not affiliated with a particular religion. there is a smaller segment of those who are atheist than agnostic. still, as he points out, it is kind of amazing that given the rise in the number of american atheists and nonbelievers there is not a single one in the u.s. congress and that it would be poison to run and openly declare you re an atheist. look at mark pryor s ad where he talked about the bible and he doesn t have all the answers, only god has all the answers. it is, like, well, if you don t have answers, why are you running for office? but flip it around, though. there has to be some to an elected official who sincerely believes in higher power, practices their faith, there has to be some civic value in that too, right? maybe professes as americans for the most part, we re taught not to talk about religion with other people in general. like why is it okay to politics and religion we re not supposed to talk
goodness, the closer you get to truth you are actually getting closer to god. how do you think christians should handle this? is this an insult? is this a compliment? we want what you have and try to minister to these people or just let them do what they want? i think through friendship and not getting bent out of shape over it and being willing to go forward in relationship and friendships with people and trying to meet each other where we re at. i love the idea of the fact that one thing that we all have in common, believe it or not, nonbelievers, is doubt. we all have moments of doubt. right? and to meet each other at that level to talk about it, be willing to talk about it, not say i m going to try to convert you, you, meet you where you re at. it s fun to talk about it. great segment. great to know what s going on in society and see these people come together in this way. father, thanks for joining
once he realized his mistake? joining us now is wayne slater, senior political writer for the dallas morning news. he s also the author of bush s brain. wayne, great to see you. great to be with you, rachel, as always. what are you hearing from political circles in texas about the president s speech tonight? are people in texas surprised that he s doing this? you know, clearly, there are a group of people, and the jewish community and elsewhere among many christians who are asking the question, what was he thinking?! scratching their heads and really saying, this is does he understand how deeply offensive what this group is preaching and advancing is to a lot of people. but to be honest with you, rachel, there is a very long, very large christian evangelical community in texas who may not understand the fundamentals of this, but see the idea of proselytizing, group that s just proselytizing and converting nonbelievers to christianity, as
he understand how deeply offensive what this group is preaching and advancing is to a lot of people. but to be honest with you, rachel, there is a very long, very large christian evangelical community in texas who may not understand the fundamentals of this, but see the idea of proselytizing, group that s just proselytizing and converting nonbelievers to christianity, as part of the message of christianity. part of the great commission. when you go out and make disciples of all nations. there s also, i think another subset, and that s a group of evangelicals, and i m not saying that george bush is with this group, i ve never talked to him directly about this, but another group of evangelicals who know exactly what this group is doing, who understand that the end times escatology that s being preached here is one of the last chapter, for the jews
nonbelievers to christianity, as part of the message of christianity. part of the great commission. when you go out and make disciples of all nations. there s also, i think another subset, and that s a group of evangelicals, and i m not saying that george bush is with this group, i ve never talked to him directly about this, but another group of evangelicals who know exactly what this group is doing, who understand that the end times escatology that s being preached here is one of the last chapter, for the jews anyway, is convert or die. that s why it s offensive to many jews. they lose their religion in this process. but many christians, and i think george bush is one of those, at the beginning didn t realize what this was all about. well, people who usually are all right with him represent leaders from the jewish community who worked with him during his administration. even if they disagreed with him on some political matters, who always felt mutual respect from him, people who lik