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Letter from America

A hug says it all

George Bush's State of the Union Address this year packed a punch. Bush is not normally known for rhetorical effectiveness - compare Bill Clinton's speeches for pure entertainment value - but there was a defining moment in this State of the Union Address which was charged with emotion and will not easily be forgotten.

Bush had already introduced a human rights activist from Iraq. 11 years previously her father had been assassinated by Saddam Hussein's intelligence service. Three days ago, Bush said, she was able to vote. The applause was long and predictable and the emotional levels raised.

Later he introduced Janet and Bill Norwood, the parents of Byron Norwood who had died during the assault on Fallujah. Janet and Bill Norwood stood and the applause was equally long and predictable.

The unexpected

Then the unexpected occurred. The Iraqi daughter whose father had died embraced the American mother whose son had been killed. The hug was to all intents and purposes entirely spontaneous. It was long. It said everything that Bush was trying to communicate: we are liberators.

Of course, it may have all been stage managed. They were (after all) seated one in front of the other. Nonetheless, prearranged or not, it was certainly rhetorically effective.

Whether George Bush's motives are really as pure as this interlude depicted, whether his policies are as enlightened, is a topic of great importance, no doubt; as a gesture of the importance of freedom to the human soul, as well as the sacrifice necessary to procure it, that simple hug in its context spoke volumes.

As Christians we are not so naive to believe that even the best of democracy, and the most pure of politics, is sufficient to provide the freedom we need. Democratic process, albeit considerably flawed, elected one Adolf Hitler. And 'freedom' in Europe has presided over a moral and spiritual declension where liberal morals have taken root in the soil of liberated cultures. The freedom we long for is spiritual. This is the kind of freedom that a prison cannot remove, death cannot take away, and which lasts forever. It is freedom from the shackles of the law and freedom for the purpose of Christ-like godliness. 'It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery' (Galatians 5.1).

A hug? No, a crucifixion.
Josh Moody,
Connecticut