Introduction: Religion and the Bush Presidency

Abstract

Even before he first took the oath of office as president in 2001, a debate raged over the role of faith in forming George W. Bush’s views on politics and policy. It is easy to understand why. Although Bush certainly was not the first serious presidential contender of the modern era to speak openly about his faith, when he did so during his first national campaign his comments pleased religious conservatives and at the same time invited strongly negative reactions from many liberal and moderate commentators. Most famously, when asked in a candidate forum in 1999 to name his favorite philosopher, Bush immediately answered, “Christ, because he changed my heart.” Bush’s opponents seized on this comment as evidence of a flaccid mind (because he did not name Plato or Aristotle perhaps), or at least proof that he was a religious fanatic. But these charges did not matter, because what Bush had said resonated with a core constituency in the Republican Party and gave him a lift over other candidates who tried to court the Christian Right.