By Rev. Mark H. Creech
January 26, 2005

(AgapePress) - In a January 11 interview in the Oval Office with editors and reporters of the Washington Times, President Bush said: "I don't see how you can be president, at least from my perspective, without a relationship with the Lord." Since the President made those remarks, the left has had what D. James Kennedy on a broadcast of Scarborough Country referred to as a "collective conniption."

Dave Silverman, communications director for American Atheists said: "President Bush goes far beyond keeping his faith to himself. He's trying to turn our government into a 'religion bully' where the state enforces religious belief and religious correctness. That's un-American."

Andrew Sullivan, editor of The New Republic, accused the president of changing the Republican Party "into a semi-religious organization."

Rabbi David Sapperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, called upon the Commander-in-Chief to clarify his remarks, arguing the president's comments imply that only people with faith in God would be suitable for the office of President of the United States. This would suggest, the rabbi says, that millions of Americans whose religious beliefs do not accept monotheism, and millions of non-believers, "are unfit to be the president of our nation."

Katrina Vanden Heuvel, editor of The Nation, complained: "America, the first democracy, was founded on enlightened principles of tolerance, of respect for secular science, for evidence. And this president has no room in his life or his policies for doubters, for those who question him. And I think that's very dangerous for a democracy."

But were the president's remarks terribly removed from the statements of previous presidents? Were they far removed from our nation's heritage? Hardly!

John Quincy Adams, our nation's sixth president, said: "It is no slight testimonial, both to the merit and worth of Christianity, that in all the ages since its promulgation the great mass of those who have risen to eminence by their profound wisdom and integrity have recognized and reverenced Jesus of Nazareth as the Son of the Living God."

Abraham Lincoln, our country's 16th president, when asked about his faith, replied: "I do not think I could myself be brought to support a man for office whom I knew to be an open enemy of, and scoffer at, religion."

Andrew Johnson, the nation's 17th president, proclaimed: "Let us look forward to the time when we can take the flag of our country and nail it below the Cross, and there leave it wave as it waved in the olden times, and let us gather around it and inscribe for our motto: 'Liberty and Union, one and inseparable, now and forever,' and exclaim, Christ first, our country next."

Rutherford B. Hayes, our 19th president, declared that he was "looking for the guidance of that Divine Hand by which the destinies of nations and individuals are shaped."

Grover Cleveland, our nation's 22nd and 24th president said: "All must admit that the reception of the teachings of Christ results in the purest patriotism, in the most scrupulous fidelity to public trust, and in the best type of citizenship. Those who manage the affairs of government are by this means reminded that the law of God demands that they should be courageously true to the interest of the people, and that the Ruler of the Universe will require of them a strict account of their stewardship. The teachings of both human and Divine law thus merging into one word, duty, form the only union of Church and state that a civil and religious government can recognize."

America's 26th president, Theodore Roosevelt, explained: "After a week on perplexing problems ... it does so rest my soul to come into the house of the Lord and to sing and mean it, 'Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty' ... [my] great joy and glory that, in occupying an exalted position in the nation, I am enabled, to preach the practical moralities of the Bible to my fellow-countrymen and to hold up Christ as the hope and Savior of the world."

Herbert Hoover, America's 31st president, admonished: "The whole inspiration of our civilization springs from the teachings of Christ and the lessons of the prophets. To read the Bible for these fundamentals is a necessity of American life."

Numerous other presidents in American history have made similar statements. Moreover, according to the Pew Research Center, 70 percent of Americans say they want their president to be strongly religious.

What's really behind this "collective conniption" by the left? Is it their so-called virtuous passion for protecting the separation of church and state? No, don't be fooled. It's really their hatred of Christ. Henrietta Mears once wrote: "What think ye of Christ? What men think determines what they do and are. The ideas men hold about industry, wealth, government, morals and religion mold society and alter their lives. So what men think of Christ is the master force in the world today and more than anything else influences its life and thought."

The admonition of the Psalmist is pertinent: "Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying, 'Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.' He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: The Lord shall have them in derision ... Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath will be kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him" (Ps. 2:1-4;10-12).