For the second time in a week, Time blogger Andrew Sullivan is highlighting what could be a huge religion ghost story. At the end of his nationally televised speech last night, President Bush said goodnight from the library of the White House personal residence using these words:
We go forward with trust that the Author of Liberty will guide us through these trying hours. Thank you and good night.
Sullivan’s post is titled “Dieu Cache,” which is French for “hiding God.” A reader of Sullivan’s believes that Bush is leaving out the often-used “May God continue to bless the United States of America” and that the absence of the word “God” is Jeffersonian. For example, note the use of the word “Creator” in Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence.
Perhaps there is not much of a story here, but I doubt it. A president’s words and actions are carefully choreographed (note how he was in the library, not at his Oval Office desk) and his handlers know that his words will be closely analyzed. As Sullivan’s contributor notes, “Do we no longer need God’s blessing, just a little guidance?”
Question: Would Mike Gerson have used those closing words?
For past examples, see the closings of Bush’s speech on Sept. 11, 2001, and March 19, 2003, at the beginning stages of the Iraq invasion and on the fifth-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
I’m hoping that some enterprising reporter picks up this story (who, me?) because there has to be something going on here that is more significant than Bush’s speechwriters just looking to mix things up a little bit at the end of a major national address. Or maybe Bush himself is changing?
 | Posted at 4:50 pm |  Print
| Permalink | Trackback |
Comments (14) |
January 11, 2007, at 5:13 pm
I suspect he’s more likely trying to link Jeffersonian God with his own…
January 11, 2007, at 5:21 pm
I, for one, am glad for the change: I wouldn’t want the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ associated with the mess that is our Iraq policy.
January 11, 2007, at 5:39 pm
I think someone should give Daniel an award for actually reading Andrew Sullivan.
I kid, I kid.
I think he raises a good point — here and in the previous example.
January 11, 2007, at 6:05 pm
I’m with Roberto. And related, I also wonder if the omission/rewording has to do w/ the religion factor of the war.
January 11, 2007, at 6:39 pm
Actually, President Bush has shifted rhetoric a couple of times. From “may God continue to bless,” which as far as I could tell he was the first president to use, back to the much more standard “May God bless” and now to this more poetic locution.
But I dunno that it’s necessary to see anything more in it than a way to emphasize the main theme of his speech.
January 11, 2007, at 6:55 pm
I’m amazed that, with five posters ahead of me, nobody identified the source. It’s the second verse of “My Country ‘Tis of Thee.”
“Our Father’s God, to Thee,
Author of Liberty,
To thee we sing.
Long may our land be bright
With Freedom’s holy light.
Protect us by thy might,
Great God, our King.”
I don’t at all agree with Bush’s policies, but I think his choice of a closing to the speech is elegant and appropriate to what he was trying to say.
January 11, 2007, at 8:42 pm
A quick search of The American Presidency Project gave me a number of early references (Washington, Adams, and Monroe) to the “Author” of (usually all) good things, but not specifically to the Author of Liberty. Anyone with more time or patience than I currently have is free to search this exhaustive archive of presidential papers on his or her own.
I confess to being a little surprised that neither Jefferson nor Lincoln seems to have referred to “the Author,” though I wouldn’t be all that surprised if our current President’s locution hasn’t been used by a President for almost 200 years.
January 11, 2007, at 10:16 pm
You gotta love the blogosphere. An Andrew Sullivan reader found a reference here.
January 12, 2007, at 8:50 am
[…] HT: GetReligion Bookmark to: […]
January 12, 2007, at 4:04 pm
Bush also invoked the Author of Liberty in his second term swearing-in speech, in Jan. 2005.
“….history also has a visible direction, set by liberty and the Author of Liberty….”
He’s not hiding God. He’s using the historical normal, historical usual language of civic religion and oratory. One would almost add, “Duh.”
January 12, 2007, at 7:36 pm
Statement 1: “May God continue to bless the United States of America.”
Statement 2: “(T)he Author of Liberty will guide us through these trying hours.”
If one uses one’s own Evangelical Decoder Ring, don’t these two statements mean the same?
January 12, 2007, at 11:49 pm
Yes I noted that closing too when I read the transcript and I thought it interesting. And my knowledge of U.S. politics fits on pin head. I’m glad someone picked it up and the reference helps too.
OT - Terry, I think someone was asking at least one of your big three questions to ECUSA PB Schori but I noticed the evasiveness of which you have spoken
http://www.integrityusa.org/voice/index.htm Winter/Spring 2007
January 13, 2007, at 9:06 pm
I’m just trying to wrap my mind around the idea of associating George Bush with Thomas Jefferson whatsoever. Can’t … make … it … work …
January 17, 2007, at 12:17 am
Jim, as a graduate of UVA (Mister Jefferson’s university) I was exposed to many quotations and discussions about the writings and actions of “TJ.” TJ is the man who took a set of scissors to his Bible because it didn’t meet his expectations. TJ was a profligate spender and poor businessman who never freed his slaves and belittled African Americans in his books. I wouldn’t associate Bush with TJ either, but due to the reason that it would be an insult to Bush.