McCain Learns to Say What's Right in Church: Margaret Carlson

Commentary by Margaret Carlson

Aug. 18 (Bloomberg) -- There was a time in our nation's history when having a political event in a church would have been horrifying. It's just what the Founding Fathers founded this country to get away from.

But if that wall is going to come tumbling down, best that it tumble at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, which seems to be much as gymnasium, volleyball court and cafe as place of worship. Unlike the first generation of evangelicals to move into the town square, Rick Warren, the church's pastor, isn't devoted to demonizing gays, women who work, men who don't, and environmentalists. He's more interested in helping the poor than getting tax breaks for the rich. He's an includer, not an excluder.

Warren managed to do something that seemed impossible after months of arms-length attacks by John McCain and Barack Obama, which included McCain's suggestion that there was no difference between the celebrity of reprobates Britney Spears and Paris Hilton and that of Obama. Warren created an on-stage DMZ, where a man-hug could take place, initiated by Obama, encouraged by Warren and accepted by McCain. The audience of 5,000 loved it.

The most interesting moment was when Warren, exceedingly warm toward Obama, was caught whispering to the candidate during a break near the end of his hour-long interview that he had hit a ``home run.'' He did if you were scoring on a curve.

Obama was playing an away game before a group not inclined to cheer for him, but into which he needs to make some inroads. More than half of evangelicals, 61 percent, support McCain, with only 25 percent preferring Obama, according to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. Bush took 78 percent of this vote in 2004.

Losing the Crowd

This year, 11 percent of evangelicals are undecided, twice as many as in 2004, which means Obama has a prayer. With signs outside the church saying ``God Hates Obama,'' and 8 percent of voters thinking he's a Muslim, according to a Wall Street Journal/NBC poll, Obama had little to lose.

Obama had the crowd when he quoted from scripture and spoke in evangelical (Christ died for my sins), but he lost the attendees when the subject of abortion came up. As much as Warren has expanded the portfolio of his church, it still holds the issue of life above all others. There was a low groan when Obama, in response to Warren's question ``At what point does a baby get human rights?'' hemmed and hawed: ``Whether you are looking at it from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity, you know, is above my pay grade.''

Trading Disses

Obama had a few moments of his own. He got cheers when he said marriage is between a man and a woman and that he supports civil unions but not marriage. He won no friends when he dissed Justice Clarence Thomas as being too intellectually weak to be a Supreme Court justice. McCain, for his part, dissed the four liberals on the court.

If Obama hit a home run, McCain scored a grand slam. He needed to generally get straight with the Christian right after keeping them at a distance in prior races to the point of insult, at one point calling the late Reverend Jerry Falwell an ``agent of intolerance.'' He was as strong as he's ever been on abortion. Life begins, he said ``at the moment of conception,'' adding ``I will be a pro-life president.''

McCain needed that emphasis after floating the name of former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge as a possible running mate last week. Conservatives went wild. You could hear Rush Limbaugh spitting nails through the microphone. If it was a trial balloon by McCain, his answer Saturday night punctured it.

Defining Rich

McCain could have punted on his ``great moral failing'' the way Obama did, turning to the Book of Matthew to cite himself and others for not doing enough for ``the least of my brothers.'' Instead, McCain got real, citing the failure of his first marriage. He met his current, much younger wife when barely separated from his first wife, who was crippled in an auto accident while he was a prisoner in Vietnam.

McCain tripped up on one question, but perhaps not for a group that considers tax cuts a moral issue. When Warren asked Obama to define rich, he said: ``You know, if you've got book sales of 25 million...'' a reference to Warren's best-selling ``The Purpose-Driven Life'' to general laughter.

On the same point, McCain seemed surprised and answered $5 million. In surveys, most people think rich is double what they make. Since most people don't make $2.5 million, McCain revealed the mindset that has him owning multiple homes, wearing $500 shoes, and footing $750,000 credit card bills.

Still the night belonged to the Arizona senator. He's often talked about being in a tiger cage in Hanoi but he enthralled the thousands in the amphitheater when he retold it in religious terms. One Christmas a guard came to his cell and loosened the ropes holding his arms behind his back and his head between his legs. The following Christmas, when the POWs were allowed outside for a few minutes, the same guard walked up and drew a cross in the dirt in the courtyard.

He added a part that was new, though I've heard the story many times: ``For a minute there, there was just two Christians worshipping together.''

It was as if the 5,000 faithful at Saddleback were there too.

(Margaret Carlson, author of ``Anyone Can Grow Up: How George Bush and I Made It to the White House'' and former White House correspondent for Time magazine, is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.)

To contact the writer of this column: Margaret Carlson in Washington at mcarlson3@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: August 18, 2008 00:00 EDT

		Email this article Printer friendly format