Tom Bush

Editor’s Note: Two years ago, Tom Bush was the chairman of the Mecklenburg County Commission and a candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives. A vocal spokesman for Christian values, he was one of the "Gang of Five" who fought to have government arts funding eliminated following the "Angels In America" controversy. Two years later, following changes in his personal and professional life that have included a separation from his wife and a break with his law partners, Bush is back. Some of his critics say he is trying to re-invent himself. Bush, though, says he has simply lived and learned. He recently shared with us some of what he has learned.


Warren Smith: This election cycle has seemed different than in the past. Is the political landscape changing in Charlotte?

Tom Bush: First of all, we’re in a very unpredictable time. We have a legion of new voters. People who have come here from LA County in California and Nassau County in New York and Dade County in Florida. We don’t know how many of these people are going to register and how many of them are going to vote. We don’t know if they are going to bring their viewpoints with them.

Secondly, we have much more lethargy. Americans have this capacity to be so busy that election days can come and go without them even thinking about it. There is a lot of unpredictability, at the national, state, and local levels.

Also, there are no big issues except the continuing problem of the public school system. And that is really not a problem to solve, but a mess to contain. Now, there are things on the horizon, things that are waiting to happen. Those are transit issues, sprawl issues, protection of environment issues. That little egg is about to hatch, and it is going to be a tremendous issue. But I’m not sure we’re there yet.

WS: You mean we’re not there yet in terms of the consciousness of the voters?

TB: The consciousness of the voters. The vigorousness of the debate. The taking sides by elected officials. And we also have this lingering uncomfortableness about the judicial system. Access to the courts.

But these are not things that really excite people. Not like the Arts and Science Council vote.

WS: Speaking of that, you recently said you would be in favor of restoring funding to the ASC. Has Tom Bush changed? Have the conditions changed?

TB: Government since antiquity – in both pagan nations and Christian nations – have always provided seed money for the arts. The arts represent two things. They represent the expression of the highest of God’s creatures. They represent civility.

My record on voting for the arts has always been to vote for seed money, except on that one event when we allowed the debate to turn into a debate on homosexuality. If you favored the arts in that climate, you were promoting homosexuality by government. If you opposed the arts in that environment you were a Neanderthal censor. The Board of County Commissioners and the community let the debate get out of hand. We let two small groups re-define what was really happening there.

I will continue to vote for some limited funding -- $2-million or $3-million. Now, if somebody gets in the Board of County Commissioners’ face and tries to re-define the issue, then I think the mission of the board and whoever is in charge of the board is to keep that debate from becoming one of alternative lifestyles and those kinds of things.

So, I don’t think I have changed position. At the time I made that vote, I think it was the right vote. I have bowed the knee to Jesus Christ for 42 years, and the God who has protected me all those years, when it gets down to a vote on whether I stand with Him or I stand against Him, then I vote my allegiance.

WS: So you haven’t really changed on that issue. On another issue, the environment, there has been some talk of the "greening" of Tom Bush. You are one of the few conservative voices who is trying to make environmental issues central. Why? And is this a change?

TB: My view toward environmental issues is simply one of stewardship. I’m a hunter, a fisherman, a runner. I’m out every morning in the open air. I’m about to take a check ride as a private pilot, and I fly a lot.

What I see is a lot of greed and selfishness. We’ll bulldoze 2000 hardwood trees to throw up another Starbucks and a Wal-Mart. I think we need elected officials that this is God’s green earth, not ours. We are stewards. We can certainly take dominion of it, but when pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered. I want to make sure that we don’t become hogs when it comes to the environment. When it comes to 5000 square foot homes, another commercial center, I think there is a lot that we are doing that is detrimental and does not reflect our nobility.

And we need to get Duke Power off their fanny and get them on a burying program. If you walk Uptown in Charlotte, you won’t see a single power line. We know it can be done. This is an aesthetic issue. We need to get these power lines buried where we can, on Providence Road, Fairview, those locations. Duke Power is burying new lines, but we need to get old lines buried.

WS: But what should be the role of government in producing these results. I’m in favor of burying power lines, but should the government decree that these things be done?

TB: Your radar ought to go up anytime you see the government about to do anything. The government cannot accomplish any act without taking away some – no matter how small – personal liberty. God has given us freedom – for better or for worse. So when we pick up one end of the stick and exercise a choice, we pick up the other end of the stick. It’s a big stick. There are consequences to government moving into areas that may dictate what a company should do. Like a developer. Or what a quasi-governmental entity, like a power monopoly, ought to do.

However, that’s a myth in our community, because the underdog is really the government. Charlotte has been run by benevolent monarchs. First Union, Bank of America, Duke Power. The Belks. Some developers. Johnny Harris, John Crosland. Who are well-intentioned, and who have done more than just make living. They’ve invested in this community. They have raised their children here. They’ve been as philanthropic as any group in any city. But government has been at the control of these people and institutions. Corporations who have a tremendous amount of power. We saw that in the arts controversy.

In this case, government is getting beat up on environmental issues.

WS: I’m struggling a bit with the notion of the government being the underdog. I see your point, that compared to global corporations, the local government is not all-powerful. But from where many citizens sit it looks more like a Clash of the Titans, with a lot of citizens and personal liberty being crushed in the fight.

TB: Government is the underdog. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it! Government is the underdog when it comes to protecting our water, our trees. The developers have traditionally controlled the planning and zoning board. The development community is the largest contributor to local races. No one contributes like the development community. The development community quite often has their own candidates.

WS: For example, whom?

TB: The present chairman of the board of county commissioners. Probably the overwhelming majority of the members of the city council. The overwhelming majority of the members of the board of county commissioners have been heavily influenced and provided the ability to hold public office by developer money.

SPPACE, a group of developers and real estate executives, contributes heavily to local races, and are hardball players. They have a right to be. What government does will affect them. At the same time, I think that somebody needs to slow the train down when it comes to over-development.

WS: If you become that person, if you get elected and even if you don’t, now that you’re back in the arena, what’s different about you? A lot has happened to you in the past two years. You were defeated in your bid for Congress. You have had some personal and business changes. What is different about the Tom Bush running today from the Tom Bush of 2 or 4 years ago?

TB: I think that the way God deals with people is that – even though life is short – he takes you through seasons of life. In one sense, you mature as you age. I’m 52 years old now. I’ve had some bumps in life, and what I’ve learned is that there is much wisdom in many counselors. Get a reality check and bounce your ideas off of people you respect. The second thing you learn is that you should treat people in a more gentle way if you can. Roosevelt’s great statement, "Walk softly and carry a big stick," is very good advice.

There has been no liberalization of Tom Bush, no redefining of what he believes biblically or in any other way. I am an evangelical Christian. I believe in the inerrancy of Scripture. I believe there was a man who really was swallowed up by a great fish. I believe there was a time in history when a man actually faced a burning bush. I believe there was a God-Man who walked this earth and was crucified as a substitutionary atonement for a smelly, stinky human race, of which I’m a part. There’s been no change in my beliefs.

You know, the definition of insanity is when you keep doing the same thing over and over again and expect different results. Some of us never learn, but there has been a maturing process.

WS: Did the voters give you a few lessons there? If you look back at the conservatives who were serving 4 years ago – George Higgins, Mike Jackson, Don Reid, Joel Carter, Hoyle Martin. They’re all gone. Only Bill James is left. Was that a backlash against the Arts & Science Council vote? Is it true what Don Reid said, that there really are two Republican parties, and if you don’t toe the moderate line, you’re out?

TB: Well, I respectfully have to disagree with Don on that. I don’t think those who are gone are gone out of any great anger or campaign against them.

I would say the real reason we get into debates like the Arts and Science Council debate is that we’ve had it too good, too long. We get into debates, like the Arts and Science Council debate, and we get frothy at the mouth, and we get mad at each other. But we have not had to die side by side. There was a time when liberals and conservatives did not have too much time to think about that. They were too busy worrying about the person next to them and about catching a bullet. So I think that right now we are in a period of time when we are very selfish, have no idea of the blessings we have, and have too little to do.

WS: Are evangelicals supportive of their candidates? Do they vote? Are they making a difference?

TB: Evangelical Christians stay out of the debate, and then, when they enter it, they come in with only truth. One of the most difficult things for those of us who profess that faith who are in the public eye is to recognize that truth without grace is nothing more than judgment. When we propound truth, we don’t seem to have a heart. We need to propound truth and also be what Jesus was, as John tells us, full of grace and truth. How can we be not judgmental and at the same time not mushy? I’m not sure.

I think what the evangelical Christian community needs to do is become evangelical Christians. I think they have lost their heritage in the sense that most evangelical Christians are there by birth alone. Certainly most of them have had a born-again experience, but most of them do not spend a half-hour or forty-five minutes a day in their Bibles or reading some great Christian work. I just don’t think evangelical Christians put enough energy into what they believe.

The last great Christian philosopher we had was Francis Schaeffer. He’s been gone a while now. I don’t see any great Christian statesman or leader who can re-invigorate us.

I don’t have a lot of hope for evangelical Christians in politics because every time we get into it we mess it up.

WS: That brings me to a sensitive issue. One that is personal for you. When Christians enter the public arena, they are also more vulnerable to temptations. Just this week a key guy at Focus on the Family…

TB: Mike Traut

WS: Yes, Mike Traut has been forced to resign over marital infidelities. Have Christians in the public eye who have succumbed to these problems eroded the moral authority of the Christian worldview?

TB: One of the greatest evils, and the worst virus – the Ebola virus of Christian families – is the breakup of families. Divorce and separation. I think that, unequivocally, Biblical truth indicates that God saw that it was not good for man to be alone. God established the institution of marriage. And it is very clear that the institution of marriage is monogamy.

I think that the rate of separation and divorce in the Christian community is no different than the pagan community. There is some problem that is going on that is causing men and women who are married, who are Christians, somehow to have an invisible shield that is coming up between them.

I think you will always find among Christian leaders that some are going to stub their toe. Whether that be Jim Bakker, or Mike Traut, or whoever it might be.

There’s another group of men and women who are Christians, for reasons unknown, one of them – probably the braver one – simply says "I can’t live together anymore." You see Christian marriages breaking up, not because of adultery, not because of substance abuse, not because of domestic violence. Breaking up simply because they are beat to the bone. They have been on their knees, praying for their husbands or their wives. Wondering why this doesn’t work, but ultimately giving up. It’s a tragedy. It’s a tragedy that has hit my life. It’s a tragedy that has hit many other lives.

There is a definite missing part that scars you and will cause you to walk with a limp for the rest of your life. I think, though, that we need to be careful. Many Christian marriages have been lost not because of some cataclysmic event such as infidelity or domestic violence. Some have simply broken down. There are those who say, "I love my God, but even David fled the spears of Saul." I don’t know why it’s happening. I’m not sure you can blame the church. The church is busy doing everything else. It’s looking after the homeless, or looking after its own members. I’m not sure how much the church can look after broken hearts right now.

The big five churches in Charlotte have counseling ministries. They try to make themselves available in that way. Many of the churches have ecclesiastical courts who call couples before them. But in the end I’m not sure the church can do anything other than what the church has done for centuries, and that is get on their knees for their members.

One of the things you learn about your Christianity as the years go on is that sometimes God takes you into a period of confusion where there are no longer the rules you grew up by. I grew up with a Christainity that had roman numeral 1 and A, B, C, and D below it. You did these things and God blessed you, and you did these things and there were some pretty severe consequences. But I think there comes a time in every man’s life where there doesn’t seem to be any rules any more. You try to do everything right. Spend your time with the Lord. Go to Him, touch Him and be with Him. And yet there doesn’t seem to be any result. You get mad. Frustrated. You shake your hand and wonder what is going on. But I think God sometimes takes men and women through a period of confusion.

A good friend of mine, Ben Haden, made a comment to me when I was defending a guy who was about to be executed in a death penalty case. I was torn. He said, "Tom, I want to tell you two things. First, you never know Jesus Christ until Jesus Christ is all you have." When everything else has been taken away, that’s how you know what your faith is all about. The second thing he said was from the old Peggy Lee song. "Is that all there is?" His point was that if this life is all there is, then this is a tragedy. The loss of a Christian marriage. The deaths of 6-million Jews. Whatever it is, whether on a micro level or a macro level. If this is all there is, it is profoundly sad. Solomon debated that for us in Ecclesiastes. And what he came up with is that, number one, this life is not all there is. And number two, everything does have its season. A time when things are not so great. A time when you feel close to God, and a time when you feel abandoned and deserted.

I fly airplanes. And I have learned that when I get into situations where I can’t see, I have one main instrument that I trust, no matter how I feel. That instrument is the attitude indicator.

That’s a bit of Tom Bush on life.