We know two important things about the story of George W. Bush's impromptu soul-saving session: one, it's bunk; two, among the first to be suspicious of it were members of the very group it was aimed at, evangelical Christians.

As one person who wrote to me astutely observed:

"I like to think the best of folks and I think most other Christians do also. We especially want to believe that the people we look up to are soul winning Christians, or got saved just before they died, or were miraculously delivered from drugs or alcohol. I want to believe the story below. However, it smacks of hoax to me. Just enough info to sound authentic to those who are looking for a reason to believe in our new president, but not enough to really check it out."

I received reports that some ministers were uncritically repeating the story in their Sunday sermons, but I also saw evidence that others were attempting to authenticate it, sharing the results of their investigations with colleagues by email. It was Pastor David O. Dykes of the Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler, Texas who finally debunked the tale by querying a former volunteer in the Bush campaign. His response, immediately forwarded to other pastors across the United States, included the following observations:

1. "The campaign did not hold a thank you banquet for staff or volunteers because there was no time after the election due to the Florida recount. Soon after election day many on the campaign's staff went to Florida as observers etc and didn't return until after GWB was declared president-elect.....thus, no banquet was held."
2. "A thank you reception was held for volunteers at the Governor's Mansion, however the Governor did not attend. I DID attend the reception and was there the whole time and GWB or Laura were not in attendance — I remember that distinctly — because many volunteers were hoping they would stop in for a few minutes and they were unavailable...(so...it didn't happen at the volunteers reception...)."
3. "The president-elect's schedule is so-scheduled that although he may wish to have 30 minutes to visit with a young person, and probably would enjoy it,

   About.com Poll Do you think this email tale accurately reflects the character of President Bush? Yes No Not sure Current Results

   he wouldn't have had the time to do so and his schedulers wouldn't have allowed it — so even if he wanted to — he wouldn't have been able to stop and visit like that."

All this was subsequently confirmed very succinctly by Austin American-Statesman reporter Ken Herman, who checked the story out with Bush's staff and concluded: "No banquet, no story, never happened."  Attempts to track down the elusive Jeff Benoit, to whom the anecdote is attributed and who surely could explain its origin, have failed.

The inescapable conclusion is that somebody just made the darned thing up and spread it around by email for reasons we'll never know. To call it a presidential legend would be to confer on it a legitimacy it doesn't deserve. It's an Internet hoax; a concerted lie. End of story.

Sources:

• "God Is Their Copilot." Salon Magazine, 7 Jul 2000.
• "Jesus and George W.: What a Story." Cox News Service, 14 Jan 2001.