The news that McCain is a sometimes-practicing Baptist will shock anyone who doesn’t remember the senator’s first presidential run, when discussions about McCain’s faith or lack of it became one of the slightly less icky arrows in Bush’s oppo arsenal. If the controversy is that he sometimes calls himself a Baptist, and sometimes an Episcopalian, I suppose there are some who find such ambivalence about specific religious affiliation disturbing but I suspect that’s still not as great a sin as the Richardson “Redkee”/”Yanksox” revelation. At least McCain only goes to one team’s games: “His family have been members of the North Phoenix Baptist Church in his home state of Arizona for more than 15 years.” (As for the opportunism of calling himself a Baptist in South Carolina, McCain notes, “I was a member of that church in 2000 and it didn’t save me then.”)
UPDATE: I’d been meaning to address this anyway, dear commenters, from when I was on Countdown to discuss Larry Craig’s frenemies:
COX: I think that someone like Sam Brownback, you may disagree with him, but you really cannot doubt his social conservative credentials, at least has the strength of character to extend Christian mercy. I know Mitt Romney is not himself Christian, or that’s a point of debate, but to show some kind of compassion for somebody who at least their family is going through something really terrible, I think it smacks of opportunism for him to, you know, throw the guy aside.
All I have to say is that television is not a good place for theological debates, and that I shouldn’t haven’t brought up a topic that complex in such an off-handed way (it was sort of an attempt at a joke, and unfortunate one at that). However, the question as to whether the LDS church is “Christian” is an open one; scholars and theologians do not have consensus. Romney calls himself a Christian (in perhaps a similar spirit in which McCain calls himself a Baptist, though McCain also actually goes to a Baptist church), many other Mormons themselves reject the label. There was a interesting online forum on the issue over at Beliefnet awhile back for those who actually want to delve into argument. I find the debate interesting from a cultural perspective; Romney’s faith itself matters less to me than his policies — and how he treats other people, as well as his dog. (Same goes for McCain.)
UPDATE THE SECOND: And because even I’m sick of the multiple McCain posts, I’ll just stick this link here. Key scene:
A young man approaches him and says, in the slightly quavering voice of someone not used to speaking in public, “I was in Iraq.” McCain grasps his hand and thanks him. “And, I, ah, I still have friends over there, and, ah, some of them aren’t, they aren’t feeling like there’s an end in sight,” he continues. McCain’s expression is concerned. The young man finishes: “I wonder if you can tell me something I can tell my friends who are dispirited, who may want to come home.” McCain encourages the young man and his friends to read the Petraeus Report — “he really thinks things are getting better there” — before he’s hustled out the door.