How dangerous is George W Bush's theocratic zealotry?

[whistle]

....Here is one writer's take on George Bush as the leader of the most powerful nation on earth:

<snip>
George Bushs Religious Crusade Against Democracy:
Fundamentalism as Cultural Politics
by Henry A. Giroux
Aug 14, 2004

<snip>
Believing he is on a direct mission from God, President Bush openly celebrates the virtues of evangelical Christian morality, prays daily, and expresses his fervent belief in Christianity in both his rhetoric and policy choices. For example, while running as a presidential candidate in 2000, Bush proclaimed that his favorite philosopher was Jesus Christ. Further, in a speech in which he outlined the dangers posed by Iraq, he stated “We do not claim to know all the ways of Providence, yet we can trust in them, placing our confidence in the loving God behind all of life, and all of history. May He guide us now.” <4> Stephen Mansfield in his book, The Faith of George W. Bush, claims that Bush told James Robinson, a Texas preacher: “I feel like God wants me to run for president. I can’t explain it, but I sense my country is gong to need me....I know it won’t be easy on me or my family, but God wants me to do it.” <5> Surrounded by born-again missionaries and with God, rather than the most basic tenets of American democracy providing a source of leadership, Bush has relentlessly developed policies based less on social needs than on a highly personal and narrowly moral sense of divine purpose. Using the privilege of executive action, he has aggressively attempted to evangelize the realm of social services. For example, he has made available to a greater extent than any other president more federal funds to Christian religious groups that provide a range of social services. He has also eased the rules “for overtly religious institutions to access $20-billion in federal social service grants and another $8-billion in Housing and Urban Development money. Tax dollars can now be used to construct and renovate houses of worship as long as the funds are not used to build the principal room used for prayer, such as the sanctuary or chapel.” <6> He also provided more than $60 billion in federal funds for faith-based initiatives organized by religious charitable groups. <7> Not all religious groups, however, receive equal founding. The lion’s share of federal monies goes to Christian

<snip>
Apocalyptic Biblical prophesies fuel more than the likes of John Ashcroft, who opposes dancing on moral grounds, or David Hager, appointed by Bush to the FDA’s Advisory Committee for Reproductive Health Drugs, “who refuses to prescribe contraceptives to unmarried women (and believes the Bible is an antidote for premenstrual syndrome),” <21> they also fuel a world view in which immigrants, African-Americans, and others marked by differences in class, race, gender, and nationality are demonized, scapegoated, and subjected to acts of state violence. Such rhetoric and the policies it supports need to be recognized as a crisis of democracy itself. What progressives and others need to acknowledge is that the Bush administration’s attempt to undo the separation between church and state is driven by a form of fundamentalism that both discredits democratic values, public goods, and critical citizenship and spawns an irrationality evident in the innumerable contradictions between its rhetoric of “compassionate conservative” religious commitment and its relentless grab for economic and political power-- an irrationality which has more in common with fascism than with any viable tradition of democratic rule.

<link> http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Aug04/Giroux0804.htm

[cheshire]

1. Depends on how long he is allowed to do what he's doing. I say get the

white coats, lock them all up and stop giving them halucinogens.

[molly]

2. He is most dangerous among those with an IQ lower than 100

he is most dangerous among those that are followers - not leaders
he is most dangerous among those desperate souls that believe that doing nothing against authority will win favor
he is most dangerous among those who are lazy and unthinking
he is most dangerous among those who do not THINK

[ArkDem]

3. Almost as dangerous as his zealous theocracy.

[shance]

4. Its not Bush's zealotry that worries me as much , I think its Cheney's

that should be given more concern, focus and attention.