McCain and Religion

Jonathan Martin at The Politico has a piece today on John McCain's reluctance to discuss religion and his faith in anything but broad terms during the presidential campaign:

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.”

I'm not sure Martin has been paying attention the last month or so. If Obama is the nominee the last thing he's going to want to do is discuss religion since that will simply reopen the Rev. Wright controversy and the black nationalist teachings of his church. As far as Hillary's "regular church going", I have my doubts that it was for anything other than appearances. I can't believe she's about to go out on the stump and start giving her testimony. Going to church doesn't make you a religious person anymore than going to your garage makes you a Buick.

Religion has often been misused in politics, so McCain's reluctance to bring it into the campaign doesn't bother me at all. A candidates outward religiosity shouldn't be a determining factor for voters. We can't forget that Jimmy Carter was unambiguously religious and he was a disaster as a president.