Bush's Atheism

Christopher Hitchens

"I know something which is known to few but is not a secret. Karl Rove is not a believer, and he doesn’t shout it from the rooftops, but when asked, he answers quite honestly. I think the way he puts it is, 'I’m not fortunate enough to be a person of faith.'"


"I think it’s false to say that the president acts as if he believes he has God’s instructions. Compared to Jimmy Carter, he’s nowhere. He’s a Methodist, having joined his wife’s church in the end. He also claims that Jesus got him off the demon drink. He doesn’t believe it. His wife said, 'If you don’t stop, I’m leaving and I’m taking the kids.' You can say that you got help from Jesus if you want, but that’s just a polite way of putting it in Texas."

I think James Moore and Wayne Slater's characterization in The Architect: Karl Rove and the Master Plan for Absolute Power that Rove is agnostic is accurate. What Rove and Bush have done is use god-talk as one more political lever. Former president Clinton, Carter. and Lyndon Johnson are somewhat the same, although their belief system had deeper cultural roots. I have my doubts as to whether it is even possible to be a person of faith and a world class politican. Such inherently clashing world views create a kind of neutering schizophrenia, as in the case of Woodrow Wilson.