The “Christian” press and McCain…

The American Baptist Press interview John McCain’s pastor:

Asked if Christians should be pleased if McCain is the next president, Yeary said: “I will be pleased. I trust him. He will seek wise counsel, spiritual counsel. This man is devoted to his country — there’s no maybe about it.”

But don’t expect McCain to talk as easily about his faith as the current President Bush. In that regard, the candidate is more like Bush’s father, who is also an Episcopalian.

While Southern Baptists have a reputation of speaking easily about their evangelical beliefs, Episcopalians are, by reputation, more reserved. McCain’s style may be more a reflection of his Episcopal upbringing than his recent church affiliation.

“His personal history means he’s not going to use ‘the language of Zion’” to talk about his faith, Yeary said, referring to the biblical terminology typical of evangelicals. But, he noted, “a great understanding” of McCain’s religious beliefs can come from reading the candidate’s autobiography, Faith of My Fathers.

Frankly, I find the reporting a little creepy. The story seems to be saying, “It’s OK, he is one of us, even if he doesn’t really act like it.” In other words, it affirms religious identity politics.

What I would rather hear about is how John McCain, like the elder Bush, and frankly the current Bush (I grow weary of people portraying our current president as some sort of Evangelical fanatic, he has admitted to his faith, said things like “I pray,” and “I read the Bible,” but come on, that is hardly the kind of religio-speak everyone seems to want to say he has engaged in) follow in the great tradition on American of faith in political office. That, of course, being to hold their faith dearly, but quietly, and when it comes to their job, without the exclusion of others with other faiths and beliefs.

When it comes to evaluating our office-seekers we simply cannot afford to judge them based on religious “imprimaturs. “Just for fun (well to check the spelling actually) I looked up that word and it carried the meaning I was looking for:

sanction or approval; support

But interestingly before that definition came this one:

an official license to print or publish a book, pamphlet, etc., esp. a license issued by a censor of the Roman Catholic Church.

In other words, quite by accident, I invoked a term that calls forth the image of days when the government required actual sanction of the church. You know, the very thing that both the Reformation and the American Revolution opposed.

Have we come full circle in America, and if so are we still America?

And While We are Talking About The Press . . .

The story that did not need to be written. Anybody that would want to read a story that is headlined that way would already know everything in the story. I am betting some reporter simply owed some words to some editor.

If You Want to Spend Some Money…

. . . and are still interested in Jeremiah Wright, you might want to check this out. I didn’t, there is no excuse.

Have A Great Weekend!
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