The Bush Presidency
An Evaluation of the First Six Years In the Light of Biblical Principles
Posted
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
by
Charlie Trimm
This was the very first session I went to at ETS this year, and honestly the main reason I went was simply to see the speaker, Wayne Grudem, and not because I was highly interested in the topic. Grudem is a good speaker and did a good job interacting with the crowd and answering questions, although he had way too many points in his paper (34). At least they were broken up into categories, but there were still 12 of these. During the questions, he responded to one question by saying “This really is difficult!,” referring to dealing with questions about policy. (For those of you who are wondering, the question was about the contrast between the US policy toward China and Cuba, both of whom are Communist nations, but the US is profoundly more positive toward China than Cuba. Grudem said that he was talking about general principles and not how those principles were worked out.)
Overall, Grudem was in favor of what Bush has done. He went through a long list of things that he thought agreed with biblical principles, such as being opposed to abortion and stem cell research, spending money to fight AIDS (increased aid to Africa), working towards racial reconciliation (appointed African Americans), working toward faith based programs, defending against terrorists, and removing marriage penalty in tax code, among many other things. Grudem was a big fan of John Roberts and Samuel Alito, since they favored the original intent of the Constitution (and you thought hermeneutics was only important for the Bible). He also praised Bush for effectiveness as a communicator and for matters of personal character, such as telling the truth and evidence of personal faith. He agreed with Bush for not agreeing to the Kyoto Protocol. He differed with Bush on the McCain-Feingold Bill and government spending. Overall, like I said, a very positive portrayal. Whether or not you agree with his thoughts, it is at least interesting.
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