Why Bush Must Go

by Bennett J. Sims

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...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0826416373
• ISBN13: 9780826416377
• Release Date: June 2004
• Publisher: Continuum
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 0.39 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.1" x 7.6"

Customer Reviews

Elegant prose, an invaluable and timely message

Don't let the title of this book lure you into thinking it's about George W. Bush. The territory the distinguished Bishop Bennett J. Sims covers here is wide as the world and deep as the ocean. The careful reader will find much here to savor. The elegant yet lucid prose shows forth an astounding, wide-reaching intellect, a deep, well-thought out, hard-won, and carefully articulated faith. From page 81: "Fundamentalism is not without redeeming qualities. The seriousness with which fundamentalism makes God a living reality in individual and family life is greatly to its credit. But, to their discredit, most fundamentalist leaders ignore the prophetic social dimensions of the biblical record and the ministry of Jesus, whose emblem before the world is a Cross of total commitment to nonviolence as the way of humanity's deliverance from the long scourge of war. Thus fundamentalism can never serve the world's longing for peace."

Against the Ethos of Violence

Bishop Bennett J. Sims illuminates the notion of creation as God's Altruistic Gift. His ideas are akin to that of the Great Christian writer, C.S. Lewis. Sims writes, "God in the revelation of Jesus is not a divine dominator, not a manipulator, and never a high-and-mighty self-serving subjugator. In the crystal image of Jesus as the face of God in history, the Ruler of the universe is supreme in the exercise of servant power." Sims' hermeneutical approach to the Bible affirms that Biblical truth does not advocate the use of power for dominance, violence and injustice. "Self-righteous scorn of others" is self-defeating. The Biblical notion of power is servitude (selfless-love). Although "Why Bush Must Go" is sparse at times, it does serve as valid defense against Neocon methodologies. "Concentrated wealth and weaponry... only repress fear with lavishly expensive symbols of insecurity... Apocalypse is a creed of hopelessness" Peace, Wm

A Servant Leadership Vision

Bennett Sims is a retired Episcopal Bishop living in Hendersonville. The values and convictions that led him to found the Institute for Servant Leadership, now based in Asheville, have gained new and timely expression in a book with the provocative title, Why Bush Must Go: A Bishop's Faith-based Challenge (Continuum Books). For Sims the struggle of our time is between systems of power based on competitive domination and those based on collaborative partnership. The first, rooted primarily in male-engendered violence and fear, underlies both the disposition to use military and coercive solutions to political problems and the end-of-the-world fundamentalism it appeals to. The second approach, based in the Gold Rule ethics of Jesus and all the great world religions, is emerging in commitments to collaboration, partnership, mutuality, environmental conservation and servant leadership in business, public life, and commissions for national reconciliation. The way of mutuality and interdependence, both among human beings and in the entire natural order, is built into our deepest instincts and must prevail if the planet and its human experiment are to survive and flourish. Because Bishop Sims sees the Bush administration as rooted in the politics of domination and fear, he has stepped forward to call for its replacement. He develops his argument by reviewing his own career as pastor, teacher, and bishop. In his involvement in the civil rights movement he was awakened to the power of non-violence. In his life as Bishop of Atlanta he moved from an early rejection of the equal rights of homosexual persons to championing their equality and full participation. Indeed, in seeking to overcome the dividing wall of hostility between gay and straight he could see more clearly how same-sex relations deeply challenged the male domination of traditional marriage, business, and public life. This system of violent male domination in relations among humans and between them and the rest of the natural world is self-destructive and must yield to one of mutuality among equals. Sims begins his book with a quote from George H. W. Bush's inaugural prayer invoking the priority of service in the use of power. It is to this ideal that he seeks to call both his son and the rest of us as well.

Reflections on Servant Leadership

I encountered this book while browsing the shelves of the Harvard Bookstore (where it was prominently displayed) as I took a little down time during a hectic business trip. Though I initially resisted the book because the title suggested a rhetoric that I didn't have the energy to engage, the author is one I respect as his book "Servanthood" had a positive influence in my formation for ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church. It is my understanding that Bishop Sims and his publisher had some disagreements about the published title, which doesn't accurately reflect the contents. This is a wonderful book that systematically details our responsiblities to those we are appointed to serve. I am encourging my friends to purchase the book themselves, and for those whose means won't permit that I have purchased several extra copies to hand out, as needed. Thanks be to God for a loving and prophetic voice.