My favorite philosopher

Does anybody remember, back when George W. Bush was asked who is favorite philosopher was and he replied, Jesus, did the reporter follow up?

Did the reporter ask Bush, "Why?"

"Which of Jesus' teachings do you live by, Mr Bush?  Judge not lest ye be judged?  Blessed are the meek?  Sell everything and follow me?  Do not store up treasures on Earth?"

Did the reporeter ask, "Mr Bush, I know you credit Jesus with saving your life from death by Jim Beam, but why do you think He did it?  What did He save you for?  Did he save you so you could go on to trade Sammy Sosa?  Did He save you so you could become a millionaire through shady business dealings by your father's friends?  Did you ever for a moment consider that Jesus may have saved your life expecting that you would go out and do something right away to help others or do you think He saved you so you could hang around for a decade or so until He could figure out a way to make you President?"

No, none of you remembers, because it didn't happen.  He wasn't asked to explain himself.  He was just applauded in public for showing what a humble, regular guy he was and complimented in private for knowing how to play up to the prejudices of the rubes.

Comments

[AdorableGirlfriend]

This is an excellent post. I guess he meant to say his favorite fisherman and sportsmen when mentioning Jesus, because I am thinking it may not be Cheney.

[The Viscount]

You are so right. Man, he pulled that one right out of his butt, didn't he? He was so screwed. "Let's see, favorite pheelosofur? Um, can I say Bugs Bunny? How about Hulk Hogan?, er, um JESUS CHRIST I CAN'T THINK OF ONE!"

[Kevin Wolf]

The way I remember it, Bush was asked his favorite political philosopher. Which is what makes his answer extra nutty.

[Matt]

That response from Bush perfectly captures everything I hate about this president's cloying, shallow, utilitarian religiosity.

I had some thoughts on this during the 2004 campaign.

[Jennifer]

If you give a man a fish, he eats for a day, but if you teach a man to fish he can eat mecury-contaminated fish for his shortened lifetime. Of course if he is Cheney, he can fish without a license or a stamp.

[Anita]

It's funny that you mention that, because I remember it like it was yesterday (which is weird, because I can't remember what I ate for lunch today ... and it's only 2PM ... hmmm). Anyway, I also remember my response: WTF ???

[Tom]

Lip service--and I'm sure that his Texas Baptist supporters, at least at the higher levels, are fully aware of that. If they ran one of their true brethren, the campaign would have lasted exactly as long as it would have taken someone to ask him if his foreign policy platform included plans to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem to hasten the apocalypse, and then it would have been all over save for a bit of snake-handling. Dub can be relied upon to hit his mark and say his lines on cue, and pass a little pork on to his faith-faced buddies, and not do too much real contemplation on the subject of what Jesus would really do.

[Ben Jones]

I'm pretty convinced that the "Jesus" answer was a cynical bit of provocation. He knew secular commentators would roll their eyes and say, "What a goober." Which plays into the whole GOP culture war script of how "the elites" don't get it and W is really on your side.

[Anita]

You think so, Ben? I am not so sure about that. I think it was more of a , "Jeez, what do I say now?" type of thing ... But ... you could be right ... if right then, OK ... hey, he's more quick on his feet than I thought ...

[harry near indy]

joshua ben joseph, the carpenter from nazareth, whom the gentiles call jesus and the christians call messiah, had a great one-word answer for all of that:

pharisees.

[daveminnj]

i think bush was a little sneakier than you
might think, lance.
-i remember, that week, he was challenged on
his jesus answer and responded 'if you have to ask you'll never understand.
-that same week he blew up at a reporter saying 'you don't know what's in my heart!'

the subtext, i think, is that he was jesus' secret buddy, and by criticizing him you're
criticizing jesus. he was
hiding behind jesus'
skirt, the same way he hides behind the military's skirt.
protected from genuine scrutiny, he then basks in the reflected glory of jesus (or soldiers).

[Samuel]

But why is Jesus a philosopher? If one were to look at him as just a mortal human being, does he count as a philospher by the conventional definition of the word?

Where I come from, calling Jesus a philosopher was an easy way of not acknowledging his divinity. Many Hindus and quite a few Indian atheists did that. So it comes as a surprise that a born again christian would call Jesus a philosopher.

But then again, I am not an American.

[daveminnj]

samuel-
i couldn't find it on my bookshelves, but there is
a fine book by haynes johnson- sleepwalking through history-america in the 1980s.
in one of the early chapters, it has an overview of the history
of american religiosity and of the evolving perception
of the symbolic role of jesus (1950s-ideal company man
kind of like dale carnegie, 1960s -countercultural icon,etc.)
jesus has become a rorschach of how we identify ourselves,
since after all, how could anyone not like jesus, we're the
chosen people (americans) therefore, how could anyone not like us? if everyone must like us, we must be just like jesus, therefore jesus must be just like us.

the braggadocio, cronyism and paranoid self-pity of texan
political culture is thus ennobled by wrapping itself in a
politicized jesus. and vice versa.

mannion had a post last week that democrats shouldn't let
republicans take over the biographical narrative of political figures. in this context, jesus is a potent political figure and we must not let jesus' biographical
narrative get distorted by the likes of dubya.

[daveminnj]

i got slightly off-topic there.
the technical answer is jesus is
seen as philosopher and divine figure
both.
in my church, growing up,we were warned against seeing jesus Merely as a philosopher.
we were taught that judas's main failing
was seeing jesus only as a political figure
and ignoring his divinity.

what's always made me scratch my head is that in the early christian era it was considered heresy to view jesus as merely divine. (this denied his physical suffering
and thus lessened his sacrifice).

[Lance]

Samuel,

What daveminnj said, plus there's a coded bit of downhome anti-intellectualism in Bush's answer. Real philosophers are dreamy types who write books nobody can understand. Only show-offs read them. And what did those philosophers know anyway?

There's a favorite saying among the God-botherers: All I need to know is right here in this one book, they like to say, reaching for their Bibles.

With his answer, Bush was pretty much saying all he needs to know is right there in that one book.

Also, I second dave's recommendation of Johnson's Sleepwalking Through History.

[blue girl]

"Sleeping Walking Through History" was the first political book I received as a gift.

I always loved that title.

[blue girl]

Hee-hee.

Of course...I loved the *real title* better than the one I just made up -- up there!

Hey, don't blame me. I can type really, really fast -- just not very accurately!

:)

[Samuel]

Dave, Lance

Thanks.

Lance

I was thinking more along these lines too. "There's a favorite saying among the God-botherers: All I need to know is right here in this one book, they like to say, reaching for their Bibles.

With his answer, Bush was pretty much saying all he needs to know is right there in that one book."

But that was based just on interacting with the people from an Assembly of God church I knew in Rolla , MO and a Southern Baptist church in Lafayette, LA. And yeah, my mother does the same too. :-)

[Anne Laurie]

Anyone remember the person (I *think* it was a Jesuit) who told the Biblical Literalists that "If you're going to pick just one book as your guide, you should pick one that wasn't written by a committee"?