After descending the stone stairs to the dim grotto beneath the Church of the Nativity, President Bush lit a candle Thursday and stood in silent, somber reflection at the place where Jesus Christ is believed to have been born.
Emerging a short while later into the sunlit courtyard outside, he described the experience as “a moving moment for me. … For those of us who practice the Christian faith, there’s really no more holy site than the place where our Savior was born.”
For Bush, a born-again Christian who visited Israel as Texas governor but did not enter the Palestinian territories, his first pilgrimage to the birthplace of Christ and other sites on the path of Jesus’ ministry adds a personal, devotional dimension to the daunting political mission of brokering peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
The visits also underscore the religious tenets that have helped define Bush’s presidency, from his faith-based initiatives to the certitude with which his administration has approached the challenges of Sept. 11 and Iraq. Bush often has maintained that the advancement of freedom is a religious calling, and he did so again Thursday in Bethlehem.
“there’s really no more holy site than the place where our Savior was born.” Interesting theology, not I think widely shared in the Christian tradition. Interesting that it isn’t Calvary. Probably fits better with the heroic and Manichean nature of civil religion.
Then again, President Bush is probably not your best source for careful, theologically-considered discourse — cut him some slack?
I’ve been to both places. Leaving aside theology, it is hard for me to say which had the greater emotional impact. The Church of the Holy Sepulcre is magnificently impressive but the sqabbles among the different traditions that administer the shrine kind of tarnish the place. The thing I most vividly remember about the Manger Site is that a separate room in the cave right off the shrine was one St. Jerome often used while translating the Bible into Latin. That made a deep impression on me.
I’m still getting over the fact that President Bush is finishing up his second term in office and this is the first time he’s been to Israel while in office. I guess it has something to do with the dangers of travel in the Middle East? (But he went undercover to Baghdad, what, twice?) It sure doesn’t say much about the supposed friendly relationship between the US and Israel.