by Pieter J. Friedrich
2/9/04
Republicans are desperately grasping at straws in an attempt to garner votes for our President as he makes a bid for reelection. Argument after argument has been offered in favor of President Bush and subsequently countered.
Bush, we were told, defended our country from an aggressor. Yes, he did - an unarmed "aggressor" whose last aggression was quelled 13 years ago. Bush, we were told, defends the unborn. Yes, he does - the 1% who are murdered through partial birth abortion (yet he does nothing for the 99% murdered before birth and condemns to death the 1% conceived through rape or incest). Bush, we were told, is fiscally conservative. Yes, he is - if you believe "fiscal conservatism" means temporarily cutting taxes and then spending more than any President since Johnson. Bush, we were told, defends the traditional family. Yes, he does - at the same time he stabs social conservatives in the back by passing legislation giving special rights to homosexuals.
One as yet unaddressed argument, however, is that offered to me by preacher and activist Andrew Sandlin. The argument is that Bush is a Christian and therefore worthy of my vote. This final argument might carry some weight...if it were true.
But it's not. George W. Bush is no Christian, and I'll tell you why.
Every year since taking office the President has hosted an Iftaar dinner which Islamic "holy leaders" have attended. The Iftaar is a banquet held at the beginning of the Muslim month of Ramadan. According to various White House press releases, in 2001 the President was honored to welcome his guests during the "holy month of Ramadan," in 2002 he was honored that his guests attended to help "usher in the holy month of Ramadan," and in 2003 he was pleased to host his guests during the "blessed month of Ramadan."
Again, according to various White House press releases, every year since taking office the President has acknowledged the Muslim "holiday" Eid al-Fitr and issued greetings on that day. In 2001 the President called the false god Allah "God" and once again referred to the "holy month of Ramadan," in 2002 he respected the "vibrant faith of Islam," and in 2003 he said that Ramadan "commemorates the revelation of God's word in the holy Koran to the prophet Mohammed."
"Holy" and "blessed" are religious words which grant credence to that to which they are applied. Indeed, applying such words to Islam is completely contrary to the Biblical example of Elijah who mocked (I Kings 18:17-40) the false gods of the prophets of Baal.
Additionally, in I Cor. 10:14 Paul warns, "Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry." A little later in the same chapter he says: "But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils." The notes in my New Geneva Study Bible say: "Paul is grieved that some of the Corinthians are participating in pagan meals that had an inseparable element of idolatry" and "behind pagan rituals is the reality of Satan's work, and Christians should have nothing to do with that."
So President Bush has participated in pagan "holidays," and legitimized them by his actions. What else has he done?
On September 14th, 2001, he attended a post-9/11 multi-faith "Day of Prayer" at the National Cathedral. During the service he reverently listened to the message delivered by Muzammil Siddiqi, a Muslim imam, "who offered prayers and verses from the Koran." He then sat under the prayer of a Jewish Rabbi.
According to The American Heritage Dictionary, "worship" is "The reverent love and devotion accorded a deity, an idol, or a sacred object" and "the ceremonies, prayers, or other religious forms by which this love is expressed." Respecting and sitting under the prayers and teachings of a Muslim imam and a Jewish Rabbi easily falls under that definition...and so Bush, in essence, sat and worshipped with pagans. At the very least, that action violates the Third Commandment which warns against bowing down to or serving other gods and it also lends an aura of legitimacy to those pagan religions.
As if all the above is not enough...there's more.
According to a Nov. 24th, 2003, WorldNetDaily news report, last year Bush was asked by a reporter about his view that "freedom is a gift from 'the Almighty'" and if he believed that "'Muslims worship the same Almighty' as [he] and other Christians do." Bush said, "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."
Also, according to a Dec. 29th, 2003 Newsweek article called "Iraq's Mr. Cellophane" by Christian Caryl, Bush told the spokesman of the Iraqi Governing Council: "Dr. al-Rubaie, I want you to convey this message to Mr. Sistani. Tell him that I pray to the same god he prays to...Tell Sistani I have nothing but praise for your religion."
Preacher John MacArthur had the following to say about the notion that God and Allah are the same god:
"Allah is another name for Satan because 'the Allah of Islam' is not the true and living God...The fact of the matter is all false religions have a god or gods, and to call some entity of your own manufacturing or some demon of Satan himself 'god' doesn't make it so. The Allah of Islam is not God...is not the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is not the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ." Additionally, MacArthur tells us, "God the true and living God is not Allah! That has to be made clear. We are not talking about the same god. They are monotheistic, they have one god, but their god is not a trinity--that is not the true god. They do not believe in God as a trinity; therefore, that's not the true god. They do not even believe that He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They believe He is the God of Abraham, whose true and legitimate heir was Ishmael...so they rewrite the Scripture."
Equating Satan (the god of Islam) with the Trinitarian Christian God is nothing short of blasphemy. Such unitarian universalism directly contradicts John 14:6, which reads: "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."
Bush, however, has not blasphemed God merely once. Last month, while speaking about faith-based programs, he said, "Miracles happen as a result of the love of the Almighty, professed, by the way, taught, by the way, by religions from all walks of life, whether it be Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu -- people who have heard that universal call to love a neighbor just like you'd like to be loved yourself, and then surround someone who hurts with love."
Conservative student and blogger Josh Matthews had this to say: "All of those religions except one teach obedience to man-made rules. You can call that 'virtue' if you want (stealing a pagan Greek term), but it ain't love as defined by God's Word." In the end, Bush does not profess Christianity - he professes pantheism.
Finally, to top it all off, during a February 2002 visit to Japan George W. Bush and his wife "visited the Meiji Shrine, a major venue for Shinto worshippers in Tokyo." A Feb. 19th, 2001 news report in The Japan Times said, "Bush and the first lady paid their respects by bowing in front of the main shrine hall before signing a registry book, including a brief comment on their visit." They also both "clapped their hands" to awaken the spirit in the shrine.
According to Christian scholar Dr. Robert Morey, "During WWII, Japanese and Korean Christians who refused to worship...at Shinto shrines were put to death." Japanese Christian Rev. Isaac Ishiguro says, "According to the Shinto ritual, clapping hands and bows are [the] Shinto style of worship...The verb 'SANPAI' in Japanese means SAN=visit or go [and] PAI=worship. In Japanese all the media reported, 'Bush SANPAIed at Meiji shrine.' The other reason we as Japanese strongly believe that Bush did worship at Meiji shrine [is] because prime minister Koizumi could not participate with Bush according to the Japanese Constitution. Why[?] If Koizumi goes in and bow, it is official worship at religious place, so he [declined] to go in to avoid such accusation[s]. Therefore Bush's bow and written name on the shrine list [is] official worship in public.
To sum everything up, Bush has participated in pagan festivals, worshipped alongside Muslims and Jews, equated the idol of Islam with the One True God, profaned the love of the One True God, and worshipped at a pagan Shinto shrine. In short, he has unrepentantly broken every one of the first three Commandments.
If Bush is a Christian then he has committed such serious sins that until and unless he repents of them he is not fit to hold office. More likely, however, is that Bush is a unitarian and a universalist and thus a heretic.
