazed at the Bush administrations supplication to the churches for votes. I'm even more shocked to see the "blind faith" that a lot of church-goers place in Bush. I can't find out what the so-called majority sees in him. Is it just because he talks about his faith?
Posted by: michael at July 3, 2004 05:01 PMAccording to the Guardian, and this is the first time I've heard this recounted, he uses certain keywords and phrases in his speeches that resonate with evangelicals. Then there is the bullshit anti-gay amendment he is proposing. That plus a history of outreach by him and his advisors to the evangelicals.
There was a line in the frontline article where one of the advisors said ".. that there came a point when we realized he could be elected _just_ with the evangelical vote."
That scares the hell out of me. How is this different than the mullahs running Iraq (or Iran soon). I haven't noticed most evangelicals (at least the ones Bush seems to associate with) being terribly tolerant of other viewpoints/religions.
Posted by: stefan at July 3, 2004 06:21 PM