ABSTRACT
What were George W. Bush’s core beliefs? To the casual observer, Texas, Big Oil, and Major League Baseball might spring to mind. Though a self-proclaimed ‘born again’ Christian, Bush revealed little about the specifics of his faith. Throughout his years in public life, however, Bush did frequently assert that his political career, from the Texas governorship to the presidency, represented a direct fulfillment of a supernatural design. When still in Texas politics, he said: “I could not be governor if I did not believe in a divine plan that supersedes all human plans” (Bush’s Messiah Complex 2003). Such pronouncements increased in earnestness following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, seven months into Bush’s first term. Indeed, after 9/11 Bush repeatedly articulated an apocalyptic worldview that linked his personal destiny and that of the United States to God’s cosmic plan for establishing righteousness in a wicked world. As he memorably vowed in his post-9/11 address to Congress and the nation, America would not only track down those responsible, but “rid the world of evil”—the ultimate goal of all who embrace the apocalyptic worldview (Bush 2001). This worldview, originating in mystical texts of the ancient Middle East, adapted by Jewish writers, and reaching its apogee in the Apocalypse of John, the concluding book of the New Testament, remained alive and well in the Bush White House.
