From: mathew <mathew@mantis.co.uk>
Newsgroups: alt.atheism,sci.skeptic
Subject: Re: Bush interview as quoted in Alt.Atheism FAQ
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 92 11:50:18 BST
Distribution: world
Organization: Mantis Consultants, Cambridge. UK.

lippard@skyblu.ccit.arizona.edu (James J. Lippard) writes:
> As I have pointed out once before, and as Jim Perry has also pointed out,
> the original version posted to the net did *NOT* have the words "Mr. Presiden
> in it.  I also cited a published version of the transcript (in the Fall 1988
> issue of _Free Inquiry_) which also lacks those words.  I previously asked
> if anyone has ever seen a published, printed transcript which *does*
> contain the words "Mr. President," and got no response.  I would be most
> interested in knowing how those words got into the alt.atheism FAQ in the
> first place--whose posting to alt.atheism contained those words, and where
> did they get the transcript?

I've hunted around and found the answer in some old spool files of mine dating
from late last year...

[ This is a mail message containing a copy of a Usenet posting I mailed to my
  home machine at the time, mwowm.mantis.co.uk. ]

# From mathew  Tue, 19 Nov 91 11:03:53 GMT remote from mantis
# Received: by mantis.co.uk (1.64/waf)
# 	via UUCP; Tue, 19 Nov 91 11:03:53 GMT
# 	for mwowm!mathew
# To: mwowm!mathew
# Subject: Re: Bush & atheists
# From: VALIS <mathew@mantis.co.uk>
# Message-ID: <7koNBB3w164w@mantis.co.uk>
# Date: Tue, 19 Nov 91 11:03:53 GMT
# In-Reply-To: <1991Nov18.094352.29079@nntp.hut.fi>
# Organization: Mantis Consultants, Cambridge. UK.
# 
# Path: mantis!ibmpcug!slxsys!uknet!mcsun!fuug!nntp.hut.fi!usenet
# From: jkp@cs.HUT.FI (Jyrki Kuoppala)
# Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc,soc.culture.usa,alt.atheism,talk.religion.misc,alt.individualism,alt.society.civil-liberty
# Subject: Re: Bush & atheists
# Message-ID: <1991Nov18.094352.29079@nntp.hut.fi>
# Date: 18 Nov 91 09:43:52 GMT
# References: <1991Nov18.014518.26579@cco.caltech.edu>
# Sender: usenet@nntp.hut.fi (Usenet pseudouser id)
# Reply-To: jkp@cs.HUT.FI (Jyrki Kuoppala)
# Followup-To: talk.politics.misc
# Organization: Helsinki University of Technology, Finland
# Lines: 72
# In-Reply-To: dicely@cco.caltech.edu
# Nntp-Posting-Host: sauna.cs.hut.fi
# 
# In article <1991Nov18.014518.26579@cco.caltech.edu>, dicely@cco writes:
# >
# >Could someone provide a reference for the Bush quote regarding atheists in my  
# >..sig, I snagged the quote out of an article here and lost the source...
# 
# This is becoming a FAQ.  Here are the sources I've seen:
# 
# From: dougm@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu
# Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc,misc.legal
# Subject: Re: Bush quote
# Date: 16 Oct 91 13:21:52 GMT
# 
# The reference to that quote, seen again below, is Free Enquiry
# magazine, Fall 1988.
# 
# [ .. ]
# "I don't know that athiests should be considered citizens, nor
# should they be considered patriots.  This is one nation under God."
# 					Pres. George Bush
# 
# [ .. ]
# 
# From: eck@panix.com (Mark Eckenwiler)
# Subject: Re: Bush quote
# Organization: The Witherspoon Excludables
# 
# [ .. ]
# I ran a Nexis search and found support.  UPI reported on May 8, 1989
# that various atheist organizations were still angry over the remarks
# above (quoted accurately, I note).  Bush made the comments during a
# campaign stop on August 27, 1988 at (ironically) O'Hare airport in an
# exchange with Robert Sherman, chief spokesman for American Atheists.
# 
# [ .. ]
# From: constant@helios.ecn.purdue.edu (Tino)
# Newsgroups: talk.politics.drugs,alt.drugs,talk.politics.misc
# Subject: Re: Drug war samaritans
# 
# [ .. ]
# >  Is this quote for real????????!!!!!!
# 
# [ .. ]
# 
# Unfortunately, yes. I have a transcript of the interview at home, but it went
# something like this: (It took place during Bush's 88 campaign, at a press
# conference at O'Hare Airport)
# 
# Reporter for the American Athiest magazine, Rob Sherman: "Mr. President,
#      what will you do to gain the votes of American citizens who are
#      Athiests?"
# George Bush: "Well, I don't really have a strong interest in Athiests. Faith
#      in god is pretty important to me."
# RS: "But you do believe that Athiests should have the same rights as other
#      citizens?"
# GB: "I don't know that Athiests should be considered citizens, nor should
#      they be considered patriots. This is one nation under god."
# 
# After this quote was made, many attempts by American Athiests (the 
# organization that lobbies for church-state separation) and other (non)citizens
# were made to allow the White House to retract this statement. Apparently this
# IS the Administration's policy on Athiests.
# 
# ....The Land of the Free, and the Home of the Brave...
# 
# Tino
# --
# "We don't see much of Charlie Brown anymore.
#  He went to jail for killing Lucy, that whore.    
#  Linus is drunk, Schroeder's a punk,               --Beefsteak,
#  And Sally gets paid swallowing spunk!"              "Charlie Brown Stain"
# 
# (followups to talk.politics.misc)
# 
# 
# 
# mathew

So, it looks as though I cut-and-pasted the section from
constant@helios.ecn.purdue.edu in order to include the facts that it was a
press conference at O'Hare airport during the '88 campaign, and that it was
Robert Sherman of American Atheist magazine interviewing.  Presumably when I
then rearranged things and cut one of the copies of Sherman's opening
question, I cut the old copy rather than the new one.

The rest, as they say, is history...


mathew
-- 
Ceci | n'est pas une pipe.