Art And Religion

In a so-so essay in the New York Times Book Review on Reinhold Niebuhr, Arthur Schlesinger Jr. makes this curious claim:

One imagines a meeting between two men - say, for example, the president of the United States and the last pope - who have private lines to the Almighty but discover fundamental disagreements over the message each receives.

I don't know what the Pope believed, but when did the President claim he's got a direct connection to heaven? (I mean, beyond the trivial belief that anyone who prays will be heard.) I would love to see a precise, verified quote where Bush says not that he prayed for guidance, but that he, and he alone, understands divine will on some issue.

It sure doesn't sound like anything Bush would ever say. But it sure does sound like something Schlesinger would assume without proof.