Canadian author says politicians' faith helping to spotlight religion

Published: 2004-05-11

TORONTO (CNS) -- The very public faith convictions of U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair have helped turn the media spotlight on religion, said one of Canada's best-known political columnists. Richard Gwyn, an award-winning author and columnist for the Toronto Star, said the frank use of religious terms in the debate over the war on terror shocked many secular-minded journalists who were used to such arguments couched in more ambiguous language. "When Bush used the word 'evil' -- it was, in fact, central to a lot of his arguments -- many people were shocked," Gwyn told some 40 religious journalists gathered for the annual Canadian Church Press convention May 6. "Here was a president of the United States using the phrase unaffectedly, indeed quite naturally." Bush has made no secret of his born-again Christian convictions; Blair is an Anglican who sometimes attends Catholic Masses.

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