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Sunday, December 10, 2006

Advice From Above?

By Ken Herman | Sunday, December 10, 2006, 09:41 AM

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As the Sunday morning talk shows were gearing up to yak about the Iraq Study Group report and how President Bush might respond to it, the president was getting what some might see as from-the-pulpit guidance on how to proceed.

It came from The Rev. Luis Leon, rector of the St. John’s Church, the White House-neighborhood house of prayer attended by presidents. Bush and wife Laura made the short motorcade ride there for services this morning.

The preacher’s sermon today discussed “the theology of reversal.” Leon (shown in photo above from the historic church’s website) said, “Repentence is changing your way, changing your mind, changing your direction.”

“It requires the will to change. It requires the courage to acknowledge that you want to change, to change your direction,” he said.

No mention of Iraq, other than Leon’s usual prayers for Bush, Congress, Iraq and Afghanistan, Darfur and parishioners “who have been deployed to the Middle East.”

And no comment from Bush about the sermon as he headed back to the White House.

“Good morning everybody,” he said with a wave.

Minutes later, it was the usual Sunday-morning quick change as the president headed out for a chilly morning bike ride.

Footnotes on Rev. Leon: Born in Cuba. Baptised into the Episcopal Church at Guantanamo. Came to the United States in 1961 at age 12.

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