Faith works miracles: Time travel edition

Hi C&L fans! Thanks, Batocchio!

Or is he just another secret Muslim? (Via)

I was startled to hear on the radio this morning the story, from the Republican candidates' forum at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas this weekend, of how JEB! found the Lord, which was new to me, and somewhat surprising, given the well-known history of how he got married to a Catholic woman in 1974 and went to Mass with her for the next 21 years before finally being received into the Roman communion in 1995 (as he wrote in a piece for CNN on the eve of the Pope's visit to the US in September), because it sounds as if he was having a secret and, um, rather Baptist life the whole time:

Like the other candidates, Bush focused on his anti-abortion rights record and painted himself as a defender of religious liberty.  He opened up about a born-again moment he experienced in the '80s, when he decided to read the Bible from end to end.

I got about halfway through Romans when I realized that Jesus was my savior," he said. (CNN via)

(love how the defense of religious liberty is directly associated with the liberty to interfere with other people's possibly irreligious liberty), or,

Former Governor Jeb Bush give a personal account of how reading the bible from cover to cover as an adult, changed his life. “I realized that Jesus Christ is my savior,” said Bush. “I can’t wait to get home for Sunday Funday and to pray with my wife.” (Leslie Chapman, Pop Goes the City)

Halfway through Romans is around page 2127 of 2355 in my cover-to-cover Harper Collins Study Bible edition—

5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.

6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. (KJV)

So it wasn't a casual project. Nevertheless, even though he was nine tenths of the way through, he doesn't seem to have finished reading it, because last spring he was trying again:

Looking for a good summer read? Jeb Bush has some suggestions.

Visiting a bioscience company here  Thursday, the presumed presidential candidate was asked if he could recommend any good books. He named a few.

"I’m actually reading Paul’s letters right now, which I haven’t read in awhile," he said, referencing biblical passages.

"I’m not sure that fits your spiritual views, but it’s pretty good reading," he added. "The Bible, I read it when I go to church but I haven’t read it from cover to cover and I’m starting to do that. I recommend it. Particularly if you want to get your architecture straight, your life kind of centered, that would probably be the best book ever written." (WAPO, May 28)

He was reading the Good Book cover to cover as he had not done before and had arrived at the Epistles, but still felt he was starting.

Unless perhaps he was reading it backwards, back cover to front cover?

And the other question is, is it possible that, in some bizarre retroactionary phenomenon, even as Governor Bush has moved forward through the summer, his Bible experience has somehow migrated backwards in time, 30 years, and settled into an entirely different phase of his life?

Cross-posted at No More Mister Nice Blog.