Monday, April 12, 2004
Bush at prayer
Bush's words:
There's a lot I could say about Bush's words, but I want to focus on the act of prayer itself. Let's look at how one author with enlightenment values (Shakespeare) portrays a ruler at prayer, and what it means for a ruler to pray. Bear with me for the long quotation: I think it's important and revealing.
I'll give Bush the benefit of the doubt, and take his claim that he prays seriously, seriously.
All the same, I doubt very much whether Bush's prayers are efficicacious.
"May one be pardoned and retain the offense"? Bush starts a war, politically timed, fuelled by lies, run by operatives from his party, benefitting party contributors, and used for political purposes to portray him as a "war president." That's "retaining the offense," in my book. If the Lord is keeping the troops safe, it isn't because Bush is praying for them.
"Oft 'tis seen the wicked prize itself / Buys out the law: but 'tis not so above." The tactics that worked so well for Bush in Florida won't work when Bush prays.
"We ourselves compell'd, Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults, to give in evidence. " Bush can't stonewall the Lord, or tell him he'll only talk with Dick Cheney by his side, or give the Lord only one hour.
"What can it when one can not repent?" Bush never apologizes for anything; but that is a sign of a deeper character flaw: he isn't capable of repentance. How much would it have cost him to say what Clarke said before the 9/11 commission, and ask for forgiveness? Nothing. And it would have been a political masterstroke. But he can't repent.
"O limed soul, that, struggling to be free, / Art more engaged!" This is an exact description of a quagmire, or should I say qWagmire: the more Bush struggles, the deeper he gets. Sad but true: Bush's spiritual quagmire is mirrored in our Iraq quagmire.
You know, I started out this post by calling Bush's prayer a "shameful piece of sanctimony," and then I that out. Reading Shakespeare's words, I almost feel for Bush, as much as one can feel for a Shakespearean villain. No wonder Bush looks "drawn and somber" (here. King Claudius probably did too. Like Claudius, Bush seems to think that the outward form of "kneeling" will be efficacious in itself, when in fact prayer is inward.
"Words without thoughts never to heaven go."
No, they don't. And now, of course, it's too late for his words to mean anything. You know, they call Hamlet a tragedy for a reason....
UPDATE Alert reader pansypoo asked for the Macbeth reference. It was back here (check the links ;-).
And today, on bended knee, I thank the good Lord for protecting those of our troops overseas, and our coalition troops and innocent Iraqis who suffer at the hands of some of these senseless killings by people who are trying to shake our will.
(via WhiteWash House)
There's a lot I could say about Bush's words, but I want to focus on the act of prayer itself. Let's look at how one author with enlightenment values (Shakespeare) portrays a ruler at prayer, and what it means for a ruler to pray. Bear with me for the long quotation: I think it's important and revealing.
[KING:] O, my offence is rank it smells to heaven; ...
Then I'll look up;
My fault is past. But, O, what form of prayer
Can serve my turn? 'Forgive me my foul murder'?
That cannot be; since I am still possess'd
Of those effects for which I did the murder,
My crown, mine own ambition and my queen.
May one be pardon'd and retain the offence?
In the corrupted currents of this world
Offence's gilded hand may shove by justice,
And oft 'tis seen the wicked prize itself
Buys out the law: but 'tis not so above;
There is no shuffling, there the action lies
In his true nature; and we ourselves compell'd,
Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults,
To give in evidence. What then? what rests?
Try what repentance can: what can it not?
Yet what can it when one can not repent?
O wretched state! O bosom black as death!
O limed soul, that, struggling to be free,
Art more engaged! Help, angels! Make assay!
Bow, stubborn knees; and, heart with strings of steel,
Be soft as sinews of the newborn babe!
...
My words fly up, my thoughts remain below:
Words without thoughts never to heaven go.
(via href="http://the-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/hamlet/hamlet.3.3.html">Hamlet, Act III, scene 3)
I'll give Bush the benefit of the doubt, and take his claim that he prays seriously, seriously.
All the same, I doubt very much whether Bush's prayers are efficicacious.
"May one be pardoned and retain the offense"? Bush starts a war, politically timed, fuelled by lies, run by operatives from his party, benefitting party contributors, and used for political purposes to portray him as a "war president." That's "retaining the offense," in my book. If the Lord is keeping the troops safe, it isn't because Bush is praying for them.
"Oft 'tis seen the wicked prize itself / Buys out the law: but 'tis not so above." The tactics that worked so well for Bush in Florida won't work when Bush prays.
"We ourselves compell'd, Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults, to give in evidence. " Bush can't stonewall the Lord, or tell him he'll only talk with Dick Cheney by his side, or give the Lord only one hour.
"What can it when one can not repent?" Bush never apologizes for anything; but that is a sign of a deeper character flaw: he isn't capable of repentance. How much would it have cost him to say what Clarke said before the 9/11 commission, and ask for forgiveness? Nothing. And it would have been a political masterstroke. But he can't repent.
"O limed soul, that, struggling to be free, / Art more engaged!" This is an exact description of a quagmire, or should I say qWagmire: the more Bush struggles, the deeper he gets. Sad but true: Bush's spiritual quagmire is mirrored in our Iraq quagmire.
You know, I started out this post by calling Bush's prayer a "shameful piece of sanctimony," and then I that out. Reading Shakespeare's words, I almost feel for Bush, as much as one can feel for a Shakespearean villain. No wonder Bush looks "drawn and somber" (here. King Claudius probably did too. Like Claudius, Bush seems to think that the outward form of "kneeling" will be efficacious in itself, when in fact prayer is inward.
"Words without thoughts never to heaven go."
No, they don't. And now, of course, it's too late for his words to mean anything. You know, they call Hamlet a tragedy for a reason....
UPDATE Alert reader pansypoo asked for the Macbeth reference. It was back here (check the links ;-).
