Why Bush Must Go: A Bishop's Faith-based Challenge

by Bennett Sims

Overview

In a style that's both personal and analytical, retired Episcopal Bishop Bennett Sims offers a penetrating critique of the extremist religious and political assumptions that underlie the domestic and foreign policies of President George W. Bush. He contrasts two radically opposed conceptions of power. Both concepts are found in the Hebrew-Christian Scriptures.

The concept of power represented by the President is the centuries-old one of male-dominant, militarist imperialism, co-opted in recent history by a fierce Fundamentalism that forecasts an imminent and violent end of history. The other is the enduring power of compassion, justice, and nonviolence exemplified by the Hebrew prophets and Jesus of Nazareth. This book celebrates the movement of prophetic power from the shadows of history to the
foreground of political action.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826416377
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	06/01/2004
Pages:	144
Product dimensions:	5.06(w) x 7.81(h) x 0.31(d)

About the Author

The Right Rev. Bennett J. Sims is retired Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta (1972-83), and Founding President of the Institute for Servant Leadership at Emory University (1988-99). A seminary professor before becoming a bishop, he returned to teaching, at Candler School of Theology, after his retirement as bishop of Atlanta. He is the author of three books: Invitation to Hope, Purple Ink: Theology and Social Ethics, and Servanthood: Leadership for the Third Millennium. From 1943 to 1946 he served in the U.S Navy as a line officer on destroyers, and in 1969 he received a PhD in theology from the Catholic University of America. He lives in Henderson, N.C., with his wife, Mary Page.

Table of Contents

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Editorial Reviews

" [T]he book by the retired bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta was a breath of fresh air. Instead of lambasting the president, as these books [Bushwacked, Dude, Where's My Country, et al.] proudly do, Sims lays out a reasoned, theologically sound argument against the kind of leadership the current administration practices, instead of attacking specific policies or the president's personal character." - www.whosoever.org (online Christian magazine), 5/5/04

"At a time when national polls indicated that most citizens base their judgments concerning national policies on what they hear from the media rather than what they hear at church, this is a very important book. Bishop Sims makes very clear how our religious convictions must be the basis for our political choices, which are also clearly profound moral decisions. I hope this message is spread throughout the land." - Thomas J. Gumbleton, Auxiliary Bishop, Archdiocese of Detroit

"Bishop Sims believes in a politically committed spirituality. His message should be read and discussed in every church in the land at this critical time in the nation's history."- The Rev'd William Sloane Coffin

the book resounds with his awareness of a re-awakening spirit of justice and love, and a maturity of humanity, emerging from eras of childhood self-identity and of adolescent violence. Patricia Nakamura, The Living Church, September 19, 2004

Like the minor prophets before him, Bennett Sims has written a small book that packs a major wallop. His mix of religion and politics is as fresh as it is bold, but his critique of power goes well beyond reproof. Having witnessed the worst that people can do, Sims remains an apostle of hope. His practical vision of a peaceable planet is so compelling that only the terminally hard of heart can fail to respond. Barbara Brown Taylor, author of When God Is Silent

Sims makes an articulate plea for the American electorate to choose a leader who recognizes that power, political and otherwise, can only create conditions of peace and justice when it is based on the notion of service to others. Grace & Truth, 21.3, 2004

This is a passionate and persuasive book. Bennett Sims has woven together his career as an Episcopal theologian and bishop with his ethical and political concerns as an informed citizen of the United States. He examines issues underneath the political propaganda of the spin-doctors and presents a vision of what the country can be which judges what it is becoming. This book will not be popular in the present White House, but it will ring true with millions of Americans and people around the world will cheer that someone inside the USA sees what they see so clearly. John Shelby Spong, author of A New Christianity for a Better World

This is a timely and courageous book. It should provoke much thought, prayer and discussion. Read it. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel Laureate

From the Publisher

Somewhere in the pages of this slim volume lurks the skeleton of a thoughtful and provocative book. The author, a retired Episcopal bishop, mixes autobiographical reflections with smatterings of paleontology, archeology, physics and biblical scholarship to make the case for a "global warming of the second kind," a renewal based on the principles of nonviolence and the unity of all life. While this poorly titled book does include a heated indictment of the current administration's policies in Iraq and elsewhere, Sims seems much more interested in making a case for a new social order. He is both chastened and hopeful about the possibility of environmental revitalization and world peace based on maturing human consciousness and feminist principles. The book is marred by periodic outbursts of tortured syntax and jargon. In his distress with environmental degradation and world events, Sims sometimes yields to the temptation to use epithets instead of ideas, as when he attacks "male-dominant fundamentalist sectors" of several world religions, examines the "dominator grip of the levers of control in America," and claims that the apostle Paul was converted from "Jewish rule-oriented rage." Readers sympathetic to Sims's alienation from the Bush administration and to his eclectic mix of religious philosophies may find encouragement and inspiration here. However, even they will have to be extremely persistent. (June) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly