God in Bush’s speeches

The weather has been beautiful in Cleveland! We got here on Wednesday evening, late, and ever since it’s been sunny and warm (but not too hot). I really enjoy Eric’s family, because they’re all active, opinionated, warm people. (Of course, one week is probably going to be enough…)

Anyway, this morning I was reading a Sojourners piece which analyzes the ways in which Bush uses religion — particularly God-talk — in his speeches.

"This striking change in White House rhetoric is apparent in how presidents have spoken about God and the values of freedom and liberty, two ideas central to American identity. Consider a few examples: In a famous 1941 address delineating four essential freedoms threatened by fascism, Roosevelt sawpid: "This nation has placed its destiny in the hands and heads and hearts of its millions of free men and women; and its faith in freedom under the guidance of God."

Contrast this statement with Bush's claim in 2003 that "Americans are a free people, who know that freedom is the right of every person and the future of every nation. The liberty we prize is not America's gift to the world, it is God's gift to humanity."

Bush's is not a request for divine favor; it is a declaration of divine wishes. And now his Republican Party colleagues are adopting the same strategy.

I doubt that it's a coincidence that this comparison brings to explicit mind the dangers of fascism. I'm not saying that the Bush government should be labelled fascist -- not yet, at any rate -- but I AM thinking that we ought to do more to learn about how fascism arises, and what people need to do to combat it.