America, get a copy of this, read it, and then VOTE in November! Please.

This review will be published on paper in an Australian magazine in November. I am pleased - delighted - if it is picked up elsewhere before that. Please at least leave a message here as to how it is to be used.

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May God Bless America
George W. Bush and Biblical Morality
Joseph J. Martos
Fenestra Books 2004
rrp $unknown

This book and Amy Goodman's became available for review just too late to be included in the October edition of "Insights". They have fed my reconceptions about an American administration that has gone out of its way to alienate much of its own constituency and the world. I have to admit to being aghast at the American policy stance during George W. Bush's
presidency.

About 5 weeks out from the recent Australian election I had about 30 minutes talking about the Australian and American elections with Prof. Malcolm Mackerras, the well known academic political analyst. In January he predicted a Coalition win by 20 seats, and in February that Kerry would be President. At the time of writing, he was "batting .500" as Americans would say (i.e. 50% right).

Joseph Martos looks at the theological basis espoused by Bush and his team and shows how it is not compatible (yes, not) with the theology of God in
the Bible and how the response to terrorism is not biblical; how Bush has mis-used references to God and the Bible in his speeches. Martos does this
systematically through chapters on: Principles and Policies; Environment and Resources; Poverty and Wealth; Human Rights; War and Peace; and, Policies
and Consequences. It was written without news of what occurred in the Iraqi gaols. I was struck by the measured academic theological approach taken, found the explanation of Christian "Just War" theory was very clear, and was assisted by extensive notes for each chapter.

The book is not strident; it tells both the Bush and the Bible's sides in counterpoint; it puts the "religious Right" on notice for overstepping the
Bible's stances on many issues; it explains how the poor of America have been 'had' by the rise of the Right; it questions human rights by essentially asking what many of the Right would ask, "What would Jesus do?", but with a very different answer.

Martos is a retired professor or philosophy and religion. His 240 page book will be readable for anyone with normal literacy in theological and social
ideas, and I urge you to consider it as part of your social education. Find an earlier version of the book ("George W. Bush and the Unreligious Right") online at www.biblicalchristian.us.

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Peter Ellis