"The President now opened all meetings with a prayer. This had put off many cabinet secretaries when Bush first started the practice in the first days of the administration."

("The Price of Loyalty," by Ron Suskind, page 186)

"The Bush people were more often than not people of faith. There was the Presbyterian minister's daughter...Condoleezza Rice. John Ashcroft, a former senator and now attorney general, was a faithful member of the Assemblies of God. Chief of Staff Andrew Card was married to a Methodist minister. Commerce Secretary Don Evans had been with Bush since the days of the Community Bible Study in Midland. And Karen Hughes, the one they called 'The Prophet,' was a Presbyterian elder...

What distinguished the Bush brand of the faithful was that they did not leave their spiritual lives at the door of the White House. David Frum, who is Jewish, said that the first words he ever heard spoken in the Bush White House were, "Missed you at Bible study."

Since 1997, federal regulations had allowed religious activities in government workplaces so long as the nonreligious were not harassed or pressured. Bible studies and prayer meetings became commonplace and nowhere more than in the White House. As one staffer said, "No one assumes the White House is a church...But we do understand that the political vision we serve is fueled by faith."

("The Faith of George W. Bush," Stephen Mansfield, pages 117-118)