No question about it, this is the picture of the day. Here’s the lede from the New York Times, taking the details right down to the one that will have tongues wagging a bit inside the Beltway:
President Bush’s daughter Jenna Welch Bush on Saturday married Henry Chase Hager, a graduate student and son of a former Virginia lieutenant governor, before 200 relatives and close family friends here, the White House confirmed. …
Although the Bush family kept up a strict zone of privacy around the events, the tiny town of Crawford made merry on its own. Souvenir shops hung banners wishing Ms. Bush, 26, and Mr. Hager, 30, well. Jenna-and-Henry coffee mugs, mouse pads and coasters flew off the shelves. One shop served wedding cake.
On Saturday afternoon, the Hager family hosted wedding guests at a barbecue in Salado. The wedding, which began at 7:30 p.m., took place on the Bush ranch, before a white limestone altar erected next to a man-made lake. The Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell of Windsor Village United Methodist Church in Houston officiated at the ceremony. Mr. Caldwell, a longtime religious adviser to Mr. Bush, has endorsed Senator Barack Obama.
As you would expect, every major news story mentions this final detail — so much so that it is almost impossible to find a Google search combination that actually gets you any meaningful details about Caldwell’s involvement. You just get that one political note.
However, over at Beliefnet.com there is an interview with Caldwell — a rather traditionalist United Methodist of evangelical leanings, in the doctrinal sense of that word — in which he talks about his decision to back Obama:
One, I think he’s just a solid man. He’s a solid, spiritual man, and I have a great deal of respect for him as an individual.
Number two, when he initially announced, they said, “Well, he will be a symbolic candidate. He has no chance of winning.” And then he began to attract, you know, crowds of 20, 30, 40,000. Then they’d say, “Well, he may attract twenty, thirty thousand folk at a time, but he won’t be able to raise any money.” And then he started raising a ton of money. … Then, they said, “Well, he’s not black enough.” Well, clearly he is. Then they said, “He’s too black.” Well, that’s ridiculous. Then they said, “Well, you know, he doesn’t like white folk because his pastor says whatever.” And I think folks forget his mother was white, for goodness sake. The grandmother of his children are white. I mean it just — that’s just a ridiculous argument.
Then, they said, “Well, he’s Muslim.” And he’s confessed his faith — I would say that he’s more of a Christian than some folk who claim to be Christian, because he didn’t grow up in a Christian house. … He had to declare his faith separate and distinct from his — from the house that he grew up in.
Now what you will not find, in this interview, is how Caldwell squares his endorsement with any of the moral and cultural issues involved. In other words, with the actual religious content of Obama’s faith and that of the United Church of Christ. Again, the basic, foundational questions are missing as the interview rushes on to the strictly political.
I would have been interested in hearing what Caldwell has to say, since one of the crucial questions facing Obama is — here we go again — how to relate to the African-American churches that oppose his views on a wide range of religious issues that link to politics. Yes, that would include abortion and the meaning of words like “family” and “marriage.”
Meanwhile, down in the Texas media there is a bit more content floating around. You can, for example learn:
As for the president, Caldwell said, on Saturday he was just the father of the bride. “He was compassionate and emotional. He cried a couple of times,” Caldwell said.
There you go. There’s the lede.
PHOTO: White House press office.
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Comments (7) |
May 12, 2008, at 10:10 am
Tmatt, I’m interested in your description of the Rev. Caldwell as “a rather traditionalist United Methodist of evangelical leanings, in the doctrinal sense of that word.” Several times I’ve read descriptions of him as preaching, among other things, the “prosperity gospel.” A little googling seems to bear that out. I’d appreciate any thoughts you might have. Have I been misinformed?
May 12, 2008, at 10:21 am
I’m in a meeting right now up in Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., so I can’t veer off and chase that at the moment.
But, there you go — another undefined term. What is the “prosperity gospel” in the AP Stylebook? What is the prosperity gospel in a UNITED METHODIST context?
May 12, 2008, at 10:47 am
One of the articles quoted above reads:
There’s some theology in that line.
One of the deacons at my church was ambivilant about Obama until I forwarded him some of the biographical information. Kirbyjon may need to be copied on the same emails.
Ultimately, what I see among pastors of many stripes is their ignorance of history and how the moral call of Christianity — through many struggles — has in the United States delivered individual freedom and opportunity unseen anywhere else on earth.
As Rodney Stark says, “anything else is a lie.”
Obama and Wright use envy to inform and power their politics. I don’t know about Pastor Kirbyjon. I’m watching.
May 12, 2008, at 12:11 pm
I would like to know how the Bushes know Mr. Caldwell. I suppose it doesn’t matter, but it’s obvious he has known the Bushes for awhile, and their only connection to Houston (that I’m aware of) is the senior Bushes, who are Episcopalians. I think Laura Bush is from Midland and before Washington, the Bush 43 family lived in Dallas.
The Beliefnet is an excellent interview that demonstates the possibility of a relationship between folks with political differences. Everything isn’t politics, and politics isn’t everything. Every disagreement doesn’t mean all-out warfare.
May 12, 2008, at 12:18 pm
We’ve had quite a few blog posts here with the message, stated or perhaps delivered sotto voce: How can a *real* Christian possibly back Obama? In a sidebar to a story in my local paper about religion and politics, someone put it something like: “I’m pro-life but morality has to come from within”. The siren song of legislating morality has perennial appeal no matter how often it’s proven not to work.
In the meantime beyond the abortion battleground, the teen sexual behavior, pregnancy and abortion rates continue to fall. How many people are so focused on the legality issue that they ignore that particular elephant in the room? Along with that, the obvious follow-up question: is there anything which is proven to work that government can and should be doing that would enhance that positive trend? The final question is the amount of space the media gives to those points.
May 12, 2008, at 2:13 pm
Ken writes:
Gee, I thought it was the free market.
May 13, 2008, at 12:15 am
I have never had a clear definition for “evangelical”; however, it does not seem to typically be classified as evangelical. There has been considerable internal turmoil over the church’s position against homosexual sex and same sex marriage. The United Methodist Church position on abortion has a vague exception to a position against abortion.
Another Beliefnet interview
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/159/story_15958_1.html
Rev. Caldwell said he met Pres. Bush when he was Governor.
Jim Winkler, head of social policy for United Methodists has written several scathing attack against Pres. Bush, mostly concerning the Iraq war.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/1020-02.htm
“added that all attempts at a ‘dialogue’ between the President and his own church over the war had fallen on deaf ears at the White House”
Winkler, 2005 Fellow Methodist Demands Bush Impeachment
http://www.theamericanspectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=9879
Winkler tends to be very blunt with his wording; however, I agree with his attack on Bush for budget cuts for social programs. It seems like the abortion issue is the only issue for some people and Republicans. Jesus was strongly against making big business rich and often not taking care of the low paid employees. While I do not believe in abortion, I remember when it was illegal. People with money were able to obtain safe abortions and people without money were sometimes bleed to death.
http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/05/04/con05134.html