Cross in the Dirt, Line in the Sand

Religion News Service has an article on Senator John Sidney McCain III & his "faith journey," whatever the fuck that is. Author Adelle M. Banks uncritically repeats the NVA guard making the sign of the cross in the dirt in the prison camp (In a pig's eye!!) story, not finding it worth mentioning that Sen. McCain had made no mention of this little vignette in his big deal "I was a P.O. W." article in U. S. News & World Report, 14 May 1973.

WASHINGTON -- Sen. John McCain has one story he tells again and again about his religious life. In a campaign ad, a family memoir, and most recently a televised interview with megachurch pastor Rick Warren, he recalls a guard in his prisoner of war camp in Vietnam who silently shared his faith one Christmas. "He stood there for a minute, and with his sandal on the dirt in the courtyard, he drew a cross and he stood there," McCain told Warren at the Saddleback Civil Forum on Saturday (Aug. 16). "And a minute later, he rubbed it out, and walked away. For a minute there, there were just two Christians worshipping together."

Another religioso notes how what McCain wants you to get from the story has changed over the yrs. The big point being that the cross-in-the-sand-or-dirt story seems to come from the writings of the late Alexander Solzhenitsyn (We've heard both One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch & The Gulag Archipelago as the source) & J. Sidney appropriated it sometime in the late '90s. Apparently Adelle M. Banks couldn't be bothered to check any of this. See also an examination of the story by BTC News.

McCain biographer Paul Alexander says the senator's faith and military backgrounds are responsible for his religious reserve. "He's a very spiritual person but ... in his core, he's a military man," said Alexander, author of "Man of the People: The Maverick Life and Career of John McCain." "They don't feel comfortable talking about religion."

No shit. We suppose that were our primary job to insure the survival of capitalism by killing as many people as possible, in direct violation of one of those "Commandments," we wouldn't be too comfortable going on about religion either.

Add McCain's Episcopal roots -- his great-grandfather was an Episcopal minister -- and you have someone who was raised in a "subdued and understated religion," Alexander says. In "Faith of My Fathers," McCain says his father "didn't talk about God or the importance of religious devotion," but used a well-worn prayer book when he knelt to pray twice a day. Faith -- cultivated over the years by his attendance at Episcopal day and boarding schools -- helped McCain through the tortuous 5 1/2 years he spent as a prisoner of war.

"Cultivated" – or inculcated? We can also see just how faithful is is to his 'Piscopalian "roots."

During much of his time as a senator, McCain has attended North Phoenix Baptist Church, a Southern Baptist congregation in Arizona where his wife Cindy was baptized in 1991. But McCain has not joined the church, whose Sunday morning service is attended by about 2,200. "He does not describe himself as one denomination or another but he felt like the Baptist church in North Phoenix had a good message, a message that resonated with him and so that is where he goes to church," said Taylor Griffin, a spokesman for the senator's campaign.

He said McCain attends church "whenever possible when he's in the Phoenix area."

Ah yes, all things to all people; therefore pretty much nothing. But those evangelical votes come from nutjobs like Babtists, not from 'Piscopalian nutjobs. And why was Cinderalla Stepford Hensley McCain not babtized 'til 1991? Slow learner? Began to feel guilty about the number of houses she has? Looking to get into heaven, despite that "camel through the eye of a needle thing?" The hypocrisy never ends, of course.

Phil Burress, president of Citizens for Community Values in Ohio, said he respects McCain's preference for a private faith. "I believe his faith is deep but he will not use it to try to get somebody to vote for him," said Burress, an evangelical Christian who met with McCain in June along with a handful of other conservative leaders in Cincinnati. "I just think that that's his style, that he just does not wear his religion on his sleeve." In recent weeks, McCain has made brief mentions of faith, recounting the Christian history of Georgia after Russian forces entered the country, calling Hispanic immigrants "God's children" in an advertisement and saying of today's military members: "I pray to a loving God that he bless and protect them." But generally he has kept his faith to himself, a spokesman says, at least in part for political reasons."To Sen. McCain, faith is a private matter," Griffin said. "He believes that politicians or leaders shouldn't be judged on their religious beliefs but rather they should be judged on their preparedness to do the job."

You better believe it!! That's why he & stealth Moooslim Sen. Obama showed up to be quizzed at Saddleback church by Pastor Fat Boy Warren, 'cause they didn't want to wear their "faith" on their sleeves. Lying scum, both of them!! Anyway, congratulations to Religion News Service, "The only secular news and photo service devoted to unbiased coverage of religion and ethics—exclusively." Bang up job. Really unbiased, just taking everything said on faith.