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Forum: The truth of the matter
John Bugay: Christians should be alarmed by Bush

If you're a conservative Christian, and you're still undecided, please consider that evangelical Christians who hope to call this country to a higher moral standard are on the verge of undermining their own legitimacy.

I am a Christian, and I am alarmed. One of the values we hold most dearly is "truth." It is a foundational value, upon which all other values rest. If we don't have truth, we have built our house on shifting sand.

When President Clinton looked into the camera and said "I did not have sexual relations with that woman," we discerned what he was saying and were justifiably outraged. Just a few years later, President Bush looked the world in the eye and said there was "clear evidence" of peril in Iraq, the result of which "could come in the form of a mushroom cloud." Even then, the evidence was not so clear at all. And yet President Bush invoked this false image, intending to frighten people into going to war.

Clinton's untruth brought scorn and derision only upon himself. But Bush's untruth plunged this nation into an unnecessary war, killing thousands of innocents and costing all of us the good will of people and governments around the world. Who will ever trust this president again?...

...President Bush has governed and gone to war through policies that deliberately suppress the truth. Christians who support a president who engages in this kind of subterfuge have already judged themselves guilty of the very thing they ought to stand against....