Monday, October 04, 2004

I thought I should make a brief post so you would not all think I had wandered off again. I have spent some of the last few days with the Felix Dennis, Glass Half Full Poetry Tour, and Felix can not only stage a reading, but put on a hell of an expansive lunch.

But as it’s still Sunday, because I haven’t gone to bed yet, here’s a segment of a story from The New Republic – WHY BUSH DOESN’T GO TO CHURCH by Amy Sullivan

But, even if Bush had the time for church services, supporters protest, the security precautions necessary for a presidential visit would drive congregants away. This is the exact same argument the Reagan White House trotted out to explain why the patron saint of the religious right hardly ever attended church from 1981 to 1989. Bomb-sniffing dogs, metal detectors, and security personnel, so the theory goes, would pose an onerous burden for the average church. "The president wants to avoid the sort of major weekly disruption that would be caused if he went to church," says David Aikman, author of A Man of Faith: The Spiritual Journey of George W. Bush." As it happens, I attended Foundry United Methodist Church for several years during the late '90s when the Clintons were members there. The only imposition was the extra ten seconds it took to walk through a metal detector. Parishioners did not leave the church in droves; on the contrary, many were pleasantly surprised to find that the Clintons played an active role in church life, particularly while Chelsea was involved in the choir and youth group.
Full story – http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?pt=vKO1twmWG2Uvnyi2qoWQfW%3D%3D

The secret word is Effluvia

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