In his campaign autobiography, communications director Karen Hughes' "A Charge to Keep," Bush writes, "I believe it is important to live my faith, not flaunt it." The book's index tells a different story. Under "Bush, George W.":

[gubernatorial] appointments of, 95-109 ... in oil and gas industry [his career from 1975-1985], 61-66, 179 ... religious background and beliefs of, 1-2, 6, 8-9, 10, 12-13, 19, 45, 83, 86, 132, 136-139, 147."

Even if he doesn't exactly flaunt his faith, Bush does seem to like to talk about it quite a bit. Much of it seems tied up in his decision to quit drinking in the summer of 1986 -- and by many accounts, Bush was an ugly drunk who never would be where he is today if he hadn't given up the sauce.

"The seeds" for his decision to go on the wagon, Bush writes in "A Charge To Keep," "had been planted a year before, by the Reverend Billy Graham" during a visit by Graham in the summer of 1985 to the Bush family retreat in Kennebunkport, Maine.

He sat by the fire and talked. And what he said sparked a change in my heart. I don't remember the exact words. It was more the power of his example. The Lord was so clearly reflected in his gentle and loving demeanor. The next day, we walked and talked at Walker's Point ... Graham planted a mustard seed in my soul ... he led me to the path, and I began walking. And it was the beginning of a change in my life. I had always been a religious person, had regularly attended church, even taught Sunday school and served as an altar boy. But that weekend my faith took on a new meaning. It was the beginning of a new walk where I would recommit my heart to Jesus Christ.

Bush didn't exactly become the exemplar of Christian piety at that very moment. At a Dallas restaurant in April 1986, according to "First Son," the Bush biography by Dallas Morning News reporter Bill Minutaglio, he spotted columnist Al Hunt of the Wall Street Journal, who had recently predicted that Jack Kemp, and not then-Vice President George Bush, would be the 1988 GOP presidential nominee. George W. Bush, clearly sloshed, according to Hunt, approached the columnist and, in front of Hunt's young son, called him a "no-good fucking sonovabitch."

A couple of months later, after waking up with a wicked hangover on the morning after he turned 40, Bush gave up the bottle, according to "A Charge to Keep." (Though, he didn't exactly vault into piety. During the 1988 Republican convention, Bush was asked by a Hartford [Conn.] Courant reporter what he and his father talked about when they weren't discussing politics. "Pussy," Bush joked. But at least there was no indication Bush had been drinking.)

Turning to God, however, has also created its own problems, none more controversial for Bush than in 1993 after he told a Jewish reporter for the Austin American-Statesman that, according to his faith, nonbelievers in Christ, including Jews, go to hell. His statements were picked up by the Jewish press, and when he first ran for Texas governor in 1994, were revived by his opponent, then-Gov. Ann Richards, in ads her campaign took out in Jewish newspapers.

"Bush was giving the Orthodox biblical answer," says Marvin Olasky, a senior fellow of the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty, a born-again Christian and advisor to Bush on compassionate conservatism. "On the face of it, you have to believe in Christ to go to heaven; Jews don't believe in Christ; therefore, Jews don't go to heaven. So of course there was an uproar."

The story lay dormant until 1998 when, right before Bush left for a trip to Israel, the same Austin American-Statesman reporter asked Bush what he would say to the Israelis upon arrival. "Go to hell," Bush joked.

After that uproar, Bush apologized by sending an artfully phrased letter to Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith. Bush wrote that he was "troubled that some people were hurt ... I regret the concern caused by my statement and reassure you and the Jewish community that you have my deepest respect." Foxman accepted Bush's apology, now saying "his 1993 statement is now behind us."

Bush also held a news conference. "My faith tells me that acceptance of Jesus Christ as my savior is my salvation, and I believe I made it clear that it is not the governor's role to decide who goes to heaven," he said at the time. "I believe God decides who goes to heaven, not George W. Bush."

Bush has since adopted this last line as his catchall for whenever he is asked whether Jews -- like his press secretary Ari Fleischer, or foreign policy advisors Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz or domestic policy advisor Steven Goldsmith -- lack the credentials to get in to heaven.

Some call it a cop-out. "This won't do, I'm afraid," Slate's Michael Kinsley wrote. "No one is asking Bush to 'decide' or 'rule on' who gets into heaven ... The issue is whether God has an admissions policy that excludes Jews and whether George W. has an opinion about what that policy might be. Surely he does. ... (I)f Bush really believes that accepting Jesus is the only path to salvation, he is pulling a pretty dirty trick on Jews by telling them otherwise. Putting votes before souls: Talk about political expediency!"

But Olasky explains that this is not necessarily just a political issue. The debate has been around for 2,000 years, of course, and even before Bush was writing apology letters to B'nai B'rith he was debating the issue with his mother, who argued that Jews might go to heaven after all. To settle the score, they asked Billy Graham, who reportedly told them to "never play God."

Olasky explains the conflict for Christians in the most personal terms. "The Bible clearly says that unless you believe in Christ, you don't go to heaven," Olasky says. "So what does this mean for my father" -- who was Jewish -- "who died 16 years ago?" For reassurance, Olasky says, many Christians turn to the book of Genesis, chapter 18, to the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, where God says "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?"

Jim Mayfield, the senior pastor of Bush's church in Austin, the Tarrytown United Methodist Church, says: "I believe that God is more loving than we can comprehend, and wiser that we ever have any ability to understand. And therefore, whatever's most loving and most wise is what happens, and I leave that in God's hands. If human beings can recognize something as being stupid and unfair, then a wise and loving God can certainly recognize something as being as stupid and unfair."

So if Bush still believes Jews are going to hell -- or gays, adulterers, woman who have abortions, all of whom are believed to be going to hell by many religious conservatives -- he's wisely not saying so out loud. But his Austin pastor, at least, certainly is preaching a more ambiguous form of Christianity.

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