President Bush: “You’re equally American whether you’re a Jew, Muslim, Christian, or Atheist.”

President George W. Bush said the following in an interview with German newspaper BILD:

“The President’s job is never to promote a religion. The great thing about America—and Germany, for that matter—is that you should be able to worship freely. I like to tell people, you’re equally American whether you’re a Jew, Muslim, Christian, or Atheist—you’re equally all Americans—and that if we ever lose that, we begin to look like the Taliban.” (See the entire interview here on the White House website.)

This from the same person who once said: “We need common-sense judges who understand our rights were derived from God. And those are the kind of judges I intend to put on the bench.”

And whose father, the 41st President of the United States, is reported to have said: “I don’t know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God.” (While cited by a single journalist, former President Bush has never denied making this statement.)

Although President Bush stated that he “like(s) to tell people” that atheists are equally American, this is the first that Minnesota Atheists has heard of our current President’s belief that atheists share equal standing with all other Americans.

Since it is not possible to have equal standing without equal rights, President Bush should reconsider his positions that infringe on the constitutional principle of state-church separation, such as his religious test for judges, “faith-based” initiatives, vouchers for parochial schools, the teaching of “intelligent design” in public schools, and others.