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McCain meets with Grahams
Yesterday John McCain met privately with evangelist Billy Graham and his son, Franklin, at the family’s mountaintop retreat in western North Carolina. McCain, who is actively courting the evangelical vote and requested the meeting, said the trio “had a very excellent conversation. I appreciated the opportunity to visit with them,” but noted that he did not ask for their votes.
After the meeting, Franklin Graham issued a statement praising the Arizona senator’s “personal faith and his moral clarity.”
“The senator and I both have sons currently serving in the military, and also have a common interest in aviation,” Franklin Graham said. “I was impressed by his personal faith and his moral clarity on important social issues facing America today.”
Although Franklin Graham said he was not endorsing anyone for president, he said they “had an opportunity to pray for the senator and his family, and for God’s will to be done in this upcoming election.”
back to top25 Comments to “McCain meets with Grahams”
May we all follow the Graham’s lead and pray for God’s will in this election.
I’ve been convicted that I spend more time complaining about/worrying about/joking about/reasoning about these candidates than I do praying for them.
I resolved yesterday–after reading Romans 13 again–to pray more than I complain.
How about you?
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I wish I could meet Billy Graham. I sang behind him once.
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“The senator and I both have sons currently serving in the military,
I was trying to think the last time a Democratic President had a son that served in the military and, even though I am old, I guess I am not old enough to remember that far back. It’s been a while for a Republican President to have a son in the military too. Teddy Roosevelt might be last one, his son was a General in WW 2 during D Day, but there might have been another and I could be wrong?
The Royal Family of England is a much better example to follow in this regard.
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I believe George Bush’s son George served in the military. But not while he was in office.
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Didn’t Eisenhower have sons in the military? And Richard Nixon’s son-in-law, David Eisenhower, was in the Navy during his term in office.
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Hmm. Is the implication here (last three posts) that having a son serving in the military — in wartime, no less — confers some manner of moral legitimacy to one’s positions on matters — esp. foreign policy?
Consider, then, the words of Boston University professor Andrew Bacevich — himself a conservative Catholic, West Point graduate, Vietnam veteran and retired US Army Colonel:
I Lost My Son to a War I Oppose. We Were Both Doing Our Duty. (May 27, 2007)
It’s a brief piece, and I urge you to read it all the way through — it probably won’t be exactly what you expect.
Meanwhile, back to John McCain meeting the Grahams at their mountaintop retreat …
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… to wit: The breaking down of Christian conservatives’ distaste twoward McCain continues. “C’mon, at least he ain’t Obama …”
And speaking of personal faith and moral clarity:
Has anyone read the recent story about Mrs. McCain — the first one, Carol McCain, to whom John (40) was still married when he met and started chasing after young (27), pretty and rich Cindy Hensley?
The wife U.S. Republican John McCain callously left behind
UK Daily Mail, 8 June 2008
At least Carol is rather gracious about the whole thing. A friend says that when McCain sought to divorce Carol (who was in a terrible auto accident while he was a POW in Vietnam), “Carol didn’t fight him. She felt her infirmity made her an impediment to him. She justified his actions because of all he had gone through [as a POW]. She used to say, ‘He just wants to make up for lost time.’”
And Carol herself simply says, “I have no bitterness … My marriage ended because John McCain didn’t want to be 40, he wanted to be 25. You know that happens … it just does.”
Regardless, the piece paints McCain as a political opportunist. Knowing he’d never m ake admiral like his pappy and grandpa, he pursued a career in politics instead, and found himself a rich trophy wife who’s daddy’s money and connections could … you know … “make things happen.”
Moral clarity, indeed. As far as I’m concerned, Mr. McCain is long overdue for a job in the private sector.
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Frank, I think the dissolution of McCain’s first marriage was multi-factorial. Not sure if I would want to deeply analyze those factors. Odd, I dont recall the criticism of John Heinz-Kerry when he wed the rich soup and ketchup heiress, Thereza. (That lady reportedly didnt even know what chili-as in a bowl of–was! But she was more Portuguese than American even after her first marriage).
LBJ’s son-inlaw was USMC in Viet Nam. Later served in US Senate from Virginia.
Among current DC politicians, with a few exceptions, even those who boast of “military service” were attorneys (Reserve or Nat’l Guard) who most likely were “in the rear with the gear” fretting over troops’ wills and powers of atty for left-behind spouses. In the Iraq war our Division SJA was continually seen seeking advice from the chief JAG. This more than any other is a war where the lawyers have a thumb in every pie imaginable (at least on our side!)
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Sawgunner (8): Odd, I dont recall the criticism of John Heinz-Kerry when he wed the rich soup and ketchup heiress, Thereza.
Frank: I do.
Still, I wouldn’t have wasted my time mounting such criticisms, because there was more than enough about Kerry’s political idedology to criticize.
I bring it up with McCain because the spin machine is starting to rev up — touting McCain’s “faith” and “moral clarity” to make him more palatable to the Christian right.
There’s enough about McCain’s politics to make me doubt his “moral clarity”:
But in addition to alll that, I definitely have to call into question the “moral clarity” of a man who didn’t even have the minimal “decency” to divorce his current wife before chasing after a new rich, young trophy wife.
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Frank, there is very little you can say about McCain that will trump, “C’mon, at least he ain’t Obama …”
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I was disappointed when McCain spoke to some religious folks (can’t recall the circumstances) and he alluded to an experience he had while in the NVA prison.
As he told it, McCain was bound with wrists behind his back. He was lead out into the exercise area. A Vietnamese guard approached and cautiously drew a cross in the sand as McCain looked on.
The odd thing was McCain could have given his personal testimony but instead chose to describe the “faith” of his North Vietnamese captor.
Ironicly, I read recently that if he lived in the USA that same Viet guard would vote for McCain!
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I wonder if McCain will ever meet with Frank Schaeffer or Frank’s son John? John is grandson of Francis Schaeffer. John is former USMC now attending an Ivy League school. He cowrote a great book with Frank while John was at USMC boot camp on Paris Island SC.
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When he wasn’t confined solitarily, McCain led the Christian services for the prisoners in his camp from his perfect memory of the Episcopal ritual.
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kBells (10): Frank, there is very little you can say about McCain that will trump, “C’mon, at least he ain’t Obama …”
Frank: Touché …
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Let us remember that there is no religious test for president or any other elected office, and …
what KBells said.
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My husband and I have both met Billy Graham and his son Franklin, they are wonderful men Christian men, dedicated to spreading the Word of God.
I’m glad John McCain was able to visit the Graham’s.
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Aside from any qualification clauses listed in the Constitution, there aren’t *any* tests for presidents or elected officials, but candidates’ religious beliefs are worth discussing, no? Particularly among Christians.
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Yeah, I have no problem discussing ANYTHING.
I don’t think McCain wears his faith on his sleeve, I think he’s more reserved, but if he didn’t have it, he wouldn’t have been able to conduct the services at the Hanoi Hilton. He knew the liturgy as I understand it and as Peter Leavitt notes. That says to me that he received a decent foundation in Christian beliefs and because of his age, it was probably the “standard” version. His wife brought a new adopted baby home without his knowledge, and he accepted the child immediately. That does it for me.
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Since the President is Commander in Chief of the armed forces of the USA, it is more than a plus for them to have served in the military and have a sense of the ‘real’ VS the imagined assumption.
But, it depends on the man or woman as well. FDR didn’t meddle much in military planning and we were better off for it. LBJ did and we suffered greatly. As a military man and politician, Churchill as good and bad depending on the war and his experience. He was what the British needed in WW2 although Eisenhouer ignored him militarily oftten. Bush Senior wasn’t very good in his not going to Bagdad and getting Saddam’s head on a pike in 1991 like he should have letting hoim fester into a real ronblem oft his son later. Lincoln had picked horrible Generals at the beginning of the Civil War because of his inexperience and the Genrals just walked all over him. Wilson was a whack job elitist Univerisity President and good for nothing except appeasing. The country did horribly during the Revolutionary War because there was no President but Washington was saddled with an inept congress that was worse that nay president. He probably was better off not having any one person to mess him up more than he was in the first few years of the war.
I’m guessing Washington would agree with me that today, this country could never win its freedom like it did during the Revolutionary War because the left would not allow it and they would have surrendered after 2-4 years of really losing with huge casualties = regardless of President or Generals.
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I do have to wonder why McCain chose now to have a meeting with the Grahams. After all these years, he just happened to pick the moment when he’s running for President to meet with him. If it was purely for private/personal reasons, why was it publicized by his campaign?
I think for most people, it’s pretty obvious it was done for political reasons.
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Isn’t is odd how Obama is apologizing for his “surrogates” dissing McCain’s military record? He apologizes a lot after the words are out of the mouth.
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I’d much rather have a man who knows how to apologize being President, than an arrogant ass who thinks he’s always right.
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#21 While McCain is talking about God and country, Democrats are trampling on the third rail, attacking McCain’s service.
What Wesley Clark said today about McCain’s military service was so low, that even some on the left recoiled in shame. Even Obama had to denounce it.
Clark said:
“He hasn’t held executive responsibility,” he said. “That large squadron in the Navy that he commanded — that wasn’t a wartime squadron.” He continued, “I don’t think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president.”
And Obama has? Some democrats like Andrew Sullivan caught the implication here that it was McCain’s incompetence that got him shot down.
John Aravosis, writing that “getting shot down, tortured, and then doing propaganda for the enemy is not command experience.” How low is that?
Back in April, Sen. Jay Rockefeller essentially denounced McCain for being a fighter pilot: “What happened when they [the missiles] get to the ground? He doesn’t know. You have to care about the lives of people.”
Earlier this month, Gore Vidal questioned McCain’s war record in a New York Times Magazine interview: “Who started this rumor that he was a war hero? Where does that come from, aside from himself? About his suffering in the prison war camp?”
Democrats should keep this up. It helps McCain immensely.
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It’s like a guy who can’t remember what his Church taught/preached for —– would that be political reasons?
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Victoria!
You’re absolutely right.
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