Posted on 04/03/2008 6:23:19 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
Traversing the country this week on a tour of places that have shaped his life and informed his values, John McCain spoke in strikingly personal language to introduce himself to the American public.
But missing so far is any significant mention of religious faith.
In an Oprah Winfrey-era where soul-baring and expressions of faith are the norm for public figures, the presumptive Republican nominee, open and candid about much else, retains a shroud of privacy around his Christianity.
Raised Episcopalian, McCain now attends a Baptist megachurch in Phoenix. But he has not been baptized and rarely talks of his faith in anything but the broadest terms or as it relates to how it enabled him to survive 5 ½ years in captivity as a POW.
In this way, McCain, 71, is a throwback to an earlier generation when such personal matters were kept personal. To talk of Jesus Christ in the comfortable, matter of fact fashion of the past two baby-boom era presidents would be unthinkable.
What drives him – at least outwardly – is precisely what he has been talking about this week: a love of country and sense of duty instilled by a military family with a long legacy of service.
His first book, part ancestral tribute and part personal memoir, was titled “Faith of My Fathers,” and it’s their tradition of sacrifice, commitment and honor, a brand of martial noblesse oblige, in which he seems to believe deepest.
Yet in a time when privacy for any politician, let alone a presidential candidate, is virtually non-existent and open expressions—or at least explanations—of religiosity are expected and sometimes demanded by others, McCain may ultimately have to offer more than just testimony about his belief in America’s civic religion.
“I would be very surprised if he didn’t,” says John Green, a senior fellow in religion and American politics at the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. “Simply because a lot of voters will want to know about his faith.”
“It’s a faith-based country,” observes Sen. Sam Brownback, a devout Catholic who has grown closer to McCain since backing his candidacy last year. “Presidential candidates should acknowledge that and say just what is their identity as it relates to that.”
In McCain’s case, he will eventually face a Democratic nominee in either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton who are not only regular churchgoers, but also accustomed to discussing the role faith plays in their lives.
“My guess is that either Clinton or Obama may force a bigger discussion by [McCain] of faith,” Brownback says, acknowledging that their doing so “poses a bit of a challenge.”
One of the most significant divides in the 2004 election, Brownback adds, was between those who regularly attended church and those who did not.
“They’re looking at that and trying to play against it,” says Brownback, who attends a Senate prayer group to which Clinton, but not McCain, also regularly joins. “And by doing so they say what faith-based conservatives want to hear. But the next step is where do you stand on the policies?”
Brownback believes, however, that most Christian conservatives will think twice before lining up with either Democrat.
Gary Bauer, the socially conservative former GOP presidential candidate who got behind McCain in 2000 after withdrawing from the race, recognizes Obama’s comfort level in a world that makes many Democrats uneasy.
“But in spite of him identifying with or using language that rings a bell with faith-based voters, he then comes to public policy conclusions that are out of step with them,” he argues.
Bauer describes McCain as “a very private man” who isn’t comfortable discussing his relationship with Christ.
“That’s a contrast to the evangelical world where being verbal about your faith is just the cultural norm,” Bauer notes, citing the 2000 campaign when then-Gov. George W. Bush offered an open tribute to Christ for changing his life.
He adds that McCain’s reticence should not be confused with secularism.
“His faith is real, it’s an important part of his life,” says Bauer, who has discussed the topic privately with McCain over the years.
But when the topic does come up on the campaign trail, McCain is apt to circle back to the crucible he and his comrades lived through in Hanoi. In particular, he’s fond of telling a story about one of his North Vietnamese captors who one night loosened the ropes tying him together.
“On Christmas, that same guard approached me, and without saying a word, he drew a cross in the sand,” McCain recounted in a powerful ad that aired over the holidays.
Though compelling, the anecdote also reinforces McCain’s inability to discuss his own religious beliefs. “He’s taken some guff for that because some in the audience say, 'Well, that tells me more about the guard’s faith,'” notes Bauer.
Even when he was imprisoned, McCain was not one to confide his feelings on God.
“I don’t recall us talking specifically about our faith,” says Orson Swindle, one of McCain’s closest friends and a fellow POW. “We talked about our friends, families, our resistance posture, and that our country didn’t seem to have the will to win.”
Belief in a higher power helped them survive the routine torture and daily indignities, Swindle says.
“It would help us endure what we had to endure. But we knew God wasn’t going to come down and wave a magic wand.”
Still, McCain was sufficiently versed in scripture to be designated de facto chaplain by his comrades in captivity.
By 1972, Swindle recounts, the restrictions on their activity had receded enough so that the POWs were permitted to gather together. On Sundays, McCain would lead the small group in a makeshift worship service.
Beyond the compulsory chapel he attended as a student at Episcopal High School and later as a Midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy, McCain had been reared by a privately pious father and therefore knew his New Testament.
“His dad was a strong man of faith but it wasn’t something that was talked about,” says Brownback. “But it was something that John witnessed. He saw it in his [father’s] strengths and weaknesses and how his faith carried him.”
Yet while the younger McCain saw his father pray twice every day on his knees, it usually occurred in the sanctity of their home.
“We’re all products of the previous generation in what we talk about,” observes Swindle.
And most men of the World War II era or the period just after McCain grew up just didn’t openly discuss such matters.
There is another component that may explain McCain’s quiet brand of faith, says Green, the scholar.
“His could be called a ‘soldier’s faith,’” he observes.
“It’s a personal commitment and sense of duty as oppose to a doctrinally sophisticated faith, a proselytizing faith or an ideological faith,” explains Green, also a political science professor at the University of Akron. “McCain feels as though he’s talk about his faith when he’s talking about duty, commitment.”
The Arizona senator’s Jacksonville speech Thursday morning underscored that observation.
“They find solace in their faith in God,” McCain says of soldiers in his prepared remarks. “But their strongest loyalty, the bond that cannot break, is to the cause that is theirs alone – each other.”
Maybe he likes listening to the Baptist minister’s sermons and enjoys being with the people who are members. I have no problem with his being an Episcopalian. Does he attend a church in the Washington, D.C. area?
>Raised Episcopalian, McCain now attends a Baptist megachurch in Phoenix. But he has not been baptized...
Raised Episcopalian, but not baptized as an infant? Ha! Raised by false convert parents. Pedo’s? You got anything to say about that?
Attends a Baptist Megachurch? A Baptist church not dunking the guy? Do they think he is unregenerate, and do not want to do it for that reason?
If not then, any Baptist church worth its tithe should be pushing for BAPTISM, or disciplining him.
I just wiped out my comment regarding lord McCain, because I do NOT want to upset the lord McCain worshipers who need to post vanities demanding some of US to bend a knee to him.
Christ said you will know people by their fruit.... enough said. I did not think it 'Christian' compassionate for lord McCain to call Dr. Dean of the DNC a 'pig' this morning. I remember that lord McCain did NOT mind or reject lord JFKerry's besmirching of the Vietnam soldiers, but noooooo body ever better say one thing that even hints upon the 'service' being used as vehicle to parlay said service as path to the White House....
That same quote jumped right out at me.
Wonder if the paper misspoke and was referring to a Baptist baptism....
Did Jonathan Martin write a story or a pro-McCain editorial? What a puff piece!
Frankly, I don’t care what religion someone is.
If atheist can represent my political views, I’ll vote for him. (It’s a two kingdoms thing)
There are several “Christian” pastors who I would not even sit under on Sunday morning, much less vote for.
Huckabee is one I would not vote for.
religion should not be a part of secular politics.
McCain is definitely not part of a church that preaches, “God D*mn America, God D*mn White people”.
You'll be happy to know that "thou shalt not kill" and "thou shalt not steal" will no longer be part of the "secular" legal system then. Enjoy your citizenship, comrade!
Exactly. That's how we know that all people are sinners. Even the "baptized" ones.
When they "repent", the focus for baptised Christians that view themselves as "basically" good will be found on what they "DID" wrong.
When they "repent", the focus for baptised Christians that view themselves as NOT "basically" good will be found on what they "ARE" which RESULTED in what they did wrong.
Into which catagory do you think the most biggoted (such as we've already seen on this thread) legalistic "baptised" Christians would fall?
BTW - what do you think of THIS GUY'S fruit? bttt
So McCain isn’t making religious appeals on the campaign trail, is that really a problem? I don’t want the president to be the preacher-in-chief, so McCain not talking about his faith doesn’t bother me. Maybe some religious conservatives will decide that this means he’s insufficiently Christian (I seem to recall Fred Thompson getting those accusations), but I’d suspect such folks would come to the same conclusion about most politicians, Republicans included. I’d also rather McCain not talk about it than try to fake religious fervor he doesn’t have. Some people are more reserved in their faith than others, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
But, but, but, as long as he's a Christian why would you care that he governs (and thinks?) like a Marxist/Leftist Christian?
Mark Steyn on Huckabee: “...Where I part company with Huck’s supporters is in believing he’s any kind of solution. He’s friendlier to the teachers’ unions than any other so-called “cultural conservative” which is why in New Hampshire he’s the first Republican to be endorsed by the NEA. His healthcare pitch is Attack Of The Fifty Foot Nanny, beginning with his nationwide smoking ban. This is, as Jonah Goldberg put it, compassionate conservatism on steroids big paternalistic government that can only enervate even further “our culture.” So Iowa chose to reward, on the Democrat side, a proponent of the conventional secular left, and, on the Republican side, a proponent of a new Christian left. If that’s the choice, this is going to be a long election year."
He certainly would not have gotten my vote.
We need to go back to the old days when we didn't give a damn about what someone's theological views were, and focused on their ability to uphold the constitution and lead our nation.
I blame Carter, our first "born again" president, for bringing this BS into national politics.
It is probably best if we keep the agencies of these two kingdoms, the State and the Church, separate, and let them do their own ministrations. It may be a fine thing when we see Christian virtues blossoming in the State, but that doesn’t mean the clergy or religious officials should be walking in the halls of power or preaching politics, much less does it mean that statesmen or politicians should preach in the churches or define doctrine. Jesus is not a king “of this world,” and Caesar is not lord of our souls. One rightly senses a great trespass when the two are confused.
the above by Fr. Andrew Mead
It is probably best if we keep the agencies of these two kingdoms, the State and the Church, separate, and let them do their own ministrations. It may be a fine thing when we see Christian virtues blossoming in the State, but that doesn’t mean the clergy or religious officials should be walking in the halls of power or preaching politics, much less does it mean that statesmen or politicians should preach in the churches or define doctrine. Jesus is not a king “of this world,” and Caesar is not lord of our souls. One rightly senses a great trespass when the two are confused.
the above by Fr. Andrew Mead
I’m beginning to think that you are wrong about religion should not be part of secular politics. I’m not talking about McCain’s religion, I’m talking about Black Liberation Theology.
Did you know that Liberation Theology rejects all military might? Do you think that a man who claims to believe in Black Liberation Theology should serve as Commander in Chief?
That is a very good reason for religion to be considered in a Presidential election.
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