mike! Brandes

The video “The Jesus Factor,” put on by PBS, speaks dramatically to the effect of politics and religion and how they fuse together. This video takes us on the journey of George Walker Bush’s political journey, and his spiritual journey. It shows how Bush’s political victories went hand in hand with his values of faith, morals, and his appeals to the conservative evangelicals in the Republican Party for proof, two-thirds of all people that attended synagogue, mosque, or church once a week voted for Bush.
Unlike his father George Herbert Bush, George Walker was able to combine conservatism and compassion to ensure victories where his father failed to align the two and suffered defeat to Bill Clinton, arguably the most charismatic and compassionate president that America has ever had. He showed his compassion by installing Faith Based Initiatives and bringing a renaissance to traditional American/Christian values.
The purpose of this video is very simple, it shows that Bush’s desire, against all other checks and balances to support religious bigotry by creating the faith based initiative program, and using his religious bias to exclude others. Despite congress’ overwhelmingly anti faith based initiative vote, President Bush wrote an executive order to allow, and encourage faith based initiative. Government support for faith based initiatives has predominately gone to Christian Organizations with the few exceptions of five (5) interfaith coalitions with Christian directors; which only goes to further the claim that Republicans, and Christians for that matter are grossly biased towards themselves. As though it would seem George W Bush has single-handedly carried out to a “t” the conservative evangelical agenda in Washington. Overall, the intended perception of the video is to bring the viewer into an understanding that faith based initiative is the only way to go. Also, that faith in Christ is the driving force behind our nation.
The video attempts to the viewers experience with many examples, and clips of Bush in the past drawing on the Bible and faith in debates, and post September 11tth attacks. Americans have the experience of seeing these things first hand, and the video simply serves to remind us of these events while slanting towards conservatism and Christendom. The determining factor as to what makes or prevents this from being effective is the bias of the viewer. Those that are gripped by conservatism and Christendom blindly hail George Walker Bush and his faith as paramount to the success of America. Those that are more liberal in their thinking feel that the separation between Church and State should be kept and that if there is a faith based initiative program it should be one that spans all faiths and not just one; after all that is bigotry.
The video definitely does seem to present the traditional, conservative aspect of American culture. There is no liberal, or moderate slant in this film at all, it is seemingly all biased towards the conservatives. While it presents traditional American values, it also provides little tolerance for non-traditional values such as same sex marriages. This could lend itself to having those outside of the United States think that we are very stubborn and non-progressive; displaying a blatant disregard for those who are different than the ones who express conservative traditional American family and moral values.
After seeing this film, the perception of the viewer will change dramatically. Depending on the amount of noise, and type of noise, the message will either further a person towards conservativism and a desire for faith based initiatives to excel in America; or if the viewer is biased towards liberalism and the separation of Church and State, then they will most likely be enraged. Now there are both positive and negative ways each group will change their perception after viewing this documentary. Those biased towards conservativism might decided that what is happening is right, and that America should keep fighting the good fight for values and morality; or they will feel as though America is a too predominant a religious bigot, and decided that only supporting one religion is not the answer, in a nation that promotes “religious freedom” it seems as though only the Christians ever get a chance to prosper under the government, and the current administration. On the other hand the liberals might either embrace the idea of a faith based initiative on the grounds that they are successful, and they enrich America; or they will completely hate the current administration for its religious narrow-mindedness.
The only reason that this film would not serve its purpose to augment the perception towards faith based initiatives would be the bias of the viewer. The film was well produced and well written, a flawless documentary when it comes to reporting on a single vantage point only. The bias of the viewer is truly paramount to whether any message will be received or not according to the Mathematical Model of Communication as discussed in class lecture, the role of “noise” or interference plays the largest role in whether or not a message through whatever channel will be received positively or negatively. The bias of the liberals could be that George W Bush had no political recourse for establishing these faith based initiative, but solely because he thought it was a good idea did he ignore congress’ overwhelmingly negative vote and sign an executive order. Which isn’t the only time he’s ignored congress, but that is another topic for another day.
In summation, the film “The Jesus Factor” was a well produced documentary extolling the accolades of George W Bush’s faith based initiatives and the importance that his spirituality has played in his tenure as President of the United States of America. The message was clear, and received by viewers, but dependent on their bias as to how it was perceived. Overall, it did a great job of communicating a clear thesis which brought about a choice for the viewer to make regarding whether to accept it positively or negatively. Thank you for reading.