The Faith Factor

摘要

It's only natural that a country founded by pilgrims would never let its politics wander far from its faith. As voters weigh the faith-based presidency of George W. Bush, they should note that his is hardly the first of its kind. George Washington ad-libbed the line "So help me God" at the end of his swearing-in, and Thomas Jefferson extolled Jesus as the most important philosopher in his life two centuries before Bush ever did. Abraham Lincoln, the President whom Bush says he admires most, called the Civil War God's punishment for the sin of slavery, and the presidency an office that drove him to his knees "by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go." William McKinley decided to invade the Philippines to "uplift and civilize and Christianize" its people. And Woodrow Wilson, a son and grandson of ministers, believed that God had ordained him to be President, inspiring Freud to wonder whether he had a Messiah complex.