JAMES HATFIELD
April 24, 2001
Dubya often talks the talk, but seldom walks the walk of his "faith"
Dubya and I have one thing—and only one thing—in common : We're both members of the United Methodist Church.
You might think the election of only the third Methodist to the nation's highest office would be a source of pride.
Think again, folks.
In a exceptional display of candor, the United Methodist News Service distanced the denomination from Dubya in the wake of the election debacle and went so far as to even point out his political views are more akin to those of the staunch conservative Southern Baptist Convention. (The United Methodists, with 8.4 million members, are the second largest Protestant denomination, after the Southern Baptist Convention, and are considered the "more liberal" of the two.)
The Methodists officially oppose capital punishment and handgun ownership. Dubya supports both. And the list of disagreements continues with abortion rights, gays in the military, school vouchers, even Social Security policy.
"Having a United Methodist in office does not mean the president's policies will reflect those of the church," read the statement from the news agency. (Note : Vice-President Dick Cheney is also identified as a United Methodist in his biographical material, but his office has never answered queries from the United Methodist News Service regarding his local church membership.)
Though he was raised in Presbyterian and Episcopalian churches, Dubya has been an active Methodist since marrying his wife, Laura (a life-long member of the church), in the late 70s. They taught Sunday school at the Highland Park United Methodist Church in Dallas (where they are still members), and regularly worshipped at the Tarrytown United Methodist Church in Austin while he was Texas governor.
From the opening invocation by Rev. Mark Craig, pastor of Dallas' Highland Park church, to Dubya's acceptance speech as presidential nominee, United Methodists shared center stage during the climatic final night of the Republican National Convention last summer in Philadelphia. Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell, a friend of Dubya's and pastor of Houston's Windsor Village United Methodist Church, made the introductory remarks which preceded a video on the Texas governor and ended as the GOP nominee himself strode onto the stage like Apollo Creed in Rocky.
Dubya emphasized the importance of his faith several times during his acceptance speech August 3. "I believe in tolerance, not in spite of my faith, but because of it," he claimed. "I believe in a God who calls us not to judge our neighbors, but to love them. I believe in grace because I have seen it, in peace because I have felt it, in forgiveness because I needed it."
Dubya often talks the talk, but seldom walks the walk of his "faith," and leaders of his church are not afraid to blow the whistle on him from the pulpits.
When he failed to support the hate crimes bill introduced in the Texas Legislature in memory of James Byrd Jr., the black man dragged to death by white racists in Jasper, Texas, in 1998, his Methodist pastor in Austin publicly chastised Dubya for his lack of leadership and compassion on the issue as governor.
"The James Byrd Jr. Memorial Hate Crimes Act would protect all Texans from the tragedy of hate-based crimes," the Rev. James Mayfield said in an issued statement. "As religious leaders, we must send the message that Texas is not a hate state."
Dubya's response? "I've always said all crime is hate crime. People, when they commit a crime, have hate in their heart," he reiterated. "Punish the deed. Most deeds are based upon hate." Referring to the shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado, Dubya added, "What's the difference between the white man who got killed or the black man who got killed during that rampage?"
Dubya damn well knew the difference between people of color and white folks when he led Texas to its dubious distinction as the state with the most executions of prison inmates. The following exchange was witnessed by a tour group at the Governor's Mansion and has been recounted by multiple sources, including Lucius Lomas of The Texas Observer. John M. Swamley, a professor of social ethics at St. Paul School of Theology and a writer for The Humanist, is the source of this version :
An aide abruptly appeared with papers he held out to then-Governor Dubya. "It's the death warrants to sign, Governor. There are two executions scheduled for tonight."
Absent-mindedly, the Governor took the offered pen. But in mid-signature he lifted his hand. He looked hard at his aide.
"They're not white are they?"
The aide flashed a nervous smile. "Governor, would we do that to you?" he asked.
"It's not a woman either, is it? I'm not executing any more damn women. That last one—I was getting telegrams from as far away as Bolivia," Bush complained. "What the damn Bolivians or anyone else in Europe know about law and order in Texas I can't imagine."
The aide reassured him, "Both prisoners are male, Governor. One's black and one's Hispanic. Nothing out of the ordinary."
Pacified, Bush nodded. "That's okay then," he said. In an instant the aide retrieved the signed warrants and was gone.
United Methodist Bishop Joe A. Wilson of Fort Worth, Texas, who along with other clergy in the region made a public stand against the death penalty in the Lone Star State after Dubya refused to call off the execution of that "woman"—Karla Faye Tucker—issued a public letter to his fellow Methodist in February of last year, pleading with the Texas governor for a moratorium on capital punishment. (Because of the significant number of wrongful prosecutions, Illinois Gov. George Ryan had recently taken the unprecedented step of putting all executions on hold pending a review of the death-penalty system, which he said was "fraught with error.")
"I continue to be dismayed by the number of executions being performed in the state of Texas," Bishop Wilson wrote to Dubya. "As a United Methodist, I hope you will consider seriously the stand of your church on the death penalty. Since 1972, the United Methodist Church has been opposed to capital punishment and has urged its elimination from all criminal codes.
"My intent as an episcopal leader of your church, is to appeal to your sense of fair justice and Christian conscience ." With that, Wilson urged Dubya to "please put a moratorium on the executions in the state of Texas. Something much more is at stake than political positioning. Human life, which only God has created and has the right to end, is the primary issue. I believe that the use of the death penalty by the state will increase the acceptance of revenge in our society and will give official sanction to a climate of violence."
Bishop Wilson didn't even receive the courtesy of a response from Dubya. "The attitude in Texas is 'kill 'em,'" the Methodist leader reluctantly admitted. "That attitude is hard to overcome."
In regards to gun control, the United Methodist Church advocates reducing the number of guns in communities, including banning ownership of handguns, assault weapons, automatic weapon conversion kits and weapons that cannot be detected by regular metal-detection devices.
Once again, Dubya has clearly defined differences with his church's official pronouncements. He has often stated, "We need to have laws that keep guns out of the hands of people who shouldn't have them." However, the gun laws in Texas were liberalized during his tenure in office.
As governor, he signed a law allowing citizens to carry concealed weapons and a bill that prohibited Texas cities from suing gun companies to recover the costs associated with treating gunshot victims.
Moreover, Dubya was the presidential candidate of choice for the National Rifle Association, which made no secret of its expectations for favorable treatment ("we'll have an office in the White House") once he took up residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
The denomination's statement on abortion expresses reluctant support for the availability of legal abortions for women who choose them on the basis of their situations, while Dubya holds a pro-life stance with exceptions only for cases of rape or incest, or if the life of the mother is in danger. At the United Methodist Church's General Conference held in May 1999, the denomination added a prohibition against "partial birth" abortion except to save the life of the mother or in cases where severe fetal anomalies exist that are incompatible with life. Dubya supports banning the procedure.
He also believes that homosexuals should not serve in the military, while the United Methodist Church is on record as advocating just the opposite.
In discussions about education, Dubya has expressed support for giving parents vouchers that may be used to send their children to private and religious schools, and he proposes increased funding for charter schools. The United Methodist Church officially opposes the use of vouchers for sending children to private schools in the belief that vouchers take support away from public schools and could create possible entanglements between church and state, whose separation they strongly support.
Dubya has said he believes that younger workers should be allowed to divert money from the Social Security tax on their wages to private savings and market accounts. However, a new resolution adopted in May 1999 on Social Security and women, the church rejected privatization of any part of the Social Security tax, observing that such changes endanger the system's ability to provide benefits, especially for elderly women who rely heavily on income from Social Security to meet their needs and who constitute the majority of recipients.
"I'm pleased that there is a United Methodist in the White House," said Bishop Susan W. Hassinger, the church's top official in New England, "but I would hope he would be a person who listens to all perspectives and I trust he will be faithful to God ... with concern for the marginalized and the poor."
Yeah, right, and Jesus is coming back before we have breakfast tomorrow morning at IHOP.
Dubya's words and deeds during his tenure as Texas governor and in his first 90 days as president have proven he could care less about children, the elderly, the downtrodden of our society, and God's green earth. Dubya is only faithful to Big Business and the corporate benefactors who bought and paid for his soul years ago.
When Dubya was inaugurated in January, he became only the third Methodist president. The other two were William McKinley, most often remembered for being assassinated, and Rutherford B. Hayes.
But Dubya is linked with Rutherford by a historical oddity—each lost the popular vote, yet won the presidency after a contested dispute over balloting in Florida. Rutherford entered office under most unfavorable circumstances, accomplished relatively little and only served one term.
Let's just hope history repeats itself again.
An environmental Hitler update: As part of an effort to counter recent criticism that Dubya's administration has been anti-environment in the first 90 days of his presidency, EPA Administrator Christie Whitman announced this past Sunday the controversial proposal of drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge won't be part of a report due next month from an energy task force led by Vice President Dick Cheney.
"As far as our report goes, we didn't specifically say, 'You must drill in ANWAR.' We didn't recommend that to the president," Whitman told CBS' Face the Nation on Earth Day (April 22), as the new prez's advisers fanned out across the talk-show circuit to defend the administration's sorry excuse for an environmental record.
Whitman's comments follow a report by Time magazine that Dubya's chief political adviser, Karl Rove, has recommended that he back off his push for drilling in the reserve. She said the plan to explore for oil in the Alaskan wilderness faces heavy opposition from Congress, which would have to authorize such a move.
Whitman also stated last week that Dubya would leave in place standards set in Clinton's final days that require more businesses to report releases of lead into the environment.
The regulations require any facility that releases at least 100 pounds of lead or lead compounds a year to report its discharges to the government. Dubya's sugar daddy industry groups obviously opposed the standards and had lobbied for his administration to abandon them.
The announcement came one day after Whitman stated that the EPA would leave in place Clinton administration rules that would expand protection for tens of thousands of acres of wetlands across the U.S.
"Wetlands" is a collective term that refers to marshes, swamps, bogs and similar areas, all of which filter and cleanse the nation's water, help to retain floodwaters and provide natural habitats for many species of fish, birds and other wildlife.
Dubya (along with the EPA's Whitman and Secretary of State Colin Powell) also announced last week that the U.S. will sign a global treaty (known as the Stockholm Convention of Persistent Organic Pollutants), which calls for the eventual worldwide elimination of a dozen highly toxic and "persistent" chemicals, such as dioxins, DDT and other pesticides.
Why the sudden back-peddling by Dubya on his aggressive environmental assault? A recent ABC/Washington Post poll showed that 7 out of 10 Americans believe protecting the environment should receive the "highest" or "high" priority from Dubya and Congress.
The domestic political implications are clear. Studies show that women are more concerned about the environment than are men. In the last election, women gave an 11-point advantage to Vice-President Al Gore, the Democratic nominee, siding with him by 54 percent to 43 percent. And suburbanites are more concerned about the environment than are urban dwellers.
According to The Boston Globe's David M. Shribman, "Pollsters, consultants, professional politicians, and friends of the new administration all gave President Bush and his advisers similar advice : Go slow on the environment. Remember that two of the most important voting groups, women and suburbanites, care about wilderness areas and clean air and clean water. And don't forget there's a connection between environmental issues and health issues."
But, of course, that didn't stop Dubya from planning last week to proceed with a proposal to auction off to oil and gas companies (many of whom made generous donations to his presidential campaign) drilling and exploration leases in a large seabed tract in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, some of which comes within 30 miles of the western tip of the Florida Panhandle.
Oil and gas rigs dot the western and central waters of the Gulf, but no federal lease has been offered in the eastern Gulf since 1988. The government estimates the 5.9 million acre lease area being considered for auction holds 370 million barrels of oil and as much as 3.2 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
Florida is on record as opposing any oil and gas development within 100 miles of its shore, arguing such activities could threaten its beaches and tourist industry.
Dubya's brother, Jeb, who will be up for reelection as governor of the Sunshine State next year and has already been politically tarnished by last year's ballot counting debacle, has been actively soliciting Dubya's administration to cancel the auctions.
"Once development crosses into the Eastern Gulf and pipeline infrastructure is installed there will be little incentive to not expand production," Guv Jeb wrote EPA Chief Whitman. "Further encroachment toward our beaches will become inevitable."
But the younger Bush's pleas are falling on deaf ears in Washington.
So much for helping his big brother win last year's disputed presidential election in Florida. Jeb is finding out the hard way that oil is thicker than blood, especially when Dubya has to pay off heavy-duty campaign debts to energy industry benefactors.
"I'm mad as hell" follow-up : I don't know how many of you e-mailed the White House and/or called the switchboard on April 20 to tell Dubya you were as "mad as hell," and were "not going to take this anymore." But here's the automatic response I received :
Thank you for e-mailing President Bush.
Your ideas and comments are very important to him.
Unfortunately, because of the large volume of email received, the President cannot personally respond to each message. However, the White House staff considers and reports citizen ideas and concerns.
Again, thank you for your email.
Your interest in the work of President Bush and the new administration is appreciated.
Sincerely,
The White House Office of E-Correspondence
Dubya's mouthpiece, Karen Hughes, must have written it because her fingerprints are all over it, reminding me of the response I received from her after I queried Dubya numerous times back in 1998 (during the initial research stage of Fortunate Son).
Dear Mr. Hatfield :
On behalf of Governor George W. Bush, thank you for your request for an interview. Unfortunately, he will not be able to accept due to the high volume of requests and many demands on his time. He remains focused on Texas issues and is busy preparing for the upcoming legislative session. We appreciation your understanding and your interest in the Governor.
Sincerely,
Karen Hughes
Communications Director