Here’s hoping that the boastfully ignorant folks who need that site will be able to find someone to read it to them.
The success of the ridiculous “secret Muslim” whisper campaign sends me into a Menckenesque despair regarding the prospects of democracy triumphing over shrieking stupidity. Seriously, how dumb does one have to be to believe that Obama is a Muslim just because of his middle name? That makes about as much sense as accusing Sen. McCain of secretly being a Christian just because his first name is “John.”
That’s a bad example, because McCain actually is secretly Christian, which is to say he was raised Episcopalian. Like many of his fellow Episcopalians — remember George H.W. Bush? — he is thus deeply uncomfortable talking about religion. When asked about his faith, McCain looks mortified, as though he was being asked to provide the details of his sex life or to explain his flip-flopping on torture or the lobbyists for dictators on his campaign staff or how a voluntary cap-and-trade plan is supposed to accomplish anything at all to reduce climate change. (Not that he ever is asked about any of those things.)
According to this Reuters “Faith Factor Factbox” (ugh) the McCains have for the last 15 years “attended a church in Phoenix affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention.” I find that hard to picture. I can’t see him teaching Sunday school like Jimmy Carter does, or singing in the choir like Bill Clinton. And the idea of Cindy McCain in a Southern Baptist church just makes me think of that scene where Embeth Davidtz squirms through the potluck supper in Junebug. (That scene ends with one of the loveliest and mostly fondly observed portraits of an SBC church family you’ll ever see in a theater.)
Anyway, I suppose the McCains must really like that church, since Phoenix is more than 100 miles from their home in Sedona.
That Reuters “Factbox” also refers to John McCain’s “unequivocal condemnation of torture.” This word, unequivocal, I do not think it means what they think it means. The man helped introduce legislation to ban the use of torture, and then voted against it. That’s pretty un-unequivocal.
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