Bush on the Third Awakening

President Bush believes he is participating in America's third Great Awakening. The language of Great Awakening refers to recognized periods of religious revival in American history. A number of writers and scholars have suggested/wondered if we are not in another one of those periods of history. It could be.

What caught my eye about the article was the President's comment that he shared something in common with one of our greatest Presidents, Abraham Lincoln:

Bush told a group of conservative journalists that he notices more open expressions of faith among people he meets during his travels, and he suggested that might signal a broader revival similar to other religious movements in history. Bush noted that some of Abraham Lincoln's strongest supporters were religious people "who saw life in terms of good and evil" and who believed that slavery was evil. Many of his own supporters, he said, see the current conflict in similar terms.

The President is right to say that many of Lincoln's supporters saw life in terms of good and evil, as do many of our current President's supporters. But that is where the similarity ends. Bush also sees the world in terms of good and evil. Lincoln didn't. He certainly believed slavery was evil, but he refused to allow his supporters to claim the easy moral high ground during the conflict. He viewed the war as a punishment inflicted on both sides for their sins. Read his Second Inaugural Address. And after one particularly bad Union Army loss, when a supporter tried to comfort him with the remark that at least God was on his side, he responded: "I can try to be on God’s side, Madam, but must not presume that God is on mine." Can anyone imagine Bush ever saying that, let alone thinking it.

Lincoln was a great President because he did not see any simple moral clarity. He knew that the capacity for good and evil resided in every person. He knew that both the north and the south had perpetuated the institution of slavery. He resisted the temptation to believe that God had particularly annointed him for this moment in history to be the champion of good in the battle against evil. And that very capacity for self-doubt and compassion for the sins of others, particularly the enemy, is what made him the perfect man to be President at that perilous moment in history. In short, he was a man of great character who was uniquely equipped to lead the country in one of its darkest hours. Shorter still: he was everything that George Bush is not.