Great editorial by Kathleen Parker. She managed to work in the word "glossolalia;" very impressive.

President doesn't use faith as a bargaining tool:
"Bush's invocations of God, meanwhile, are never gratuitous but are appropriate to context -- a funeral, or prayer breakfast, or the finishing touch on a State of the Union address: 'God bless America.' Hardly the rantings of a theocrat.

One can find other references to God, most notably in Bush's articulation of what is surely the central narrative of his presidency: 'Freedom is not America's gift to the world. Freedom is the almighty God's gift to every man and woman in the world.' Again, this is not rain dancing. Such is the seed that grew the United States of America.

In other words, the notion that Bush is imposing his religious beliefs -- or that he is going reshape America in the image of some fundamentalist fantasy -- is a bum rap. "
  ¶ 12/11/2004 07:28:00 PM