The John Wick

from The Faith of George W. Bush:

Not since the days of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln has a president put so much stock in his Christian faith and prayer life for making decisions and leading the United States in its hour of crisis.

Okay. Let’s compare apples and apples. Wanna compare Bush with Washington and Lincoln?
Let’s go.

Washington:

“Among many other weighty objections to the Measure, it has been suggested, that it has a tendency to introduce religious disputes into the Army, which above all things should be avoided, and in many instances would compel men to a mode of Worship which they do not profess.”
— George Washington, to John Hancock, then president of Congress, expressing opposition to a congressional plan to appoint brigade chaplains in the Continental Army (1777), quoted from a letter to Cliff Walker from Doug Harper (2002)

What does Bush have to say abou introducing religious disputes into the Army? Well, he doesn’t agree with Mr. Washington:

“Whether Mormon, Methodist, Jewish, or Muslim, Americans should be able to participate in their constitutional free exercise of religion. I do not think witchcraft is a religion, and I do not think it is in any way appropriate for the U.S. military to promote it.
     — George W. Bush, second remark, October 15, 2000, Web, White & Blue 2000

More on Washington’s faith:

 

“I know that Gouverneur Morris, who claimed to be in his secrets, and believed himself to be so, has often told me that General Washington believed no more in that system [Christianity] than he did.”
— Thomas Jefferson, in his private journal, February, 1800, quoted from Jefferson’s Works, Vol. iv., p. 572 (“Gouverneur Morris was the principal drafter of the Constitution of the United States; he was a member of the Continental Congress, a United States senator from New York, and minister to France. He accepted, to a considerable extent, the skeptical views of French Freethinkers.” — John E. Remsberg, Six Historic Americans.)

 

“Sir, Washington was a Deist.”
–– The Reverend Doctor James Abercrombie, rector of the church Washington had attended with his wife, to The Reverend Bird Wilson, an Episcopal minister in Albany, New York, upon Wilson’s having inquired of Abercrombie regarding Washington’s religious beliefs, quoted from John E. Remsberg, Six Historic Americans

 

“I have diligently perused every line that Washington ever gave to the public, and I do not find one expression in which he pledges, himself as a believer in Christianity. I think anyone who will candidly do as I have done, will come to the conclusion that he was a Deist and nothing more.”
— The Reverend Bird Wilson, an Episcopal minister in Albany, New York, in an interview with Mr. Robert Dale Owen written on November 13, 1831, which was publlshed in New York two weeks later, quoted from Franklin Steiner, The Religious Beliefs of Our Presidents, pp. 27

 

And now, let’s talk about Lincoln.

 

My earlier views of the unsoundness of the Christian scheme of salvation and the human origin of the scriptures, have become clearer and stronger with advancing years and I see no reason for thinking I shall ever change them.

— Abraham Lincoln, to Judge J. S. Wakefield, after Willie Lincoln’s death (Willie died in 1862), quoted by Joseph Lewis in “Lincoln the Freethinker,” also appearing in Remsburg’s “Six Historic Americans” (Authenticity questioned by some because it allegedly does not appear in Wakefield’s papers [Andrew Lutes, persistent picker of insignificant separationist nits]; authenticity questioned by others who claim that Wakefield did not exist [forgotten web site which also featured all the regular and long-refuted arguments for Lincoln’s Christian piety]. Go figure!)

 

What is to be, will be, and no prayers of ours can arrest the decree.
— Abraham Lincoln, quoted by Mary Todd Lincoln in William Herndon’s Religion of Lincoln, quoted from Franklin Steiner, The Religious Beleifs of Our Presidents, p. 118

 

It will not do to investigate the subject of religion too closely, as it is apt to lead to Infidelity.
— Abraham Lincoln, Manford’s Magazine, quoted from Franklin Steiner, The Religious Beliefs of Our Presidents, p. 144

 

The Bible is not my book nor Christianity my profession.
— Abraham Lincoln, quoted by Joseph Lewis in “Lincoln the Freethinker“

 

And how about Jefferson?

Say nothing of my religion. It is known to my god and myself alone.
— Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to John Adams, 11 January 1817, in Lester Cappon, ed. The Adams-Jefferson Letters, (1959) p. 506, quoted from Jeremy Koselak, “The Exaltation of a Reasonable Deity: Thomas Jefferson’s Critique of Christianity“

Because religious belief, or non-belief, is such an important part of every person’s life, freedom of religion affects every individual.

— Thomas Jefferson, to the Virginia Baptists (1808)

 

What does George W. think of non-believers?

Tyrants and dictators will accept no other gods before them. They require disobedience to the First Commandment. They seek absolute control and are threatened by faith in God. They fear only the power they cannot possess — the power of truth. So they resent the living example of the devout, especially the devotion of a unique people chosen by God.
— George W. Bush at the National Commemoration of the Days of Remembrance at the U.S. Capitol on April 19, 2001, quoted from Freedom From Religion Foundation, “Bush’s Holocaust Remarks Distort History, Scapegoat Freethinkers” April 25, 2001. He was talking about Hitler, whom he inferred was an athiest, when in fact, Hitler continued to call himself a Christian and no documentation exists to dispute Hitler’s claims. Obviously, lack of faith in the First Commandment causes tyranny.

Yeah. Mr. Bush has a lot in common with Lincoln and Washington on matters of faith. A lot in common.

John Wick

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