Why's Dubya's Pew Always Empty?

Finally. TNR looks at a question I've wondered since before he became president: why's the president never in church? His holier-than-thou crowd likes to paint Dems as people having orgies on Sunday mornings when they should be at church but Bush is rarely near one except for photo ops.

Or perhaps, in one of God's frequent talks with him (according to Dubya), God mentioned he's not welcome. If the argument is that Bush is a religious man but not a church goer, that doesn't really work. A person of God (or Allah or Jehovah or..) may be a deep believer who doesn't go to service. But a religious person isn't necessarily a person of God. They're people who need the structure and power machinery of religion (and I'd argue that the only thing that ever really gets between a person and his or her God is religion which is a shell).

From TNR:

Most Americans are aware that George W. Bush is a religious man. He is, after all, the man who presided over a religious revival of sorts at the Republican National Convention. He is the man who has pioneered what could be called cardio-diplomacy, judging world leaders--and, at times, entire nations--by their "hearts." He is the subject of at least four spiritual hagiographies currently in bookstores, and one religious documentary ("George W. Bush: Faith in the White House"). Most famously, Americans know him as the man who, when asked to cite the philosopher who had the greatest influence on him, named Jesus Christ.

What most--including many of the president's fiercest supporters--don't know, however, is that Bush doesn't go to church. Sure, when he weekends at Camp David, Bush spends Sunday morning with the compound's chaplain. And, every so often, he drops in on the little Episcopal church across Lafayette Park from the White House. But the president who has staked much of his domestic agenda on the argument that religious communities hold the key to solving social problems doesn't belong to a congregation.

It should be a politically intriguing story. Bush is one of the most explicitly religious politicians in American history. Both of his presidential campaigns have used religion to appeal emotionally to voters. The entire philosophy behind his signature slogan, "compassionate conservatism," rests on the belief that religious communities have a unique ability to tend to the nation's social ills. And yet, after the flood of coverage around Bush's first--and only--visit to a neighborhood church during inauguration weekend in Washington, D.C., no one has bothered to report on the president's whereabouts on Sunday mornings.

I encourage you to read it, and I don't always recommend TNR articles. It's from Amy Sullivan who you may know - if from nowhere else - from The Washington Monthly and Kevin Drum's Political Animal blog.