Bush: Atheists Aren’t Citizens?
August 23, 2007 at 8:53 pm (Political, Religion, Social)
While George Bush’s lack of eloquence is hardly something to write about, there are so many of his beliefs that are just plain scary. One of these (which received surprisingly little news coverage at the time) was when George Bush Senior mentioned his views on atheism. The Rob Sherman Advocacy web site offers the following quote:
I asked Mr. Bush, “What are you going to do to win the votes of Americans who are atheists?”
Mr. Bush replied, “I guess I’m pretty weak in the atheist community. Faith in God is important to me.”
I followed up: “Do you support the equal citizenship and patriotism of Americans who are atheists?”
Mr. Bush replied, “I don’t know that atheists should be regarded as citizens, nor should they be regarded as patriotic. This is one nation under God.”
After other reporters asked a few questions about issues that they were concerned about, I was then able to get in one more follow-up question on my subject: “Do you support the constitutionality of state/church separation?”
Vice President Bush responded, “I support separation of church and state. I’m just not very high on atheists.”
If that’s not enough to make your stomach turn, Positive Atheism offers The Big Scary List of George W. Bush Quotations.
Perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised that George isn’t “very high” on atheists (it does make me wonder, though, what he is “high” on). But people should see this is an outrage. Here, a politician of the United States is claiming that one must be religious (and probably Christian) to be protected by the Constitution of the United States of America. And, better yet, the whole “under God” phrase was added to the Pledge of Allegiance in the 1960s. For those that don’t realize it, this guy is the highest ranking public official in the United States.
renaissanceguy said,
August 23, 2007 at 9:27 pm
I’m highly skeptical of that quotation.
AtypicalGuy said,
August 23, 2007 at 9:41 pm
Thanks for your comment.
Are you skeptical because you don’t want to believe it or because you have a reason to be? A simple web search will find many references to these quotes. You don’t have to believe “the Internet”, but many reputable journalists (including the one who asked the question originally) have reported on the story. I’m wondering why you would question this particular quotation, when it hardly seems inconsistent with other Bushisms.
Bad said,
August 23, 2007 at 10:40 pm
The quotation is cited by am activist journalist, which is generally the reason given for doubting it. On the other hand, when asked if Bush had indeed said it, Bush’s people said that he stood by his remarks, so at the very least, Bush isn’t denying that he said it.
More recently, a FOI request produced documents that seem to confirm that the exchange did, in fact, take place, and again, that the President or his people do not deny that he said what he was quoted to say.
The Freedom To Not Believe « Atypical Guy said,
September 20, 2007 at 7:36 am
[...] of the word). As I mentioned in the past, George Bush apparently doesn’t believe that atheists should be considered citizens. Clearly, religious (or anti-religious) persecution is quite alive and well in the United [...]