While meetings with Bush at that time were friendly, Schroeder said he could not reconcile himself with the feeling that religion was the driving force behind many of Bush's political decisions.
"What bothered me, and in a certain way made me suspicious despite the relaxed atmosphere, was again and again in our discussions how much this president described himself as 'God-fearing,'" Schroeder wrote, adding he is a firm believer in the separation of church and state.
Schroeder accused some elements in U.S. as being hypocritical when it comes to secularism in government.
"We rightly criticize that in most Islamic states, the role of religion for society and the character of the rule of law are not clearly separated," Schroeder wrote. "But we fail to recognize that in the USA, the Christian fundamentalists and their interpretation of the Bible have similar tendencies."
Yeah, well buddy it bothers us as well.
This is the point that many Americans fail to understand. When standing up to religious fanatics it weakens our position if the rest of the world sees us as extremists as well. I am not talking about the average American who takes their children to Sunday school and attends services once a week. I am talking about the people who believe that every word of the bible is true and that anybody who does not worhsip like they do are pagans. Bush is in this category, whether he admits it or not.
The strength of our country in the past has been that we have seemed reasonable. Resonable people do not talk about how much more powerful their God is then the other guys God. That is primitive, uneducated, hateful language and it does not gain us support from the more intellectual erudite Europeans who are forced to choose sides. It makes us all look like crazed religious fanatics.
That only hurts us in the eyes of the rest of the world.
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Don't feed the trolls!
It just goes directly to their thighs.