“We have the opportunity, each and every one of us, to do the right thing, and for the right reason,” Bush recalled (Pastor) Craig preaching. At the other end of the pew, Barbara Bush mouthed to her son, “He is talking to you.”

Former President George W. Bush made no secret that his politics were tinged by his religious faith, but now says he never would have made it to the White House without a fateful — and faith-filled — decision to quit drinking in 1986.

“I could not have quit drinking without faith,” Bush writes in his memoir, “Decision Points,” released Tuesday (Nov. 9). “I also don’t think my faith would be as strong if I hadn’t quit drinking.”

Across 497 pages, Bush recounts the ways religious faith shaped his life and his politics. While religion is not a central thrust of the book, it’s nonetheless a constant theme.
Attending Presbyterian and Methodist churches in Midland, Texas, Bush writes that “religion had always been a part of my life, but I really wasn’t a believer.”

That changed with his decision to quit drinking a year after evangelist Billy Graham visited the Bush vacation home in Maine in 1985.

At that time, Bush said, he was an occasional reader of the Bible, which he viewed as “a kind of self-improvement course.” During that well-known walk with Graham, the evangelist said the point of the Scriptures was to follow Christ, not just to improve himself.

“Billy had planted a seed,” Bush wrote.

Months after returning to Texas, Bush joined a weekly Bible study. He soon started reading the Bible every morning, a practice he continued throughout his time at the White House.

Read More: http://blog.christianitytoday.com/ctpolitics/2010/11/in_bush_memoir.html