Kennebunkport, Maine -- 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 one more parishioner.

George W. Bush began to take part in a Bible study group in 1985, after two decades of binge drinking. For two years he studied the Scriptures and put his heavy drinking behind him. In that same process, he succeeded in refocusing his life, which had been diffused and confused, into a coherent cosmic vision--or ideology--which corresponded to the mentality of the conservative evangelicals of his country.

DailyCamera.com (Colorado), July 6, 2003 (Opinion: Clay Evans)

BBC, Apr. 6, 2003

The President rides out