George H. W. Bush & Barbara Bush: Dignity Doesn’t Have to Go Extinct

Author’s Note: The following is an adapted excerpt from my new book, Witness to Dignity: The Life and Faith of George H.W. and Barbara Bush (Hachette/Center Street, 2022). As pastor to the former first couple, I had the honor of serving them for the last eleven and a half years of their lives. The book endeavors to show how they served, aged, loved, and died with dignity; to honor their faith; to honor the Judeo-Christian tradition; and to, finally, open the door for the reader to consider the implications of the contrast between the culture and time in which we now live and that season of leadership during the Bushes’ four years in the White House, as well as the examples blazed by their lives after they left office. The following passage comes from the book’s ending, recalling H. W. Bush’s funeral and my thoughts on the lessons for our political culture that can be drawn from his and Barbara’s lives.

Toward the end of my homily from the pulpit in Washington, D.C., I referenced that many people in the public arena between the day of 41’s death and burial began to say, “This is an end of an era.” Instead, I suggested that era does not have to end and that perhaps the president’s death is actually an invitation to fill the hole his death had left behind.

RL

About the Author

Russell J. Levenson, Jr.

The Reverend Dr. Russell J. Levenson, Jr. has served as rector of St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Houston for over 15 years.

Featured Tags

Manage following

George H. W. Bush

Barbara Bush

Author’s Note: The following is an adapted excerpt from my new book, Witness to Dignity: The Life and Faith of George H.W. and Barbara Bush (Hachette/Center Street, 2022). As pastor to the former first couple, I had the honor of serving them for the last eleven and a half years of their lives. The book endeavors to show how they served, aged, loved, and died with dignity; to honor their faith; to honor the Judeo-Christian tradition; and to, finally, open the door for the reader to consider the implications of the contrast between the culture and time in which we now live and that season of leadership during the Bushes’ four years in the White House, as well as the examples blazed by their lives after they left office. The following passage comes from the book’s ending, recalling H. W. Bush’s funeral and my thoughts on the lessons for our political culture that can be drawn from his and Barbara’s lives.

Toward the end of my homily from the pulpit in Washington, D.C., I referenced that many people in the public arena between the day of 41’s death and burial began to say, “This is an end of an era.” Instead, I suggested that era does not have to end and that perhaps the president’s death is actually an invitation to fill the hole his death had left behind.