Washington -- Few, perhaps none, of the U.S. presidents have injected their religion into statecraft as much as President Bush has.

I've covered presidents since John F. Kennedy and they all have regularly attended worship services. Lyndon B. Johnson went to as many as three nearby churches on Sundays when he was in Texas at the LBJ ranch.

None of the chief executives was more deeply into religion than Jimmy Carter, a Baptist. As president, he continued to teach Sunday school in churches in Washington and Plains, Ga.

But Carter and his predecessors were careful to observe a time-honored tradition of preserving the wall of separation between church and state. Bush does not seem to know where the line is drawn between his secular status and his spiritual beliefs.

Early in his first term, the "born again" president established the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives which, among other things, helps to promote and federally fund religious charities.

The president's speeches justifying the war in Iraq are laced with his belief that "the God Almighty" wants all people to be free.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Bush told Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas in June 2003 -- when Abbas was the foreign minister -- that God had told him to invade Iraq.

More recently, Nabil Shaath, the Palestinian information minister, said in a BBC broadcast that Bush informed a gathering of Palestinian ministers that God also wanted him to create a Palestinian state.

Shaath quoted Bush as saying: "I'm driven with a mission from God."

White House spokesmen have refused to comment on what they call the president's private conversations. There is also perhaps the question of literal interpretation of the president's remarks.

But Bush's public speeches are replete with implications of spiritual guidance. There is no doubt that he is guided by his faith and feels the need to spread the word.

In his controversial selection of White House counsel Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court, Bush emphasized that she is a woman of deep faith. She had been a Roman Catholic and became a Christian evangelical convert.

He was motivated by the need to reassure her most severe critics -- mostly right-wing columnists -- that Miers would remain a true conservative if confirmed for the high bench.

It appeared that the president also was subtly trying to tell his GOP constituency that she is on their side against abortion rights.

Meantime, an issue we thought had been settled long ago has erupted in the schools over the teaching of evolution versus creationism -- or what is now called "intelligent design."

President Bush opened a hornet's nest last August by telling Texas newspaper reporters that he thought intelligent design should be taught along with evolution so that people could be exposed to "different schools ...different ideas."

Intelligent design -- a concept being promoted by conservatives -- challenges scientific theory and holds that living organisms are so complex a higher authority must have designed them.

There is no question that Bush is a committed Christian. But he should understand he governs people of many religions and that his own faith should be personal, not presidential.

Helen Thomas is a columnist for Hearst Newspapers.

© 2005 Seattle Post-Intelligencer