There was much written last week about Karl Rove’s supposed atheism, following an interview that Christopher Hitchens did with New York Magazine to promote his new book God is Not Great.
Has anyone in the Bush administration confided in you about being an atheist?
Well, I don’t talk that much to them—maybe people think I do. I know something which is known to few but is not a secret. Karl Rove is not a believer, and he doesn’t shout it from the rooftops, but when asked, he answers quite honestly. I think the way he puts it is, “I’m not fortunate enough to be a person of faith.”
Last night, Hitchens appeared on Real Time with Bill Maher, and seemed much less sure of himself… here’s the transcript:
Maher: And I understand that, in an interview recently, you revealed to us that Karl Rove, George Bush’s consiglieri, of all the people on the world, is an atheist… [Hitchens has a blank look on his face] and that he says, “I’m not fortunate enough to be a person of faith.”
Hitchens: It’s not a revelation from me. It’s something that Dr. Rove has said quite often. And I don’t think he’s an atheist. He simply doesn’t say that he is… well, actually, you quote him there, as far as I know, correctly.
Maher: But, I mean, Bush seems to fill every job in his cabinet with some incompetent Jesus Freak [laughter from audience]. And then it seems to me tremendously hypocritical to fill the one job that he really cares about, the guy who gets him elected, with an atheist.
Hitchens: Well, as I say, I can’t… I certainly can’t speak any further about what Dr. Rove does or doesn’t believe. I know that he did once make that remark, because I think he and actually quite a few other Republicans are quite careful not to appear to be too pious. I mean, the president may say that he, uh, got help from Jesus to get off the booze…
The rest of the conversation dives into Bush’s religiosity and how it was Laura Bush that got him to stop drinking, not God.
So if Rove’s quotation is true, he may yet be an atheist. But it’s inconclusive. However, it seems that Hitchens has no more insight on that than anyone else.
[tags]atheist, atheism, Karl Rove, Christopher Hitchens, New York Magazine, God is Not Great, Real Time with Bill Maher, George Bush, Jesus, Republican, Laura Bush, God[/tags]