Did President Bush Forget About Jesus Day?

"During Christmas, we gather with family and friends to celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ."--President Bush, Christmas Message, Dec. 2002.

On Saturday May 29, 2004, during Memorial Day weekend, President George W. Bush appeared on the Mall in Washington, D.C. to officially dedicate the new World War II Memorial. This grand occasion eclipsed another, which Bush has held dear: Jesus Day. As governor of Texas in 2000, he declared June 10 officially “Jesus Day.” Tied to a liturgical calendar, the movable feast occurs each year (since 2000, that is) on the Saturday before Pentecost Sunday—in 2004 on May 29. How could he forget?

Governor Bush’s 2000 proclamation claimed, surprisingly, “Throughout the world, people of all religions recognize Jesus Christ as an example of love, compassion, sacrifice and service. Reaching out to the poor, the suffering and the marginalized, he provided moral leadership that continues to inspire countless men, women and children today.” Universalizing Christ as an American hero, Governor Bush then enshrined him and “faith-based” social and political activism in the state calendar: “Jesus Day challenges people to follow Christ’s example by performing good works in their communities and neighborhoods.”

As the Jesus Day website (www.jesusday.org) recounts, the event began in England in the 1980s with annual public expressions of prayer and praise in the March for Jesus. Spreading beyond the British Isles to more than 130 countries, promoters claim, the march involves millions. From these beginnings another “tradition” was soon invented—Jesus Day itself—which emerged for the first time, not merely in the Republic of Texas, but in 450 cities throughout the United States, in the year 2000. Governor Bush thus became one of its Founding Fathers.

As he moved from Austin to Washington, why not bring Jesus Day with him to the federal calendar? Such an act would bring the nation full circle, conflating the political and religious calendar in a manner reminiscent of the colonial period, before the First Amendment prohibition of established religions. Jesus Day makes clear—as do other American holy days/holidays, including our newest three-day weekend, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday—that, despite secular trends, the United States remains a religiously charged political world.

The evangelical Christian fete certainly has zealous supporters as well as its adamant critics, but it would be likely to fail both judicial and popular scrutiny in a country committed to religious freedom and the separation of church and state. Ironically, New England Puritans themselves would have seen Jesus Day as blasphemous and redundant—for them, Christ should rule over all 365 days, and the designation of one particular day would make devotion inappropriately formulaic. Puritans sought to purge their calendars chock-o-block with saints’ days. Today most Christians seem satisfied with what they have: a sacred, if unofficial, place in the weekly public calendar—the Sabbath.

For Christians, then, Jesus already has his day, celebrated not only Sunday, but on Christmas and Easter as well, in feasts marking the Christian savior’s birth, death, and resurrection. It’s odd that Governor Bush would invent a new red-letter day when similar ones already existed. Is it lack of confidence or memory? Either way the problem seems chronic with President Bush, who similarly erected a new Patriot Day for September 11, even though Patriots’ Day already existed. In Massachusetts and Maine, Patriots’ Day commemorates the “shot heard ‘round the world” at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, commencing the War for Independence.

God knows our present broken world could use more “love, compassion, sacrifice and service.” Heaven knows we are making extreme sacrifices, even if they are largely hidden—consider the financial and human cost of the Iraq war, now tallying some $113 billion and over 800 American dead. And now more than ever we need “moral leadership,” particularly in the face of the Abu Ghraib atrocities, not to mention the war profiteering of certain well-connected American corporations operating in Iraq. Did Jesus slip President Bush’s ever-slippery mind on Jesus Day? Probably not. But the president’s advisors surely have told him, to paraphrase Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, “You’re not in Texas anymore.” Even if Bush tends to equate “God” specifically with “Jesus,” he no longer does so blatantly in public, where he tries to talk (if not walk) the ecumenical line.

Yet on June 2, President Bush hosted a White House Conference on Faith-Based and Community Initiatives and heralded his administration’s $1.1 billion in grants last year to social programs administered by religious organizations. Though Congress balked at the president’s initiative, tripping on the First Amendment problem, as the New York Times reported, Bush pursued his program through executive order, establishing religion-based offices in ten federal agencies and removing barriers for religious organizations to compete for public money. President Bush insists, “I fully understand it’s important to maintain the separation of church and state. . . . We don’t want the state to become the church, nor do we want the church to become the state.” Nonetheless, the Times reported the next day that the Bush-Cheney campaign sought to enlist thousands of religious congregations in key swing states to distribute campaign material and register voters (though such action might compromise their tax-exempt status). In these acts we can see a stealthy effort to attract and energize conservative Christians, without alienating moderates. That pesky First Amendment notwithstanding, Jesus can help. Even if he does not quite dare to impose a “faith-based” red-letter day on the calendar, President Bush’s evangelizing efforts hope to place more red-states on the 2004 electoral map.

What’s next, God on U.S. currency or in the Pledge of Allegiance? Like the 2000 election, that’s something the Supreme Court should decide.