Articles

Bush Presents Faith As Driving Force Behind His Presidency

CNN.com
By Ian Christopher McCaleb/CNN
February 1, 2001

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush told attendees of the annual National Prayer Breakfast this morning that his faith influences nearly every aspect of his life, and that he believes demonstration of his deeply held religious beliefs will bring a new era of civility to the nation's capital.

The breakfast, a yearly tradition that has featured the participation of every president since Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952, routinely draws a wide range of lawmakers, Cabinet members, leaders of religious and charitable organizations, foreign diplomats, and even a smattering of foreign heads of state.

"All presidents of the United States have come to the National Prayer Breakfast, regardless of their religious views," Bush said, opening his brief remarks. "No matter what our background, in prayer, we share something universal -- a desire to speak and listen to our maker, and to know his plan for our lives."

"An American president serves people of every faith, and serves some with no faith at all," Bush continued. "Yet, I have found my faith helps me in the service to people. Faith teaches humility."

Bush, in office for only 12 days, seemed intent on using his address before those enjoying the breakfast to highlight his views on his leadership philosophy, saying the same faith that exerts significant influence on his personal behavior and his comportment as a leader already has provided a foundation for some ground-breaking policy decisions.

The most notable of those is his plan to grant faith-based social aid organizations an opportunity to compete with the federal government for tax dollars.

In signing two executive orders and sending a legislative package to Congress earlier this week, Bush set a course for charitable organizations to work in partnership with the federal government to combat poverty, addiction, abuse and homelessness.

The government, Bush argued earlier this week, simply cannot handle the burden of providing billions of dollars worth of social and economic aid to the unfortunate. Faith-based organizations, he said, were better equipped to handle certain problems, and should be given a chance to secure taxpayer-provided funds to do so.

Critics accused Bush of working early in his administration to appeal to the conservative Christian branch of the GOP by blurring the constitutionally mandated lines between church activity and the process of governance, but Bush and his administration have insisted that they do not intend to promote religious activity.

Rather, Bush said, the natural calling of such faith-based charities is to help the less fortunate, but these organizations, he added pointedly, have long endured a blatant form of discrimination.

"We want to encourage the inspired to help the helper," Bush said Thursday. "Government cannot be replaced by charities, but it can welcome them as partners instead of resenting them as rivals.

"My administration will put the federal government squarely on the side of America's armies of compassion," he continued. "Our plan will not favor religious institutions over nonreligious institutions. As president, I'm interested in what is constitutional and I'm interested in what works.

But, Bush said, "The days of discriminating against religious institutions simply because they are religious must come to an end.

The humility and sense of purpose birthed by faith, Bush said, compels him to fulfill one of his more insistent but opaque campaign promises -- his repeated pledges to "change the tone" in Washington.

As a man of deep belief, Bush said, his responsibility is to provide an example for others - specifically the most partisan veteran residents of the District of Columbia.

"Faith is also important to the civility of our country," he instructed his audience. "It teaches us not merely to tolerate one another, but to respect one another, to show a regard for different views and the courtesy to listen. This is essential to democracy."

The vast audience crammed into a Washington hotel ballroom included the leaders of Rwanda, which was devastated in the mid-1990s by an outburst of unparalleled genocidal violence, the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia, the current Yugoslav republic of Montenegro, and of the young Slovakia, which separated peacefully from Czech Republic following the fall of the iron curtain.

Also present was Joseph Kabila, the newly sworn leader of Congo. Kabila's father, the former president and onetime rebel commander Laurent Kabila, was assassinated by a bodyguard two weeks ago.