pynchon-l-digest V2 #4623

[Paul Mackin]

On Dec 26, 2005, at 4:13 AM, Michael Bailey wrote:

>>
>> They may SAY they believe it, or HOPE in it, but a majority don''t
>> seem to believe in it in the same way they believe in the pursuit of
>> material success and well-being for them and their children. The  
>> here-
>> and-now takes  precedence over the promised future for most of the
>> Evangelicals including George W. Bush.
>
> isn't he actually an Episcopal?
>
> 41, I read, once greeted a room of evangelicals by saying he was the
> only one in the room who'd only been born once.  I don't think any of
> the Bushes does most of his own thinking, and I suspect that a deep
> highly selective nearsighted camaraderie of the Skull and Bones ilk
> substitutes in their spiritual life for religion, the denial of
> humanity to outsiders being as important to them as the affection they
> demonstrate to each other (but i'm merely speculating, knowing them
> only by their fruits as i do)


He DOES attend St. John's Episcopal Church sometimes, its being right  
across Pennsylvania Avenue from the  White House, but I believe he's  
officially a Methodist. Probably lately he feels safer worshipping in  
a venue where he can be sure his policies won't be criticized from  
the pulpit.  The chapel at Camp David or at the Texas ranch.

I had assumed (wrongly I guess) that he had gotten himself born-again  
as part of a program to recover from alcohol abuse. Prompted by the  
need for a higher power.