\n\tJohn Ellis \u201cJeb\u201d Bush, son of former president George H. W. Bush, brother of former president George W. Bush, was slow in declaring his formal intention of
\n\trunning for president in the 2016 presidential election, but that did not stop people from speculating. You can hardly blame them. For one thing, in
\n\tkeeping with the times, on December 16, 2014, Bush announced in a Facebook post that he had decided to actively explore the possibility of running for
\n\tpresident of the United States.1<\/p>\n
\n\tIn the same post, he also said that he planned to establish a leadership political action committee (PAC), which he did. In January he officially launched
\n\tthe Right to Rise PAC. According to its Web site, the PAC \u201cwill celebrate success and risk-taking, protect liberty, cherish free enterprise, strengthen our
\n\tnational defense, embrace the energy revolution, fix our broken and obsolete immigration system, and give all children a better future by transforming our
\n\teducation system through choice, high standards, and accountability.\u201d2 All things, coincidentally, that Bush himself stands for.<\/p>\n
\n\tBush\u2019s stated purpose in launching the PAC was to help him facilitate conversations with citizens across America to discuss the most critical challenges
\n\tfacing the nation. But it has also allowed him ample opportunity to fund-raise for the PAC, something that many people speculate is the very reason he
\n\tdidn\u2019t throw his hat into the arena earlier, even though virtually everyone seemed to believe he would . . . eventually. Once a candidate makes an official
\n\tpresidential announcement, he or she is forced to abide by campaign finance laws that grossly limit the amount of money he or she is able to raise for the
\n\tofficial campaign committee, those donations being subject to public disclosure per campaign finance laws.<\/p>\n
\n\tIn May, while continuing to unofficially enjoy the sightseeing tour along the campaign trail, Bush gave the commencement address at Liberty University, the
\n\tlargest Christian university in the world, founded by Moral Majority leader Jerry Falwell and considered to be a key campaign stop for Republicans on the
\n\troad to the White House. During his address Bush joked about meeting Falwell\u2019s son Jonathan, who is a Lynchburg pastor. \u201cHis dad used to be president, then
\n\this brother became president. Somehow—I don\u2019t know what it was—we really hit it off,\u201d Bush deadpanned.3<\/p>\n
\n\tThough the quip got a laugh, his family may prove to be the crucible upon which Jeb Bush\u2019s career is forged, since there\u2019s little doubt his family
\n\tconnections are as likely to hinder as help him. There are those who, despite Jeb\u2019s autonomy, believe that three Bushes in less than three decades is at
\n\tleast one Bush too many. Addressing this sentiment, Jeb Bush told a crowd in Chicago, \u201cI love my brother, I love my dad. . . . But I\u2019m my own man, and my
\n\tviews are shaped by my own thinking and my own experiences.\u201d4<\/p>\n
\n\tOne of those experiences is his deep faith. Though brought up Episcopalian, both George W. and Jeb converted to their spouses\u2019 religions. \u201cDubya,\u201d who by
\n\this own account has a rich spiritual life and disconcerted some people by the way he wore his faith on his sleeve during his presidency, converted to his
\n\twife\u2019s Methodism. Likewise, Jeb Bush, also deeply religious, converted to his wife Columba\u2019s Catholicism, citing how he had come to love the sacraments.
\n\tHis religious convictions clearly inform the stand he takes on many of the issues; the concern is whether he will allow those strongly held religious
\n\tbeliefs to inform his policy decisions, thereby ignoring the wall between church and state, an issue of which he seems to be keenly aware.<\/p>\n
\n\tRight of conscience can be a touchy subject, Bush admitted in his commencement address at Liberty University. \u201cI\u2019m asked sometimes whether I would ever
\n\tallow my decisions in government to be influenced by my Christian faith. Whenever I hear this, I know what they want me to say: \u2018No, never, of course not.\u2019
\n\tIf the game is political correctness, that\u2019s the answer that moves you to the next round. The end point is a certain kind of politician we\u2019ve all heard
\n\tbefore, the guy whose moral convictions are so private, so deeply personal, that he even refuses to impose them on himself.\u201d5<\/p>\n
\n\tBush gave a pretty clear demonstration of how his own moral convictions might play out in his official decision-making capacity. It can be seen through the
\n\tevolution of his stand on same-sex marriage. While governor of Florida, Bush believed there was no need for a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.
\n\tHowever, he reevaluated that belief as courts in other states began overturning laws banning such marriages. He indicated support of an amendment to the
\n\tFlorida constitution banning same-sex marriage, though ultimately Florida\u2019s Amendment 2 defining marriage solely as the union of a man and a woman was
\n\tpassed a year after his gubernatorial term had ended.<\/p>\n
\n\tSeeming to step back a pace and distance himself from his previous stand, he was recently quoted in the Times<\/em> as saying, \u201cWe live in a democracy, \n\tThough he never actually supported same-sex marriage, Bush once again solidified his strong opposition to it at a time when much of America was \n\tWhile heterosexual marriage is at the core of many of the world\u2019s religions, and certainly not only Catholic or even Christian, it is troubling that Bush \n\t\u201c\u2018Mr. President, why do you refuse to respect the wall between the church and state?\u2019 she asked Bush at a February news conference.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201c\u2018I strongly respect the separation of church and state,\u2019 the president insisted.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201c\u2018Well, you wouldn\u2019t have a religious office in the White House if you did,\u2019 said Thomas.\u201d7<\/p>\n \n\tJeb Bush made it clear in his Liberty University address that while he understands and respects the solidity of the wall of separation between church and \n\tHe went on to say, \u201cWhat should be easy calls in favor of religious freedom have instead become an aggressive stance against it. Somebody here is being \n\tOn many key issues Bush has a decidedly conservative record established during his years as governor of Florida. In spite of his track record, though, he \n\tHe also has a reputation for criticizing the GOP\u2019s negative, narrow-minded exclusivity. In a speech at the 2013 Conservative Political Action Conference he \n\tIf Bush has his way, that isn\u2019t the only thing that will change. He reminded the graduating class at Liberty University that \u201cthis doesn\u2019t always come as a \n\tOne thing is certain: In the race for president, Jeb Bush\u2019s strong religious convictions will be a refreshing change in the cynical sphere of politics, John Ellis \u201cJeb\u201d Bush, son of former president George H. W. Bush, brother of former president George W. Bush, was slow in declaring his formal intention of running for president in the 2016 presidential election, but that did not stop people from speculating. You can hardly blame them. For one thing, in keeping with the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[308],"tags":[140],"class_list":["post-6322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-september-october-2015","tag-september-october-2015"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6322\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\tand regardless of our disagreements, we have to respect the rule of law. I hope that we can show respect for the good people on all sides of the gay and
\n\tlesbian marriage issue—including couples making lifetime commitments to each other who are seeking greater legal protections and those of us who believe
\n\tmarriage is a sacrament and want to safeguard religious liberty.\u201d6<\/p>\n
\nanticipating a landmark ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court on the issue in late June. He told the conservative Christian Broadcasting Network show\tThe Brody File<\/em>, \u201cIt\u2019s at the core of the Catholic faith and to imagine how we are going to succeed in our country unless we have committed family
\n\tlife, [a] committed child-centered family system, is hard to imagine. So, irrespective of the Supreme Court ruling, because they are going to decide
\n\twhatever they decide—I don\u2019t know what they are going to do—we need to be stalwart supporters of traditional marriage.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tcalls out the fact that his stand is based specifically on Catholicism. It highlights the fact that while Christian values should certainly not be hidden
\n\tsimply because someone is in public office, it is the solemn duty of those in positions of power and authority not to allow their Christian ideas, however
\n\tnoble and worthy they may be, to undermine the very religious freedom America holds so dear by imposing them in an official way. That it is easy to blur
\n\tthat line is obvious in the revealing exchange between Bush\u2019s brother George and White House correspondent Helen Thomas after then-president George Bush
\n\tcreated the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, which was part of his plan to channel government funds to religious charities:<\/p>\n
\n\tstate, some values, while Christian, are also universal which allows them to permeate the wall. \u201cThe mistake,\u201d he said, \u201cis to confuse points of theology
\n\twith moral principles that are knowable to reason as well as by faith. And this confusion is all part of a false narrative that casts religious Americans
\n\tas intolerant scolds running around trying to impose their views on everyone.\u201d8<\/p>\n
\n\tsmall-minded and intolerant, and it sure isn\u2019t the nuns, ministers, and laymen and women who ask only to live and practice their faith. Federal authorities
\n\tare demanding obedience in complete disregard of religious conscience and in a free society the answer is no.\u201d9<\/p>\n
\n\tis often seen by fellow Republicans as being too liberal, a perception that could cost him the GOP nomination. The two most prominent areas in which he
\n\tdeviates from his party are education (he favors federalized education) and immigration (he supports legal status for undocumented immigrants).<\/p>\n
\n\tsaid, \u201cAll too often we\u2019re associated with being \u2018anti\u2019 everything. Way too many people believe Republicans are anti-immigrant, anti-woman, anti-science,
\n\tanti-gay, anti-worker, and the list goes on and on and on. Many voters are simply unwilling to choose our candidates even though they share our core
\n\tbeliefs, because those voters feel unloved, unwanted, and unwelcome in our party.\u201d10<\/p>\n
\n\twelcome reminder in some quarters, but it is true all the same: Whatever the need, the affliction, or the injustice, there is no more powerful or
\n\tliberating influence on this earth than the Christian conscience in action.\u201d11<\/p>\n
\n\tsaturated as it is with corruption and grandstanding. But it remains to be seen whether or not he can successfully walk the fine line of remaining true to
\n\tthe essential Christian values of which he is convicted without imposing them through legal means upon others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"