It is no great secret that Republicans rely on the votes of American Christians to win elections. Which leads me to ask this question: Is George W. Bush actually a man of faith or is he just claiming to be a man of faith to win our vote? With this in mind, how would George W. Bush’s actions as president hold up to the laws of God? If he truly is a man of faith wouldn’t he obey the word of God? Taking a look at the Ten Commandments, we might just be able to answer this question.

1st Commandment- I am the Lord thy God…Thou shalt have no other Gods Before Me. Although I do not question whether George W. Bush believes in God or not, I do believe that by his actions it can be proven that he has many ideals that go against the teachings of God, that he holds in higher regard than God himself. Two of these being power and money. To answer this question thoroughly we must look at the other commandments.

2nd Commandment- Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. In the book “Biblical Literacy”, Rabbi Joseph Telushkin says “Idolatry occurs when one holds any value (for instance, nationalism) higher than God. Thus a person who, on the basis of ‘My country right or wrong’, performs acts that God designates as wrong is an idolater”. Sound familiar? Since 9/11, Bush has fed the fire to the natural surge of patriotism that followed. Patriotism that wasn’t used to heal our country or unite the world, but patriotism that was used to start two ground occupations in middle-east countries, alienating most of our strongest allies around the world. Afghanistan’s occupation was a justified act even if it was an act of revenge, but this revenge is not complete as long as Osama Bin Laden roams free. Iraq’s occupation, on the other hand, is a result of increased greed and desperation by oil and energy elites who stole an election for their inept and corrupt “businessman”. Now American companies such as Halliburton are rebuilding the Iraq we destroyed with lucrative contracts. I guess the tax cuts and oil revenues weren’t enough. These companies have complete control over utilities, airwaves, and over resources such as oil (or as many conservatives like to say “their money”). I’m sure God approves and I’m sure the spirits of those who lost their lives on September 11th are honored.

3rd Commandment- Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. Most interpretations have extended this to mean swearing falsely by the Lord’s name, while others interpret this to mean taking false or negative actions in God’s name. Bush has said that God wanted him to become president. As we are all a part of God, and the majority of us voted for Al Gore, I doubt the validity of the Commander in Chief’s statement. Also Bush is quoted as saying “God told me to strike at Al-Qaeda and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I’m determined to solve the problem in the middle-east”. Bush’s crusade in the Middle East is not the will of God but of greed. Unfortunately for the U.S. troops in Iraq, most militant Muslims in the region see it as an occupation based on religious domination and resource domination.

4th Commandment- Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work… This is a commandment that even Jesus himself broke because he believed that his healing was too important to put off on the Sabbath day. Many of us know Jesus personally, and you George W. Bush are no Jesus. What America has seen during his presidency is the exact opposite of healing. Labor laws have been changed that not only allow companies to lessen safety standards and accountability, but also make it much harder, if not impossible, for the everyday blue collar worker to take any legal action against their employers. Now Bush wants tort reform in medicine which will take away our ability to pursue just compensation for medical malpractice. Is this what Jesus would do? Because this administration does not believe in the validity of ergonomics, it is now unheard of to receive due compensation when inevitable accidents occur under dangerous or stressful working conditions. Not to mention all of the death and suffering his wars have caused in Iraq and Afghanistan. But back to the topic of the Sabbath- Bush is the president of the United States, and that is a full time job, which requires him to work many Sabbath days if not all of them. Bush does take time off to rest though. In fact, according to the Washington Post, between his inauguration and 9/11 he spent 42% of that time on vacation.

5th Commandment- Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. It is apparent that through his tax cuts for the wealthy, environmental “policies”, and his aggressive nation building, our president has gone way beyond the line that his father rightly so wouldn’t dare cross. This is a blatant disrespect to his father. Almost every single one of George’s policies is making our forefathers roll in their graves. I should also note that in this commandment it is clear that God gave the earth to humanity. It is not owned by us, but is rather a loan. Now in the U.S. an extremely small percentage of people own most of the land. These are people who exploit the land and poison it in the name of profits. Now, land that was protected under laws enacted by many wiser presidents is being opened for oil drilling, gas drilling, and mass logging.

6th Commandment- Thou shalt not murder. Most translations do not use the word “kill” because killing is justified in God’s eyes if it is for a moral purpose. It is well known that Bush is for the death penalty and many say it is morally justified to kill these more serious felons. I will not speak for all Christians, but isn’t it our obligation to reach out to these felons and show them the way of God, love, and peace? To give them a chance to rehabilitate and a chance for us to forgive? Or do we take the lazy way out, send them up to God and let him decide their eternal fate? Controversial death-penalty aside, this president, his administration, and all of the corporate cronies that control the executive branch all have blood on their hands. From the senseless slaughter of Afghani and Iraqi women and children, to the murder of innocent civilians across the globe, they are all to blame.

In Iraq, no weapons of mass destruction were found, and stashes of lesser weapons were passed by and are now in the hands of those that kill our soldiers today. The blatant propaganda started by the administration linking Al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein has proven to be false. Only when these first two “reasons” that mislead Americans to back the war were proven false did the president change his tune. Now the administration says the reason we went to Iraq was to overthrow the oppressive regime of Hussein. Why then, are there dozens of U.S. supported and U.S. empowered murderous regimes across the globe? Why are some of these regimes supported and many others ignored by this administration? Why are some of these regimes, that do pose a threat to the United States, unlike Iraq, not being dealt with? There are numerous other examples of how the Bush administration ignored, supported, or carried out unjustified murder across the globe. One thing is clear- George W. Bush does not believe in compassion or the sanctity of human life.

7th Commandment- Thou shalt not commit adultery. George, as far as we know, this is one commandment you haven’t broken. This one is all Clinton.

8th Commandment- Thou shalt not steal. George W. Bush was not only a board member of the Harken Energy Corporation but also a member of the board’s “Fairness Committee”. In an insider trading deal mirroring that of Enron, Bush, knowing the company was in dire straits, sold $858,560 in stock without disclosing the sale to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC is not looking into the matter nor, as they say, has the matter been dropped. Their investigation on this matter is in perpetual limbo. Hmm…I wonder why? Maybe because the head of the SEC at the time was appointed by his father and the lead investigator had been his father’s lawyer. By using the power of our military to steal resources in Iraq, and using the executive and legislative branches of our government to steal land and resources for his corporate cronies, Bush is a thief. There is also that matter of using the judicial branch of our government to steal the 2000 election. Bush’s tax-cuts, handing over our entire surplus including money we don’t even have to those in the top 1%, are the most blatant and damaging acts of theft this world has ever seen. Now we have the largest deficit in the history of our country. What was the justification for these tax-cuts? To stimulate the economy, right? Wrong. As much as the conservatives will try to re-write history, we must keep in mind that the tax-cuts were done before 9/11, when our economy was only in a mild recession. In fact every year we’ve had increasing tax-cuts for the wealthy when much of that money could be going towards protecting our citizens. And George wants us to believe that he will protect us when he fought against the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security and the 9/11 commission?!? The sad fact is that the average CEO salary has increased by more than 25% since the tax-cuts have been taking place. Bush, the great deregulator, gave our money away to his already filthy rich cronies without making sure that they in turn invested that money into creating jobs. The Republican Party can blame Clinton all they want for the recession they inherited, but they have had 3 years to create jobs and their way is not working. Men who now control most of the wealth in this nation have already manipulated the economy, gas prices, and job growth just enough to make our president look good enough to re-elect.

9th Commandment- Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Bush had said numerous times that there was significant evidence that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. This is a blatant lie, unless of course you believe that “faulty” is synonymous with “significant”. Iraq trying to buy significant quantities of uranium from Africa? This ‘intel’ was based on a forged document. Now who would want to forge such a document? Before the war, Bush said that Saddam Hussein was an immanent threat and that he could have nuclear weapons capability in 6 months. Another lie. Allegations of Iraq possessing chemical and biological weapons have all been proven false. According to the real experts, not the ones you see daily on the 24-hour propaganda channels, Saddam hasn’t had the capability of producing these chemical and biological agents for more than a decade. Most of the deadly agents in question, such as Serin, have a shelf life of mere months. I think we are all capable of doing the math there, except maybe our president who has adopted the “fuzzy math” principle he so often accused Al Gore of using. How about the numerous claims linking Saddam Hussein to Al Qaeda? Just more lies.

George W. Bush says that the terrorists want to take away our freedom. Why then, are there many countries in the world who exercise more freedoms than the United States that have never been attacked by terrorists? Wouldn’t a more truthful explanation be that the terrorists are extremely upset because we had soldiers in the holy lands of Saudi Arabia, had Iraq under sanctions for a decade which was starving their people, and have supported Israel’s occupation of Palestine since the creation of their country? Even Pat Buchanan says these are the reasons. Even if Osama bin Laden is a mass murderer, he has no reason to lie about his motives, which he has made clear on many occasions. On the other hand, Bush lies to convince the American people of his policies with their ulterior motives. In fact, it is our own current government who wants to take away our freedom. From our freedom of speech, to our right to privacy; from our right to a fair trial, to our right to pursue happiness; all of these freedoms that make our country great are being taken away bit by bit, none of which has to do with terrorism.

The bottom line is that this administration is built upon a vast web of lies and secrecy. The president has deceived the American people so many times that it is not only hard to keep up with each lie, it is difficult to give each one its due attention. Not only has he broken God’s law but he has also broken the law of the United States (Title 18: Section 1001). This law explains that anyone within the jurisdiction of the three branches of government who makes or uses any false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation can serve up to 5 years in prison. Many of the lies Bush told were during his 2003 State of the Union Address. George W. Bush should not only be impeached, but he should be in jail.

10th Commandment- Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife… nor anything that is thy neighbor’s. Although it is ok to want more possessions (after all this is capitalism) it is not ok to want them at another’s expense. For those of us who can look beyond the citizens of Canada and Mexico as being our only neighbors, we are doing a serious injustice to our brothers and sisters in Iraq. We have devastated their country so we could go in and take their oil and rebuild their country with our own businesses. Also, Bush has signed into law legislation that prohibits any legal action against U.S. oil companies for safety, labor, or human rights in Iraq. We have bombed their TV stations, kept their citizens from starting their own businesses, and tortured, humiliated, raped, and murdered their prisoners of war. Is this the type of democracy we are promoting in Iraq? Would these acts be tolerated here in America? Absolutely not.

Here at home we see a massive surge in the drilling for oil and natural gases. This process, industrial byproducts, and pollutants are destroying our earth and poisoning all of us. The Superfund, a system that cleans up toxic waste in the most damaged areas of our country, has gradually had its funding taken away over the past few years to almost nothing. There is also massive deregulation occurring in the energy industry (ever wonder why our vice president has kept those meetings so secret?). Talk to a rancher in Wyoming about how much of their grazing land has been ruined by contaminated water from ever-increasing and unregulated natural gas drilling in that state. Our beautiful country is being ruined all for the sake of money. The administration and the energy tycoons are coveting that which God placed into our mother earth at the expense of our lives. I can guarantee you more cancer, disease, and tainted food products in the near future under these thoughtless Bush administration policies. I can also guarantee you less lawsuits, accountability, and preventive measures when it comes to these same issues.

The sooner people realize that we do not have a compassionate conservative in the White House who is truly faithful to the teachings of Christianity the better off we will be. What we do have is a figurehead who has filled his cabinet with CEOs and who has created a culture of fears, lies, and manipulation. Bush has built his support on denying homosexuals the right to wed and to try, in small steps, to reverse Roe vs. Wade. Although these are important issues to Christians in America, they have become the only issues and all of the other ideals are ignored in the process. We instead should be focussing on all the other ways our “faithful” president has sinned.

Our founding fathers knew the importance of separating church and state. We should be thankful that we live in a free country where we are able to practice our own religions in peace, but when you try to push your beliefs on others in the form of laws, you are disgracing the very ideals on which this country was founded. I believe that true Christians are liberals because they care about all of God’s children, and believe in forgiveness, understanding, and peace. These are not republican traits, so the term “Christian conservative” in my view is an oxymoron. This is a time when we should not be looking to our president and his administration for guidance, but to our own faith and beliefs. What do we truly believe God would want us to do? When we should be concentrating on decreasing our own wasteful energy consumption and promoting peace across the world, instead we are attacking a defenseless country and taking what isn’t ours. What will we do when we have gluttonously depleted the world’s oil supply?

I urge everyone to question those in charge, stop watching the propaganda that comes out of the Fox News channel and its many clones, look for real news sources outside of the purchased U.S. media, and open your eyes to the horrors and injustice that occur around the world everyday. We are an ignorant folk being duped by a most ignorant president. We need to question what we are being told, and our media is failing us by working against our best interests. We must ensure that our representatives in government are working for us instead of the corporate hierarchy.

We can take back our country with steps such as better campaign finance reform, eliminating the lobbying system, eliminating political parties, holding our leaders accountable by law, having tighter regulation on businesses, and last but not least retrieving our stolen surplus by reversing Bush’s ludicrous tax cuts for the wealthy. We can do this because we collectively make the law. We can do this because every now and then we have a democratic process called voting. When elections come around, those who do not serve our interests should be replaced with those that do. If someone in office lies about his or her agenda they should be taken out of office and thrown in jail. Unfortunately, no one in the other two branches of our government or the media is willing to stand up for the people and question the motives and actions of our president. Do not be fooled by the greatest fool himself, he is not a man of faith. Be not blinded by the rhetoric that paints him as the defender of this country and as the “safer” choice. We as a people must get George W. Bush out of office ourselves. If, God forbid, Bush does get re-elected we will all need to pray that much harder because we will be one step closer to the apocalypse.

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