George W. Bush and the Latest Evangelical Menace

In March 2003, Newsweek pronounced George W. Bush's presidency the "most resolutely 'faith based' in modern times." This judgment is plausible enough to merit serious consideration but it is self-evidently true only if modern times began on January 20, 1989, when George H. W. Bush succeeded Ronald Reagan. Unfortunately, there has been little serious examination of this judgment. Rather, a facile stereotype of a "faith-based" presidency has become conventional wisdom among Bush's friends and foes alike.