"Let him answer, fully, fairly, and candidly. Let him answer with facts, and not with arguments. Let him remember he sits where Washington sat, and so remembering, let him answer, as Washington would answer. As a nation should not, and the Almighty will not, be evaded, so let him attempt no evasion -- no equivocation. If the president cannot or will not give the desired answers then I shall be fully convinced of what I more than suspect already, the he is deeply conscious of being in the wrong -- that he feels the blood of this war, like the blood of Abel, is crying to Heaven against him." [January 22, 1847]

Though this was asserted by a Lincoln in his late thirties and first time Congressman, he didn't mince words and it took considerable courage to go against the President on war then as now. Many said it would destroy Lincoln's chances for re-election and cost his Whig Party the congressional district. Others who opposed Polk came from safe Eastern seats or the Western Reserve in northeastern Ohio, a liberal stronghold. None came from a state as far west as Illinois.

Theologically it took some courage too. Most Christians in Lincoln's mid-western state were of the Protestant evangelical persuasion, still affected by the two Great Awakenings. Many did not want to use God politically, but reserve him for helping to root out personal sin, urge individual confession, understand salvation as forgiveness, and trust heaven would follow. That is the basic evangelical message. That the Almighty will not be evaded by lying or misleading the public is part of the evangelical thrust too (note Clinton). But when he adds that the blood shed in the Mexican war, like the blood of Abel, would cry to heaven against the president and the nation, most Christians of Lincoln's time and our time would give that a miss.

Lincoln however had a bigger picture of God. It was darker than most, but he did face terrible problems in America. It was a nation in extremis, and for Lincoln it was with God's awful permission and will. For Lincoln the Civil War was the result of American sin of slavery, and God gave it its just deserts. Few people in any country from ancient Israel to a very self-righteous contemporary America want criticism. That smacks of a lack of patriotism and foul religion. But Lincoln has much to teach. Bush has much to learn.

Rev Charles Brock is Emeritus Fellow, Mansfield College Oxford, and Lecturer in Religion, Penn State, Erie.