The passion that’s behind the president

“What began 20 years ago as a personal religious experience,” intones “Frontline’s” sonorous narrator at the conclusion of “The Jesus Factor,” a documentary written, directed and co-produced by Raney Aronson, “has for George W. Bush become a factor inextricably linked with his career as a politician, and now with the life of the country.”

An analytical, decidedly secular look at the roots, causes and effects of the president’s religious beliefs, “The Jesus Factor,” which airs Thursday on PBS, should have one of two effects: It will either treat you to a nice tank of vitriol for your next call in to Rush’s show, or it will scare the daylights out of you.

Approaching the Bush-Jesus connection from both sides of what increasingly appears to be a presidential pulpit (Bush is considered “the most openly religious president in generations”), “The Jesus Factor” also examines the considerable political effect of the evangelical Christian right, a constituency so powerful, the report suggests, that it won both Bushes their presidencies.

According to “The Jesus Factor,” more than 40% of Americans describe themselves as evangelical, born-again Christians -- and Bush speaks their language. Yet even among this group, the president has critics, though who knows to what lengths “Frontline” went to find them. Of the people interviewed for the film, religious leaders and Bush advisors outnumber reporters and university professors almost 2 to 1. Dr. Richard Land, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission at the Southern Baptist Convention; Doug Wead, former advisor to the first President Bush; Skip Hedgpeth and Mark Leaverton, founding members of the Midland Men’s Community Bible Study; Richard Cizik, vice president for government affairs of the National Organization of Evangelicals; and the Rev. Dr. Welton C. Gaddy, head of the Interfaith Alliance, are among those featured.

Using photos, news footage and spoken recollections, “The Jesus Factor” takes us back to Midland, Texas, a city in which, in the words of Dallas Morning News senior political writer Wayne Slater, “there’s nothing to do but to make money and go to church.” The mid-’80s saw a severe dip in oil prices followed by a sharp hike in Bible study attendance. Bush was one of 120 Midland men who began “a rigorous study of the Bible,” the documentary says.

But Wead, an evangelical Christian himself, still sounds amazed when he describes George W. Bush’s sway over the evangelical voting bloc during his father’s lackluster 1988 campaign (the former president came in third in the Iowa caucuses, trailing even televangelist Pat Robertson). “We were the first modern presidency to win an election -- and it was a landslide -- and not win the Catholic vote,” he says in the film. “And how did we do it? We carried 82 or 83% of the evangelical votes. The message did come home. My God, you could win the White House with nothing but evangelicals.”

If the younger Bush proved a valuable political asset for his father, the film stops short of suggesting that his religious convictions are politically motivated. (At one point, however, Wead does say that the president himself may not know when “he’s operating out of a genuine sense of his own faith or when it’s calculated.” It’s a surprisingly critical remark, considering the source.)

As far as the president’s religious convictions are concerned, “The Jesus Factor” reveals little that has not been reported elsewhere. It does, however, put it all in one place and, given the timing of its airing, very firmly in context. Bush’s familiar I’m-on-a-mission-from-God rhetoric may go back to before his days as governor -- “The day he was inaugurated, several of us met with him at the Governor’s Mansion,” recalls Land, a director of the conservative Southern Baptist Convention, “and among the things he said to us was, ‘I believe that God wants me to be president’ ” -- but, as Wallis observes, having a president who claims that God has picked America for his team has dramatic global implications now.

This should clear up confusion, at home and abroad, as to why the president tends to couch policy decisions in simple moral terms. But it’s a fervor, “The Jesus Factor” suggests, that may have taken everyone, even the elder Bushes, by surprise. Ken Herman, a reporter at the now-defunct Houston Post who profiled Bush, recalls an argument the president once told him he had with his mother. Barbara Bush maintained that religious affiliation did not determine admittance into heaven; George W. argued that Christians alone would be allowed in.

The account prompts another moment of apparent incredulity in Wead, who exclaims, “The political ramifications of that were huge. I mean, if I’m not a Christian, if I’m Jewish or some other faith, I’m damned? And so he doesn’t talk like that anymore.”

Maybe so, “The Jesus Factor” concludes, but money talks for him. According to figures obtained by the film’s producers, executive branch agencies have funded the president’s “signature faith-based initiative” to the tune of $1.1 billion to “faith-friendly” organizations. The Compassion Capital Fund, run by the Department of Health and Human Services, has given more than $400 million to Christian organizations, the film reports.

“Even though they’ve applied,” the film’s narrator adds, “no charities run by Jewish, Muslim or other non-Christian faiths have received money” from the Compassion Capital Fund.

Maybe, “The Jesus Factor” suggests, in the scrupulous, non-incendiary secular humanistic way favored by PBS, where critics and supporters chat amiably in front of cozy fires, what began as a personal mission 20 years ago remains one today.

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‘Frontline: The Jesus Factor’

Where: KCET

When: 9-10 p.m. Thursday

Producer, writer, director, Raney Aronson. Executive producer for “Frontline,” David Fannin.