President tells editors he sees his role as a voice for cultural change_61404

Posted: 6/11/04

President tells editors he sees his
role as a voice for cultural change

WASHINGTON (RNS)–President Bush described himself as a cultural change agent in a group interview with editors and writers of conservative Christian publications.

“The job of a president is to help cultures change,” Bush told the nine writers and executives, according to an edited transcript posted on ChristianityToday.com. “Governments cannot change culture alone. I want you to know I understand that. But I can be a voice of cultural change.”

In the wide-ranging discussion, Bush addressed domestic and foreign policy, his personal prayer life and his defense of a “culture of life” and traditional marriage.

Bush said he doesn't want to be confused with a preacher, so he instead works to “let the light shine” as a secular politician.

“One of the prayers I ask is that God's light shines through me as best as possible, no matter how opaque the window,” he said.

More than once, the president said Americans have the right to worship how they wish or not at all.

“My job is to make sure that, as president, people understand that in this country you can worship any way you choose,” he said. “You can be a patriot if you don't believe in the Almighty.”

Bush said he sees Israel “a little differently” than conservative Christian leaders such as religious broadcaster Pat Robertson.

“I view Israel as a friend and ally in democracy who is in a rough neighborhood, and … we will stand side-by-side with Israel if anybody tries to annihilate her,” he said.

“I see … development of a Palestinian state as a major change agent–along with a free Iraq–in the part of the world that desperately needs free societies, out of which will come the ability for people to worship as they see fit, … the ability for people to realize their hopes.”

One questioner asked the president to respond to a concern that his interview on Arab television following the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal might have been “a mistake for appearing to be apologizing in a way that reinforces Pan-Arabism.”

Bush said he expressed his regret for the humiliation of Iraqi detainees by U.S. soldiers, but emphasized: “I never apologized to the Arab world.”

Asked if he saw evil in the way some people practice Islam, the president responded: “I think what we're dealing with are people–extreme, radical people–who've got a deep desire to spread an ideology that is anti-women, anti-free thought, anti-art and science, you know, that couch their language in religious terms. But that doesn't make them religious people.”

On the domestic scene, he considers his work on faith-based initiatives to be one of his most important efforts and thinks a change in the definition of marriage “will weaken civilization.”

Prayer, Bush told his interviewers, is a constant in his life.

“I pray all the time. All the time,” he said.

“You don't need a chapel to pray, I don't think. Whether it be in the Oval Office, I mean, you just do it. That's just me.”