Bush as a Calvinist

Christian Century, Jan 11, 2005 by Albert R. Ahlstrom, J. Edward Barrett

THE BUSH administration is not first to carry a "Calvinist" label in setting forth a dualistic view of good and evil powers in international relations ("News," Nov. 16). Reinhold Niebuhr's critique of John Foster Dulles in the '50s was based on Dulles's moralistic view of the cold war between atheistic communism and the freedom-loving West. It was also during the Eisenhower years that, somewhat afield of any Calvinism, Billy Graham gained his foothold particularly in Republican administrations. His blessing was strengthened by Ronald Reagan's views of an "evil empire" and has now transferred to an administration confronting Islamic jihadism with an especially virulent jihadism of its own.

It is apparent that the Republican apparatus has been captive to this "Calvinistic" or "evangelistic" influence for over half a century. I will let current Calvinists debate the appropriateness of the label--thus the quotation marks.

Albert r. Ahlstrom

Kingston, N. Y.

It is shameless for representatives of the Vatican to label as Calvinism "the idea of a purely good people chosen by God to combat people who are perfectly evil." Long before John Calvin lived, the Vatican was encouraging both the Crusades and the Inquisition. If American Presbyterians are to be considered the theological descendants of Calvin's theology, you will find--as will journalist John Allen if he takes the trouble to look--little enthusiasm (individual, congregational or denominational) for America's ventures in either Iraq or in Vietnam.

Manichaeism may have its successors, but Calvinists do not number among them. Calvinists (both liberal and conservative varieties) read their Bible, and know that "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory, of God" so that "none is righteous, no, not one" (Rom. 3).

J. Edward Barrett

Brevard, N.C.