So the question I have for you today, dear readers, does it matter if the President of the United States attends church or not?
The article speaks about how the President used the Christian Community during the campaign but has not attended church on a regular basis since his election. A candidate used someone? Should we be surprised by this? The other question I have is would you, if you are a clergy person reading this, want POTUS to come to your church, I for one would not. I would not want to be subjected to the media, the secret service, and circus atmosphere that is involved wherever POTUS goes. People come to church to worship and I would not want that interrupted by some clown with a camera.
I do not know the stats on the Bush attendance at church whilst in the White House but I have never before seen interests in weather the first family attends church or not.
The article lists several things that shows that this POTUS is less Christian perhaps then we have seen before. Does this bother me, not really. How does the faith of one person affect me? I think we need to come to the reality that one day we might have a President who is wait for it… not a Christian.
Why is religion so attached to the Oval Office? Should it be?
What think you?
It bothers me more when someone pretends to be a church going christian then I find out later that they were just using this as an excuse to get elected.
I don't know if I would vote for someone who has no religious affiliations,but if they were honest about it how could you fault them.linda
Sure, it is important. I want to know that the president at least stand for something in his life (since he has demonstrated that he is committed to anything that a poll favors). I would hope that he would be committed to God at the very least if he is going to call himself a Christian. Of course, I suspect him of being Machiavellian and just uses those things for political gains.
Well, it's not like there haven't been presidents that faked it the whole time, regardless of party.
For instance, some would consider fourteen of our presidents to be non-Christian for their participation in Freemasonry.
However, this current president believes in a trinity of sorts: Marx, Freud, and Nietzsche. It is not a Trinity of sacrificial love, but one based upon Envy, Lust, and Pride. Even so, he too will pass on.
The real question is, are there any idols that we have, hidden away?
Your points about the Secret Service are well taken. It's not really practical for the POTUS to go to a parish. If I were POTUS, I'd have a chapel erected in the WH and have a priest come in and offer liturgy for me and my staff. Maybe the public would know this, maybe not. I'm not going to issue a press release about it.
Should the POTUS attend some regular Sunday service? Objectively, he should believe and go, as all of us should. It also gives comfort and encouragement to Christians to see their POTUS attending services. If he doesn't believe though, maybe he shouldn't fake it.
I understand while Ronald Reagan was shameless in the way he courted the Christian Right, he never much went to church as President.
(I always took great exception also to the fact that his wife consulted an astrologer in order for him to define him movements!)
However, in later years he said this was because he didn't like all the security (employment of Secret Service Agents etc) that would have to be put into place for this, and said that when he left the presidency he resumed church attendance again.