In an interview with Beliefnet.com Editor in Chief Steven Waldman, George W. Bush was asked whether his prayers have ever been answered. Let’s go to the transcript:
Beliefnet: Have you ever felt like a specific prayer of yours was answered?Bush: Gosh, that’s a very good question. I really don’t pray for, you know, “Gosh, I hope I get 48 percent of the vote in the so-and-so primary.” That’s not a prayer I offer up.I have [felt that my prayers were answered]. I have. There’s some situations where I’ve prayed for inner calm, and I felt calm.Beliefnet: Around a particular event?Bush: Well, for example, big press conferences at times. You’ll notice, for example, I will bow my head just quietly just before I walk up to the mike. There are a lot of situations in which I find myself where there is a lot of pressure and, you know, a lot of attention, and those are moments where you just need to be clear thinking and resolute and calm.
Chatterbox sees three possible conclusions one might draw:
- God doesn’t exist. That would explain why Bush’s extemporaneous speaking remains so clumsy and ill-informed. (Chatterbox takes the minority view that Gore creamed Bush in the second debate–mainly by showing Bush to be clueless about what’s going on in Texas.)
- God does exist, but He doesn’t waste His time helping out George W. Bush at press conferences. (Wouldn’t that be as much a waste of His time as helping Bush win “48 percent of the vote in the so-and-so primary”?) This may be because He is a Democrat, or it may be because, like Washington Post Editor Len Downie and debates moderator Jim Lehrer, He thinks it’s improper to take sides in any electoral contest.
- God does exist, and He does help out Bush in press conferences, but there’s only so much even He can do.
Chatterbox, an atheist, favors the first view. He leaves it to believers to quarrel over the second and third.
