One of the important facts i beiieve is to see how Bush got into religion in the first place. He had an alcohol problem, used coke (don't know how much) and was a mischievous frat boy until he found himself under the influence of a born-again preacher. His approach to religion is personal in that it keeps him out of trouble. It, in a way, could be said to be a kind of palliative or medicine for erratic behavior. This is characteristic of many of the born-again types who have substituted one narcotic for another.
The attitude therefore is that Bush believes he has been "saved" and thereby qualified to do a little preaching. His higher allegiance might be characterized as kind of personal attibution that gets easilly into the realm of arrogance. He attibutes his role of leadership as from God, a kind of divine dispensation which is common to the behavior of extreme evangelicals. We saw this in David koresh and Jim Jones. Then we see the demonizing. Secularists are at the top of the list. Then it's a short hop to "terrorists" and "traitors". It used to be "Communists".
Re: the military, there needs to be a "justification" for their role which is assigned in their view from a "higher power". Americanism gets mixed up with the notion of God in the same way as we perceive the Intifada of Hamas.
God and nationalism
The question of the social good of this view of religion is brought into question.
Here's the bottom line. No humility if the "true believers" of this kind of religious thinking consider themselves somehow more "Godly" than others.
The solution in my view is to understand the workings of the need for religion, how is gets subverted into a drug that cures bad behavior, ("opiate of the people") and how it can be restored to a better place, a concern for the betterment of society and development of conscience over guilt as an operating procedure. If a person is truly religious in my view, then, the Secularist has a place in the search for enlightenment and those views must be respected.
I saw the movie "Inherit the Wind" the other night and found it to be as alive today as it was when it was made.
I think one can be a Secularist and religious at the same time or be both and not belong to any church.