For those of you con…

For those of you concerned that Bush is trying to create some sort of theocracy because of the way he publicly refers to his religion, Paul Kengor has some news for you. After recounting a recent, very under-reported story about Clinton getting a church in New York mobilized to vote for Democrats, he puts the stats out.

Here’s the reality: Though clearly a devout Christian, Bush is no more outwardly religious than the vast majority of this nation’s presidents, including the most recent.

I researched the Presidential Documents — the official collection of every public presidential statement. An examination of the mentions of Jesus Christ by George W. Bush and Bill Clinton showed that through 2003, Bush cited Jesus, or Jesus Christ, or Christ in 14 separate statements, compared to 41 by Clinton during his eight years in office. On average, Clinton mentioned Christ in 5.1 statements per year, which exceeded Bush’s 4.7.

Bush’s biggest year was 2001, when he mentioned Christ in seven statements. This was the year of September 11; he was especially introspective, and often looked upward for strength. In 2002, he cited Christ in five statements.

Most interesting, in all of 2003, the Presidential Documents displayed only two statements in which Bush mentioned his Savior: the Easter and Christmas messages. It may be reasonable to conclude that the hostile press reaction to Bush’s mention of Jesus has pressured him into silence.

Such pressure was never placed on Bush’s Democratic predecessor. President Bill Clinton’s top year for Christ remarks was 1996 — the year of his re-election campaign — when he spoke of Christ in nine separate statements. Clinton mentioned Christ almost twice as much in election years.

In addition, the Presidential Documents list only three incidences of Bush speaking in a church through his first three years.

By contrast, Clinton spoke in churches 21 times, with over half in election years. And often what he said and did in these churches was blatantly partisan, from identifying New York’s Democratic Governor Mario Cuomo as a “prophet” to instructing worshippers to go vote.

The press is feeding the fire of those who think that only a Republican does these sorts of things. They ignore what doesn’t fit the template. Liberals love it when Clinton or Jesse Jackson or any other Democrat get the faithful moving while at church, but if a Republican uses the J-word anywhere it’s some sort of “separation of church and state” Constitutional crisis.

That liberal media, the one that feeds the red meat to the liberal faithful.

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