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Eric Fingerhut
Bush clarifies his
Dubyah
stand on Jews, heaven
(JWR) ---- (http://www.jewishworldreview.com) TEXAS GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH has clarified remarks he made in 1993 which seemed
to indicate that he believed only Christians had a place in heaven.
Bush, a leading contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000,
first caused controversy when he told a story about his religious faith in an
interview published in The Houston Post during his 1994 campaign for governor,
and he recounted that story in a New York Times Magazine profile this
September.
Bush said he was visiting his parents in the White House and, having at that
time recently recommitted to religion, began to discuss “who goes to heaven”
with his mother, Barbara. Bush pointed to a passage in the Christian Bible
which said that “only Christians had a place in heaven.”
Barbara disagreed, saying, “Surely, God will accept others,” but Bush said,
“Mom, here’s what the New Testament says.” So Barbara called Billy Graham,
and, said Bush, “Billy said, ‘From a personal perspective, I agree with what
George is saying, the New Testament has been my guide. But I want to caution
you both. Don’t play God. Who are you two to be God?’ ”
While to some the story may indicate someone grappling with how to reconcile
one’s religious faith with the world around him (and Bush himself said, in the
Houston Post article, that the lesson he learned was “listen to the New
Testament, but don’t be harshly judgmental”), others found the statement
troubling. A fund-raising letter for Garry Mauro, Bush’s Democratic opponent
in the 1998 gubernatorial election, was circulated this fall which mentioned
“George W. Bush’s views about the chances of Jewish people in the hereafter” —
signed by National Jewish Democratic Council chairman Monte Friedkin, fomer
Texas governor Ann Richards and Texas businessman Bernard Rapoport.
The issue once again appeared on the radar screen when Bush announced at the
November Republican Governors Association meeting that he would be making a
National Jewish Coalition-sponsored trip to Israel. When asked by the same
Texas reporter who intially relayed his view on heaven what he was going to
say to Israeli Jews, Bush, obviously joking, said the first thing he would
tell them is that they were all “going to hell.”
Anti-Defamation League national president Abraham Foxman asked Bush, in a
letter, to clarify his remarks, and Bush responded last week.
“I am troubled that some people were hurt by my remarks,” he wrote. “I never
intended to make judgments about the faith of others.”
Bush continued: “Judgments about heaven do not belong in the realm of politics
or this world; they belong to a Higher Authority. In discussing my own
personal faith as a Christian, I in no way meant to imply any disrespect or to
denigrate any other religion. During my four years as governor, I have set a
positive tone that indicates my respect for individuals from all faiths, all
backgrounds and all walks of life.”
Foxman, in a statement, declared that the matter is “now behind us.” He said
the ADL welcomes “the governor’s sensitivity and demonstration of respect for
religions other than his own and his commitment to tolerance, diversity and
the principles of religious freedom.”
But are a politician’s religious views an issue for discussion? And were
Bush’s views unusual? Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, founder and president of the
International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, said that the theology of
Evangelical Christians has an “exclusivist” nature to it — believing in the
“centrality of Jesus” in order to obtain salvation — which runs counter to
many other religions, and even other denominations of Christianity. For
example, Eckstein notes that in Judaism, one can be considered a good person
without being Jewish by observing the Noahide laws outlined in Genesis.
But, Eckstein said, there is a difference between “theological intolerance” —
the fundamental belief of Evangelicals that they have the ultimate truth — and
“practical intolerance” — for instance, denying Jews the right to pray.
“It shouldn’t come to the point that everyone who believes they have the
ultimate truth is a bogeyman. I don’t believe Billy Graham is an intolerant
person,” Eckstein said, even though Graham, while telling Bush not to play
God, did not disagree with the passage Bush read about heaven. Eckstein
emphasized that the important issue is whether that theology is carried into
society, and whether a politician draws up public policy based on that belief.
In the case of Bush, Eckstein said that “it is legitimate to ask” for a
clarification of his views, and “it sounds like he explained satisfactorily.”
Rev. Dr. Clark Lobenstine, executive director of the InterFaith Conference of
Metropolitan Washington, said that he and those he works with wrestle with
such issues all the time. “Part of the challenge of interreligious dialogue is
that because we come as people of faith, it’s hard to imagine how everyone
doesn’t want to reflect our faith. But we also know people of other faiths
whose experience of God is very evident,” he said.
Lobenstine said he supports Bush’s letter clarifying his earlier comments and
“encourages his respect for our diversity.”
The issue is unlikely to have any effect on future political plans for Bush,
although Stephen Silberfarb, deputy executive director and general counsel for
the National Jewish Democratic Council, did raise some questions. Silberfarb
said the most important test is whether a politician’s religious beliefs have
an effect on his policies, which so far, Silberfarb said, hasn’t been an
issue. But to win the Republican nomination for president, Silberfarb stated
that Bush would have to court the Christian Coalition, whose “power is
considerable.”
“It remains to be seen whether he will be able to stand by that letter in the
future,” Silberfarb said.
Matt Brooks, executive director of the National Jewish Coalition, said the
book on this matter should be closed. “Bush has taken some time to learn and
reflect. Foxman’s letter and Bush’s letter speak for
Eric Fingerhut is a staff reporter for
Washington Jewish Week.