September 25, 2007
I must assume that Senator John McCain's recent declaration, “I’m not Episcopalian, I’m Baptist,” was carefully scripted. After all, a presidential candidate who casually mentions that his religious affiliation is different from what nearly everyone in the country believed it to be is inviting scrutiny. Journalists, one would surmise, might want to look into that. As far as Faith and Values gamesmanship goes, the McCain people played it well. To begin with, his claim is plausible. Had he said something to the effect of “I’m not Episcopalian, I’m Wiccan,” he would have been instantly discredited (and for reasons having absolutely nothing to do with longstanding anti-Wiccan prejudices).
Which brings me to another important point about McCain’s “slip”: it was provable.
His handlers surely knew that reporters would reach for their cellphones with dispatch and start making not-so-discrete inquiries. And then the happy story would proceed to tell itself. The senator’s wife and two of their children, America would learn, are Baptists. His attendance at a Baptist Church in Phoenix, the nation would soon understand, has been solid. Better yet, the pastor over there thinks he’s a good guy too! All of this information, incidentally, has been in the public record for years. So a commendation for Effective News Cycle Manipulation goes to Team McCain.
The Senator’s “candid” assertion also made sound electoral sense. Baptists represent an immense voting block, one that he will need to galvanize come primary time in South Carolina (where he made his statement and where there are a lot of Baptists). Moreover, McCain’s denominational off-roading, his shift from a Mainline Protestant denomination to an Evangelical one, neatly realigns his faith with his politics. His positions on the issues are far more in line with the beliefs of the latter than with those of the former.
I, for one, am not the least bit surprised that the Senator decided to publicize his embrace of Baptism. (Nor am I particularly interested in discerning whether it was genuine and heartfelt). I am surprised--puzzled actually--as to why he has to work so hard to secure the support of Baptists and conservative White Evangelicals in general.
In terms of things that many of them crave--overturning Roe v. Wade, restrictions on Gay marriage, alternatives to evolutionary theory in the curriculum, vigilance on Islamic radicalism, school vouchers, and so much more--McCain delivers like no other first-tier Republican. Even if he were Wiccan, Evangelicals would have to put aside their revulsion for skyclad pagans and consider his candidacy very seriously.
Yet the straight-talking war hero has always had tense and unstable relations with Conservative Christian powerbrokers. I will explore the reasons for this in my next post. But let me presently note that McCain and White Evangelicals need something on the order of couples counseling. For when the good senator confides that he is a Baptist, White Evangelicals should “hear him saying” that he really needs them. If they could just look into themselves, if they could just let go of all that anger and suspicion, they would soon realize that they really need him as well.
Jacques Berlinerblau is the Rabbi Harold White Chair in Jewish Civilization in Georgetown's Walsh School of Foreign Service and senior advisor to the Center for Jewish Civilization, where he was director from 2006 to June 2020. Berlinerblau has published on a wide variety of issues ranging from the sociology of heresy and modern Jewish intellectuals to African-American and Jewish-American relations.
