Bennett Sims, Why Bush Must Go: A Bishop's Faith-Based Challenge, Continuum, 2004

A review by Jack Gessell

This is not a political tract. It is a theological tract about the misunderstanding and misuse of power. It is a warning and an indictment of Bush and his gang for their false and misleading claims of faith and their superstitious use of Scripture.

At the end of this book Bishop Sims issues his judgment on the Bush Administration that "in this critical time of being fed a patriotic religiosity by a Washington conspiracy, we need to be crystal clear. That single verse of Scripture ("I have not come to bring peace, but a sword" Mt 10.34), is a thundering indictment of the conventional value system that drives our present American war making" (p 132). He goes on to comment that the context of that verse is a description of a nonviolent value system in conflict with any system that supports the status quo.

Sims's book should be read against the background of the history and ultimate corruption of the Roman republic and of Jonathan Schell's recently published book, The Unconquerable World. Schell argues that traditional war and power politics have become obsolete in the light of a nonviolent approach to politics which is slowly taking the place of the war system. Sims agrees with Schell's analysis.

What we are up against in America is an unprecedented distortion of the uses of power by the Bush administration inspired by its false religiosity and uncontrolled arrogance. Together with its ignorance of history and of Christian tradition, we face possible disaster. That is why Sims states that "Bush must go." Let us examine the current background for disaster and then the argument of Bishop Sims's book.

The background is summarized by Jacob Weisberg in his review of three polemics against the Bush administration: "catastrophically unplanned occupation of Iraq, self-defeating alienation of allies, favoritism toward the rich and energy industry, hostility to the environment and civil liberties, qualified legitimacy of the 2000 elections." (NYTimes Book Review, Aug 29, 2004)

Worse, NYTimes columnist Paul Krugman wrote that "the Bush Administration exploited the national tragedy of 9/11 for political gain and ordinary Americans paid the price" (July 2, 2004). Further, under the cloak of "National Security" the administration exercises unprecedented and extralegal powers abridging the rights of citizens. It has declared its right to redefine U S Law and international law, declaring that the President of the U S is not bound by any law when he is acting as Commander in Chief, asserting that it would be unconstitutional for the Congress to constrain him in any way.

Many actions of this President may be considered crimes in violation of both U S law and international law as embodied for example in the Geneva Conventions. This contempt for the law leads to chaos, a world without law subject to the capricious whims of American tyranny. Ronald Steel writes in his review for The Nation magazine of a cluster of books considering the United States as an imperial power, "What critics disparage as (Bush's) messianism, contempt for the opinion of others, unilateralism, arrogance, and emphasis on military force are what George W Bush views as righteous patriotism."

The legitimizing of these unprecedented claims and official actions is the funky theology of the President. Sims analyses this in the book under review. He draws on his personal experience of his servant leadership seminars. He considers leadership as an exercise of power. But it can be exercised in differing ways -- as dominance and subjection, or as nonviolent servanthood. Servanthood, he writes, is the way of the future and this is made clear both by history and by evolutionary science. The alternative is rooted in apocalyptic fundamentalism and leads to violence and destruction.

The struggle between competition and collaboration embodies the struggle for earth's and humanity's survival. "The real struggle," Sims writes, "is between a world society oriented primarily to competitive domination and one oriented to collaborative partnership. In other words, the future of the human project will be decided by the choice between a forced-based ideal of human governance and a sharing-based ideal of human and environmental interaction" (p106).

Needless to say, Sims sees Bush as pressing the domination paradigm, but insists that violence as a problem-solver is bankrupt. Bishop Sims's argument is subtle and nuanced, but as a theologian, he makes clear that Bush's bankrupt fundamentalist theology is driving the current administration toward a dead-end and consequent chaos.

James Carroll, a columnist for the Boston Globe, writes in his new book, Crusade, Chronicles of an Unjust War, "No one wants the terrible events (of 9/11) to happen for a second time... But all the ways George Bush exploited those events, betraying the memory of those who died in them, must be lifted up and examined again, so that the outrageousness of his political purpose can be felt in is fullness.

"Exactly how the war on terrorism unfolded; how it bled into the wars against Afghanistan, then Iraq; how American fears were exacerbated by Administration alarms; how civil rights were undermined, treaties broken, alliances abandoned, coarseness embraced -- none of this should be forgotten."

This is the consequence of Bush's addiction to his fundamentalist evangelical Methodist faith. This is why Bush must go before it is too late.

[COVENANT, Number 18, October 2004]

The Revd Dr John M Gessell, is professor emeritus of Christian ethics, School of Theology, University of the South, Sewanee