Seventy miles from Washington’s prying eyes, Barack Obama has been attending church from time to time at Camp David, where services are led by a 39-year-old Navy chaplain with a famous last name, a compelling life story and a fervent belief in a God who works miracles.
Carey Cash, the great-nephew of singer Johnny Cash and the younger brother of a former Miss America, sees the hand of God in every part of his journey: from the football fields where he once aspired to the NFL to the medical facilities where he learned he’d never play again; from the battered Humvee where he came under fire on the streets of Baghdad to the tiny chapel where he preaches to the country’s commander in chief in the Western Maryland mountains.
Although Cash was assigned to Camp David by the Navy, the president really likes the guy. Cash, Obama told religion reporters this summer, “delivers as powerful a sermon as I’ve heard in a while. I really think he’s excellent.” . . .
interviews with others close to him and Cash’s account of his 2003 deployment to Iraq paint a portrait of a gripping preacher who baptized more than 50 men during the war and who believes a “wall of angels” shielded his troops as they battled their way to Baghdad in the opening days of the war.
Two men died and dozens were injured, but, in Cash’s view, God protected the unit from more extensive casualties.
“Yes, our men were lost and separated,” Cash recounts in “A Table in the Presence: The Dramatic Account of How a U.S. Marine Battalion Experienced God’s Presence Amidst the Chaos of the War in Iraq.” “But our God was not confused. Just as he had from the very beginning of the war, He was providentially working all things together for the good of a cause that was just and true.”
The book also offers an unflattering assessment of Islam, which Cash views as a flawed faith.
“Sadly, grace is often absent in Islam, which is based upon binding religious law, requiring strenuous adherence to every tenet of the ‘Five Pillars of Allah,’ ” Cash writes. “A religion that emerges from the soil of strict adherence to law as a means of gaining God’s favor will always tend toward extreme self-sacrifice.”
Cash has drawn criticism from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, a watchdog group that monitors Christian proselytizing in the military, for his participation in Campus Crusade for Christ’s Military Ministry, a program for evangelical chaplains to “help every troop, every leader, every family member hear and receive the lifesaving message about Jesus.”
“This is an organization that has repeatedly stated its goal of transforming our military into a force of ‘government-paid missionaries for Christ,’ ” said Chris Rodda, a foundation spokesman. “Any chaplain or commander who would support or condone these tactics or goals is a problem.”
The White House declined to comment on the criticism. But those who served with Cash in Iraq have nothing but praise for his deep faith, warm manner and forceful sermons.
The story in the Post is remarkably positive about this brave and faithful pastor. I just hope he doesn’t get in trouble or get transferred for believing in orthodox Christian teaching about Islam and about evangelism. I hope he doesn’t get in trouble with his Baptist brethren for believing that a canteen holds enough water for a baptism in the desert. I hope the president continues to hear powerful sermons from Chaplain Cash.
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