WHY? THEY'RE ANTS:

Rendering Unto God: At St. Ann's in Maine, Luke 12 and Bush 43 (Mike Allen, August 9, 2004, Washington Post)

When the president worships on the road, it is customary for the pastor to pretend he's not there -- or to, at most, greet him and maybe remember him in a prayer. The fiction is a tad ludicrous, given the armored entourage in the driveway and the press pool back by the collection plates. But it is observed more often than not, as the president tries for an hour to appear to be just another American, one more parishioner.

Well, no one told that to the Very Rev. Martin Luther Agnew Jr., who was up from Shreveport, La., for eight weeks as the summer minister at St. Ann's Episcopal Church, a stone, seaside sanctuary less than a mile from the Bush family compound at Walker Point. [...]

[A]gnew got personal during his message about tithing and stewardship. He began by acknowledging that he had ruffled some feathers the previous week, when he warned that gated communities "tend to keep out God's people."

Plunging ahead, he singled out the first president Bush's golf prowess during a parable designed to make the point that an "intimate, meaningful relationship" with Christ requires shunning earthly possessions.

"Our material gifts do not have to be a wall -- they can very well be a door," Agnew said. Then referring to Luke 12:33, the priest said, "Jesus says, 'Sell your possessions and give alms.' "

"I'm convinced that what we keep owns us, and what we give away sets us free," he said.

A plaque in the church entryway notes that the organ is dedicated in memory of the president's mother, Dorothy Walker Bush, "whose family provided the lead gifts." Former president Bush is listed in the bulletin as an emeritus vestryman.

Agnew held up a golf iron and asked his flock to imagine the first President Bush taking repeated swings to try to hit a ball out of the rough. The former president, having driven long to the right, made what Agnew called "a mighty swing" at the ball, now resting atop an anthill, and missed, killing about 346 ants.

With Agnew brandishing the club for effect, he said the former president whiffed again and this time killed 641 ants.

The former president continued to swing wildly, in Agnew's telling, and finally one ant said to another ant, "If we're going to live, we better get on the ball."

This was received with Episcopal silence in a parish where the parking lot was full of Volvos, sprinkled with Mercedes, BMWs and Land Rovers.

"What God is reminding us to do," Agnew said, "is to get on the ball."

The Bushes seem an odd choice for someone to lecture about doing charitable works. Even setting aside all the money they've given and causes helped they've already produced at least three generations of dedicated public servants and George P. seems likely to be part of the fourth.

Posted by Orrin Judd at August 9, 2004 8:46 AM