There was squirming in the air when George W. Bush named Jesus Christ as the philosopher who has most influenced his life. Chris Matthews was so agitated he began spouting his "Render unto Caesar" separation of taxes and God and then wondered aloud whether "W" answered so because he just couldn't think of a name, along the lines of his inability to name world leaders.

Without Descartes on the tip of his tongue, the front-runner for the Republican nomination committed an unpardonable sin in political and public America: he uttered not just the name of God, but that of his Son. There was a national tapping of the foot and a hands on the waist posture and a clearly annoyed, "Now see what you've done!"Even if George W. were an atheist, his answer was a good one. The caliber of work falls off pretty dramatically after Christ. There haven't been many syllogistic inroads on Christ's teachings. Thomas Aquinas used a thesaurus with the Bible and simply intellectualized Christianity. The best Nietzsche could do was offer disdain for "moral twaddle." Kierkegaard was a neurotic mess, and Kant made even scholars' eyes glaze over as he tried to tout the same moralism. And Machiavelli -- well, the Clintons have given us quite enough of his theories of power, politics and social science in action.

Unlike my wanton colleagues of pen, I don't fear the invocation of God by those in public office. Washington, Lincoln, and Jefferson employed his name quite often. As Michael Novak has written, implicit in our forefathers' motto of "In God we Trust" is "the rest of you get checks and balances." Since the days of Madalyn Murray O'Hair and her successful campaign to remove prayer from public schools, God hasn't been around much in public discourse. Neither has Ms. O'Hare, who disappeared mysteriously. That'll learn her.

The fear of God among believers pales in comparison to the fear among the atheists and agnostics whose motto is anyone but God. Hillary Rodham Clinton has expressed admiration for everyone from Carl Oglesby, who changed her from a Goldwater Republican to a Jerry Rubin Democrat with the stroke of his Marxist pen to Al Sharpton, whose gold chains alone spell trouble to me. Al Gore admires Ellen DeGeneres and thinks our boy president is hall of fame material. Nary a word of protest was heard. Only God generates fear and loathing.

My son referred to his Christmas vacation from school as "winter break." One motherly lecture I never envisioned was "You WILL call this Christmas break, not winter break, not winter solstice, not semester break, not end-of-the-grading period and not Nintendo marathon." Children worship the gods of diversity each day at school, perform pagan rituals of recycling and are indoctrinated with an odd tolerance that commands, "No God here." They know Kwanzaa, Earth Day and Native American rituals, but Good Friday is known as only a teacher prep day.

While history books live in denial and have students study America as if the Pilgrims came to seize pricey Martha's Vineyard real estate, God truly was once tops in public policy. His doctrine was the basis of the Bill of Rights, and he had a hand in Sunday closing laws. No one has yet duplicated his ability to build consensus. Like the plain-spoken aunt everyone dreads running into over the potato salad, God has a way of cutting to the quick and settling issues. On evolution vs. Creationism, God's take would be simple, "Either way, you've got a leap of faith, don't you?" On today's mortal sin of passing judgment (excepting, of course, when a candidate mentions Christ and then all form of judgment breaks loose), "Yes, but the 'sin no more' part is critical." On abortion and euthanasia, his response would be an authoritative, "Really not your call to make, is it?" And on adultery being private, one word, "Please."

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God is hard to find these days. He did emerge in Al Gore's campaign earlier this year when the vice president threatened to take back God from the Republicans. But Gore abandoned that when he got a union endorsement. God is even missing from some churches as they rationalize the same-sex unions as somehow being divinely inspired and do all they can to minimize doctrines that might offend potential parishioners. God's response to the feel-goodism of many churches today would surely be a true potato salad aunt one, "Get real."

And maybe that's why God is missing. When we've missed a deadline, failed on a promise and rationalized our way into a comfort zone, we don't want to run into the people who were harmed. We avoid the aunt with wisdom and a sharp tongue who reminds us that the comfort zone is also a no-growth zone.

George W. spread discomfort because he invoked the name of someone who thinks we are capable of more, who has absolutes and who could change public policy and a nation if he were just permitted a few words. But in the ozone indictments and the right-to-choose advocacy, his name has an alleged chilling effect. Cite Plato, Aristotle & Co., and even H.L Mencken or Rosie O'Donnell, but not God's son. And no sneaking him into the discussion as just another philosopher either.

Marianne M. Jennings is a professor of legal and ethical studies at Arizona State University. Her e-mail address is mmjdiary@aol.com

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