ST. PAUL, Minn. (ABP) — John McCain completed a long journey to the GOP presidential nomination Sept. 4, capping an abbreviated Republican convention that offered attacks on his Democratic rival, but little talk of divisive social issues.
Nonetheless, the Arizona senator’s choice of a previously obscure Christian conservative as his running mate and his party’s adoption of a socially conservative platform helped energize a party base — including some evangelicals — that had previously been ambivalent toward McCain.
“Let me just offer an advance warning to the old, big-spending, do-nothing, me-first-country-second, Washington crowd: Change is coming,” McCain said, to wild applause, during his speech to accept the party’s nomination.
McCain — as had other speakers at the convention — touted his reputation as a reformer and an independent-minded politician who has sometimes taken on the majority view in his own party.
“You well know I've been called a maverick, someone who … marches to the beat of his own drum,” he said. “Sometimes it's meant as a compliment and sometimes it's not. What it really means is I understand who I work for. I don't work for a party. I don't work for a special interest. I don't work for myself. I work for you.”
McCain has disagreed with GOP powers-that-be in the past on issues such as campaign-finance reform, embryonic stem-cell research and a federal constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. He once angrily accused prominent Religious Right leaders of being “agents of intolerance,” and Focus on the Family founder James Dobson reportedly vowed never to vote for him.
Several prominent politicians supportive of abortion rights also were given prominent speaking slots at the convention, including former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge and self-styled “independent Democrat” Sen. Joe Lieberman (Conn.).
Several news agencies reported that McCain had hoped to continue his maverick streak by picking Lieberman or Ridge as his running mate. But, in a nod to the realities of a party controlled by social conservatives who might engage in an open revolt should a pro-choice politician be given the vice-presidential nod, McCain instead chose Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
Palin opposes legalized abortion, even in cases of rape and incest; has supported constitutional bans on same-sex marriage and opposed other gay-rights measures; and has voiced support for the teaching of religious alternatives to evolution in public schools. She supported establishment of a statewide “Christian Heritage Week.” As mayor of the Alaska hamlet of Wasilla, she reportedly threatened to fire the town librarian for balking after Palin raised the prospect of removing some books from the shelves for their ostensibly objectionable content. She also has opposed comprehensive sex education, supporting abstinence-only models instead.
The Christian Coalition issued a press release saying the Palin choice “seals the deal” of conservative Christians’ support for the McCain campaign. Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, told Christianity Today that the selection has created a “giddy” response among the women in his office.
“I recommended her, but I had no reason to believe that they would do it,” he said. “But I’m happy they did. I think it’s going to tap into all kinds of things. I must say I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the depth of the response among women…. Clearly, her nomination’s tapped into something, which I can observe as a white male but can’t experience.”
Palin, who was baptized into the Roman Catholic Church as an infant but had a conversion experience in an Assembly of God church as a youngster, now is a member of the independent Wasilla Bible Church in her hometown.
She has already garnered some controversy for her presence during a guest sermon preached at Wasilla Bible Church Aug. 17 by Jews For Jesus head David Brickner. His organization advocates for Jews to “complete” themselves by accepting Christ.
In the sermon — according to a transcript available on the church’s website before the story became major news — Brickner noted that God has promised judgment for those who reject Christ — and suggested that the terrorism that plagues the modern-day state of Israel is one example of such judgment.
A link on the church’s website to sermon transcripts was disabled as of Sept. 9.
In June, Palin spoke to graduates of a discipleship-training program at Wasilla Assembly of God, the church she was a member of until 2002. According to a video of the speech posted on YouTube, Palin asked the graduates to pray for the success of a natural-gas pipeline she was trying to push through the Alaska Legislature.
“I think that God’s will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built,” she said.
She also said that, despite all the work she can do as a secular leader to improve and protect Alaska, “really, all of that stuff doesn’t do any good if the people of Alaska’s heart isn’t right with God…. We can work together to make sure God’s will be done here.”
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Read more:
Transcript of Aug. 17 David Brickner sermon at Wasilla Bible Church
YouTube video of Sarah Palin’s speech at Wasilla Assembly of God
Social conservatives express delight at McCain’s pick of Sarah Palin (8/29)