George Bush on the Columbia disaster:
Red white and blue, what does it mean? Us. That's all. Just us.
That there are other countries whose flags display those three colors as well means nothing, just as the word freedom means nothing by itself, and in the present context means only freedom from things - freedom from terrorism, from danger, from insecurity and fear.
It's possible that there's an intent behind it all - to put a foul taste in the mouth of anyone who speaks the word "democracy". Certainly the Iraqis are going to have trouble with that word.
And people who have received the vicious by-products of "grace" and "faith" American Christianity dispenses to the unelect and the "un-faithful" will not be eager to encounter the God from whom those dubious blessings flow.
So maybe that's the point. It isn't about God's love for everyone, it's about our love for us. We don't need you, and God doesn't need you either.
That specialness, that sense of being chosen, blessed. Like a fungus in a cleft of rock in a time of great flooding. Or a creature stumbling into a cave one step ahead of pursuit. A gift, a blessing.
It's the difference between holiness and salvation, between sacrifice and reward, between war and a business transaction.
Not just the difference between two unlike things, but two things in different categories altogether.
George Bush's God won't be there when there are no human beings any longer to call his name. Which is not the same as saying he's not there now.
It's faith that makes it ring. But how is God "faithful"? What does that mean? It has the same anthemic power as freedom, democracy, liberty, justice, the litany of words whose meaning has been drained away even as the sound of them becomes a kind of battle cry."We can also be confident of the ways of Providence, even when they are far from our understanding. Events aren't moved by blind change and chance. Behind all of life and all of history, there's a dedication and purpose, set by the hand of a just and faithful God. And that hope will never be shaken."
Red white and blue, what does it mean? Us. That's all. Just us.
That there are other countries whose flags display those three colors as well means nothing, just as the word freedom means nothing by itself, and in the present context means only freedom from things - freedom from terrorism, from danger, from insecurity and fear.
It's possible that there's an intent behind it all - to put a foul taste in the mouth of anyone who speaks the word "democracy". Certainly the Iraqis are going to have trouble with that word.
And people who have received the vicious by-products of "grace" and "faith" American Christianity dispenses to the unelect and the "un-faithful" will not be eager to encounter the God from whom those dubious blessings flow.
So maybe that's the point. It isn't about God's love for everyone, it's about our love for us. We don't need you, and God doesn't need you either.
That specialness, that sense of being chosen, blessed. Like a fungus in a cleft of rock in a time of great flooding. Or a creature stumbling into a cave one step ahead of pursuit. A gift, a blessing.
It's the difference between holiness and salvation, between sacrifice and reward, between war and a business transaction.
Not just the difference between two unlike things, but two things in different categories altogether.
George Bush's God won't be there when there are no human beings any longer to call his name. Which is not the same as saying he's not there now.
