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Edited on Thu Apr-22-04 05:36 AM by wyldwolf
Is Bush addicted to Religion? Religion can be an addiction. To many, it replaces a former addiction, like drugs or alcohol.
Last year CNN noticed Bush talking more about religion. The news network points out that the "pResident often uses a strict good-and-evil compass to navigate national issues, he has always peppered his speeches with exhortations to moral and civic duty. And with war, tragedy and terrorism confronting him all at once, Bush's allusions to spirituality and morality seem to be increasing."
"I welcome faith to help solve the nation's deepest problems," Bush told a convention of religious broadcasters last week.
Earlier, in his State of the Union address, he said, "The liberty we prize is not America's gift to the world, it is God's gift to humanity."
Speaking to the broadcasters in Nashville, Tennessee, last week about the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Bush said, "We carried our grief to the Lord Almighty in prayer."
Is Bush's fixation on all things christian good or bad? "This president is using general references and, beyond that, terminology and vocabulary that come straight out of a very particular religious tradition, which is evangelical Christianity," said the Rev. C. Welton Gaddy, a Louisiana pastor and executive director of the Interfaith Alliance Foundation, an umbrella interfaith group.
"I think his rhetoric implies a lack of appreciation for the vast pluralism of religion in this nation," Gaddy said.
Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said Bush speeches have started sounding "more and more like a sermon in a church" and risk alienating significant chunks of his constituency.
Not only is his increased use of religion alienating to a large number of Americans, it my be indicative of a mental illness.
Bush believes he was "born again" after supposedly kicking a cocaine habit and alcoholism in the 80s. But he may have traded substance dependency for religious dependency.
According to When God Becomes A Drug: Breaking the Chains of Religious Addiction and Abuse, by Father Leo Booth, religious addiction is a mental illness and has the following symptoms... all which Bush apparently has.
1. Black-and-white, good/bad, either/or simplistic thinking: one way or the other. Compare this symptom to Bush's "you are either with us or against us" rhetoric and his labeling of countries who oppose him as "evil doers."
2. Magical thinking that God will fix you/ do it all, without serious work on your part. "I welcome faith to help solve the nation's deepest problems," President Bush told a convention of religious broadcasters last week.
3. Uncompromising judgmental attitudes: readiness to find fault or evil out there... (sound familiar?)
4. Compulsive or obsessive praying, going to church or crusades, quoting scripture. This has been the hallmark of Bush's speeches since he took office.
5. Believing that sex is dirty; believing our bodies or physical pleasures are evil. Bush, as well as the Republican party in general, have always seemed to be anti-sex. They spent over $100 million to prove Bill Clinton had a blowjob and Bush has been promoting abstinance to the exclusion of condoms in the fight against STDs. Now, they're using the arm of the FCC to combat "indecency."
6. Conflict and argumentation with science, medicine, and education. So far, Bush has defunded Reading is Fundamental, he has obstructed funding for stem cell research, he has made it harder to put species on the endangered list, he tried to cut birth control coverage for federal workers, he delayed release of a report linking dioxin consumption to cancer, he has removed protections for marine wildlife, he pulled of the Kyoto treaty, he has kept the arsenic levels in drinking water high, he reversed the U.S.'s stance on carbon monoxide emissions, he has rolled back provisions of the Clean Air Act, he allowed pesticide experiments involving humans against the advice of scientists, he forced terminally ill residents of Oregon to die painful deaths by superseding their euthanasia laws, he dismisses a report from his own administration on global warming, he pushes abstinence-only sex education, he chose Jerry Thacker, a Pennsylvania marketing consultant who has characterized AIDS as the "gay plague," to serve on the Presidential Advisory Commission on HIV and AIDS, and more! All this for his rich corporate sponsors and his god.
7. Progressive detachment from the real work, isolation and breakdown of relationships. It seems that Bush is always taking vacations. And notice how Bush has effectively isolated the U.S. from many of our staunchest allies!
8. Manipulating scripture or texts, feeling specially chosen, claiming to receive special messages from God. Though Bush has never specifically stated he was chosen by God, that is a mantra of many that voted for him. He does, however, have a knack for pulling scriptures out of the blue when he gives speeches.
9. Attitude of righteousness or superiority: "we versus the world." We're seeing this symptom in Bush manifest itself more and more each day!
(taken from an e-mail)
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