Just how sincere and strong is Bush's Christian faith? Part 3: Irony can be so ironic.

The primary subject of this post is Michael Gerson. Gerson is one of Bush's speechwriters. There is some info on him in An Update on "America's calling," but that post only discusses Gerson's "analysis" of Bush's Inaugural speech. I suppose there is some irony present in that discussion, but not as much as there will be here.

For a closer look at Gerson's role, I turn first to a Weekly Standard article by Terry Eastland from December 23, 2004:

MICHAEL GERSON deserves extra pay, or something, for agreeing to spend half a day earlier this month discussing with journalists a subject of some controversy--"Religion, Rhetoric, and the Presidency." If anyone was qualified for such a task, it was Gerson. He is President Bush's chief speechwriter, knows the president's mind better than anyone else in the White House (save perhaps Karl Rove) and--no small thing--shares the president's faith.

Gerson, the White House's resident intellectual, is a graduate of Wheaton College, where he majored in theology. He opened the discussion--part of a conference on religion and politics sponsored by the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington--by pointing out actual instances in which Mr. Bush has used religious language. What they illustrate is a rhetoric that seeks to accommodate religious values, embraces religious pluralism and is quite aware of providence.

(emphasis added). The italicized portion implies that the words Bush uses are actually his words and his ideas. Others take a different view. For instance, the Ayelish McGarvey article that is the subject of Part 2 says

As has been often noted, Bush effortlessly speaks the language of the born again, and his remarks are loaded with subliminal messages to the nation’s 60 million white evangelicals. Ironically, the theology embedded in this language is not even the president’s own -- it belongs to Michael Gerson, Bush’s crack speechwriter, himself a devout Christian and a graduate of Wheaton College, the “evangelical Harvard.” Far too often, though, the press confuses Gerson’s words with Bush’s beliefs.

Part 2 also refers to reference an article by Guy Lawson that appeared in GQ magazine entitled "George W.'s Personal Jesus." Lawson falls somewhere between Eastland and McGarvey:

But in his formal public speeches, guided by chief speechwriter and fellow evangelical Mike Gerson (or "the Scribe," as Bush calls him), Bush uses extreme precision in communicating with his Christian constituency. A person steeped in the language of faith can recognize the voice of someone who shares his beliefs, and in this way the younger Bush is pitch-perfect.

(emphasis added). Regardless of how one views Gerson's role and influence, there is no question that he did write the actual words in many of Bush's speeches during the first term, and there is little doubt that Gerson was thought of as no ordinary speech writer. This excerpt from a January 5, 2005, Newsweek online article by Tamara Lipper explains these points:

Michael Gerson, Bush's chief speechwriter, who has helped craft nearly every one of Bush's speeches during his first term, is leaving his job.

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Gerson is one of the best-known presidential speechwriters, on par with Ronald Reagan's Peggy Noonan or John Kennedy's Theodore Sorenson. One sign that he was no ordinary speechwriter is the fact that instead of being housed, as speechwriters usually are, in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, Gerson shared an office suite with Bartlett on the second floor of the West Wing. A Christian evangelical and a former theology student, Gerson shares his boss's brand of compassionate conservatism. His trademark has been the religious language and Biblical references that populate Bush's speeches. To those who believe the president uses his speeches to send signals to conservative evangelicals, Gerson is the master of the code.

(emphasis added).

So where is the irony in all of this, and what does it have to do with Bush's faith or lack thereof? There is a three-part answer.

1) Gerson is the person who has been primarily responsible for the public expressions of Bush's faith.

2) As pointed out by Lawson, Bush his own self calls Gerson "the Scribe."

3) In Part 2, I say that "Chapter 23 of Matthew has some particularly poignant passages." In Chapter 23 in both the New King James Version and the New Revised Standard Version, Jesus repeatedly says, "Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!" (emphasis added).

And that folks, is not just canonic. It is ironic.