The Bush Crusade

James Carroll has a powerful essay in the September 20, 2004 issue of the Nation, now available online. In it he talks about Bush’s crusade against evil, and he explores the dangerous theological implications of crusades in the past:

Here is the deeper significance of Bush's inadvertent reference to the Crusades: Instead of being a last recourse or a necessary evil, violence was established then as the perfectly appropriate, even chivalrous, first response to what is wrong in the world. George W. Bush is a Christian for whom this particular theology lives. While he identified Jesus as his favorite "political philosopher" when running for President in 2000, the Jesus of this evangelical President is not the "turn the other cheek" one. Bush's savior is the Jesus whose cross is wielded as a sword.