Pastor describes McCain’s devout—but low-key—faith

Posted: 4/11/08

Pastor describes McCain’s
devout—but low-key—faith

By Greg Warner

Associated Baptist Press

PHOENIX (ABP)—John McCain has a deep and personal Christian commitment despite his reluctance to speak publicly about it, according to the man McCain calls his pastor.

Dan Yeary, pastor of North Phoenix Baptist Church, described the Arizona senator and his wife, Cindy, as “very unobtrusive” people who don’t seek special attention when they are able to come to worship. “They come in the side door. They’re very pleasant. They talk to people. They’re very approachable.”

But the man McCain calls “my family’s pastor” said his relationship with his most famous parishioner has not been a particularly close one. Yeary said he’s done the normal things a pastor would do but “no more than I would do for any church member” in the 7,000-strong congregation.

McCain, a lifelong Episcopalian, has been attending the Southern Baptist-affiliated church in Phoenix at least 17 years. But the presumptive GOP presidential nominee has neither officially joined the congregation nor been baptized. He has continued to list his faith as “Episcopal” in official congressional biographies.

Arizone Sen. John McCain

But, the pastor said, lack of membership hasn’t kept McCain from becoming deeply involved in the church. “I have a good relationship with John,” Yeary said, recounting their first in-depth conversation. “I respect him as a friend. He is a very courageous man. And he has a delightful sense of humor.”

McCain is a religious enigma to many reporters and observers because he does not fit squarely into the religio-political mold many other Christian conservatives have in recent years. For instance, he has voted consistently in opposition to abortion rights during his Senate career—but also supported government funding for embryonic stem-cell research, which many conservative evangelicals consider tantamount to abortion.

McCain also opposed an attempt to amend the Constitution to ban same-sex marriage, citing states’ rights. He voiced support for a similar measure on the statewide level in Arizona. During a speech in his 2000 presidential campaign, he famously labeled Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson “agents of intolerance.”

Many prominent evangelicals have been mute on McCain, but radio personality James Dobson said flatly in February he would not vote for the candidate or either of his potential Democratic rivals, Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. Dobson has moderated his tone more recently but was quoted in an April 2 Wall Street Journal story saying McCain had insufficiently wooed social conservatives.

On the other side of the coin, many moderate Republicans and independents remain skeptical of McCain because he has courted two far-right evangelical leaders. The candidate endured some criticism in February after San Antonio pastor and Christian Zionist leader John Hagee endorsed him. Catholic and Jewish leaders denounced Hagee for statements he has made in the past that could be interpreted as anti-Catholic and anti-Semitic.

Hagee claimed the critics had misunderstood and de-contextualized his comments. Nonetheless, McCain’s campaign issued a statement in which he distanced himself from the preacher’s more controversial remarks without rejecting or repudiating the endorsement.

The senator has received less media scrutiny for a separate endorsement of his candidacy by Ohio pastor Rod Parsley. Parsley, who leads a charismatic multi-media empire, has been criticized for statements insisting Islam must be “destroyed” and for denigrating gays, the separation of church and state, and secularists.

But looking for clues to McCain’s faith from his association with such religious endorsers would be misleading, according to Yeary.

“I think John reaches out to everybody,” Yeary said. “He’s not afraid to spend time with people who have radically different views. I think that’s smart. That’s intelligent.”

Yeary, who said he also is a Republican, stopped short of endorsing McCain himself. Asked if he would throw his support behind the candidate, he responded with Solomonic nimbleness. “It is a privilege and an honor to be this close to a man I’ve learned to love, who has the potential to be a great president for our country,” he said. “I certainly am in favor of God’s endorsement on his life.”

Asked if Christians should be pleased if McCain is the next president, Yeary said: “I will be pleased. I trust him. He will seek wise counsel, spiritual counsel. This man is devoted to his country—there’s no maybe about it.”

But don’t expect McCain to talk easily about his faith—perhaps a reflection of his Episcopal upbringing rather than his recent church affiliation.

“His personal history means he’s not going to use ‘the language of Zion’” to talk about his faith, Yeary said, referring to the biblical terminology typical of evangelicals.

Cindy McCain, meanwhile, is a Baptist—baptized at the Phoenix church in 1991, two years before Yeary became pastor. The couple has attended faithfully since, the pastor said, as have their children— although they have not been baptized.

Yeary said McCain and then-pastor Richard Jackson had a conversation about membership and baptism when Cindy McCain joined the church. Likewise, Yeary said he continues to talk with the senator about his membership. Yeary did not reveal the details, but said the dialogue is ongoing.

“You have to be baptized by immersion to be a member” of North Phoenix, Yeary said. “John and I have dialogued about that. … John is an Episcopalian, and he and his family attend North Phoenix Baptist Church when he is in town.”

In an interview last year with InsideCatholic.com, an on-line Catholic forum, McCain said he attends North Phoenix Baptist because he likes Yeary's “message of reconciliation and redemption, which I’m a great believer in.” He added: “… I’m grateful for the spiritual advice and counsel that I continue to get from Pastor Dan Yeary.”

Yeary said he got to know the senator soon after becoming pastor at North Phoenix, which during the 1980s was one of the Southern Baptist Convention’s most prominent congregations. In the early 1990s, Yeary interviewed McCain on videotape about his experience as a prisoner of war in Vietnam for more than five years.

“He just came up and sat in my office for a good two hours and talked about how prayer and his faith sustained him in that setting,” Yeary recalled. “It was a wonderful day. From that moment on, John and I forged a friendship. It is not the kind where we talk every week or even every month. … (But) I would tell anyone who asks me it has been a privilege to serve as their pastor.”