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Christianity Today, August (Web-Only), 2008 |

Getting People Excited about John McCain

Evangelical outreach coordinator Marlys Popma had resigned from the campaign last year but quickly changed her mind.

Interview by Sarah Pulliam | posted 8/25/2008 10:24AM

One recent poll shows that evangelicals are not as enthusiastic about Sen. John McCain as they were for President Bush in 2004. It's Marlys Popma's job to change that.

Popma is now based in Washington, ...

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Big E

Posted: September 06, 2008 9:04 PM

If there are as many Christians out there as they say they are, then how could you vote for Obama ? And if we are a Christian Nation, how could anyone vote for Obama? McCain may not be what we won't, be look whats left. We live in a time, when a lot of people want hand outs by the Governement. Remember this, " A Goverement that can give you everything you want, is also strong enough to take it away.Wake up Christian people. Sorry for the spelling. thanks. Obama should not be worry about our troops getting killed in Iraq, because it don't worry him about babys in the mothers womb.

TOM CANADA

Posted: September 06, 2008 11:36 AM

The people of America have an abusive relationship with there leadership. A classic cycle of abuse and reconcilliation. The leaders treat them like crap for 3 years, no health care, war and hurricanes with no relief, privatizing your pension (you got robbed right there!) list goes on. Then comes election time & the honeymoon starts again, the cooing and wooing, "no taxes sweety and so many jobs and we'll teach the kids and a insurance corporation will get you a doctor etc. but then after the election the abuse starts again, and the people of america get a black eye and a bloody nose while their president is out sleeping with some sexy corporation.

n	Posted: September 06, 2008 12:21 AM

wow, so laura lee, you are saying that YOU know that barack is not a christian? who made you judge? barack is more of a christian than any politician i've seen...EVER. and he walks the talk. and while i disagree on abortion, he's also more pro-life than any candidates. because, let's face it, pro-life includes children already born, it includes the death penalty, it includes war....hmmm, sounding pretty pro-life to me. as for sarah, since i work for a christian humanitarian ministry full time on poverty reduction issues, i consider myself to be a community organizer. i like mccain, but sarah so offended me and the profession of any non-profit worker, and then laughed after she said it, well, it just wasn't very christian. it was insulting to me. the work that we do brings countless people out of poverty and to Jesus. that's why i do it. i wouldn't bash other people to try to win an election. it just gives all christians a bad name.

Brent Vermillion

Posted: September 05, 2008 5:33 PM

Obama is a baby killer because he does nothing to stop it first and second because he votes to support it. Fankly, he is a sick human being (just like anyone who justifies abortion). McCain is no boyscout but he does have a sense of supporting a culture of life. I cannot vote for un-born baby murder as a Christian. As a nation the blood of millions of unborn babies are on all of our hands if we do not act to stop it. We the people have the power to elect officials who can change this tremendous error of the holocaust of millions of unborn babies. Our vote matters. Thus, I am voting McCain.

Laura Lee

Posted: September 02, 2008 2:24 PM

Is Marlys someone like Barak, who doesn't seem to know the difference between being a Christian and speaking Christianese? Thank you, Lord, that Barak made it clear by his "cling to their religion" speech--He is religious, but not Christian. When you are dancing with the Lord and experiencing Him and His rest, forgiveness, joy, peace and purpose--He does the clinging, not us. That's why He is so awesome and you can't mistake His followers. Though human, we belong to Him 24/7, not just in emergencies. Sarah is one of HIS, and if the mainline media were HIS, they could recognize that and not judge her in a superficial way. God in times past "searched for a man to fill the gap," now he searched and found a woman to complement Mr. McCain and bring real hope for our country. Genuine Christians have an agenda that builds, lifts, enriches, and finds the Answer to our questions. Go God! Go Sarah! Go USA! Go World!

jeff	Posted: September 01, 2008 2:24 PM

Interesting for this quote by Marlys Popma sounds like it came out of the mouth of Jim Wallis. "We understand on this campaign that there are essentially two groups in which we look for evangelicals. One is what I call "movement conservatives." Those are individuals who have for years been working for the unborn and working hard to make sure that the definition of marriage is between one man and one woman. There is also a young emerging group of people who have broadened their scope. They haven't neglected marriage and life issues, but they've broadened them into a concern about global poverty and making sure the quality of life for individuals is one that a human expects and deserves. Will the republican party ever move beyond just abortion and those of us who have a so called "gay agenda". But more importantly will the evangelical community grow up enough to see that God is so much bigger than these two issues of that express His fathers heart. I guess only time will tell.

Bill Smith Jr.

Posted: August 28, 2008 8:28 AM

Generally I am disappointed by my fellow CTOnline readers as I am by CT itself, which totes the religious right party-line as if it were its own in a way that would cause Carl Henry to cringe. Thank God no one has agreed with the narrow minded and hypocritical comments of one Mr. Jonathan Miles (see above or below) who labors under the impression that if the NY Times said it, it must be a lie. McCain may or may not be repentant about abandoning his disabled wife who waited for him when he was a POW. Being a POW is not a get out of jail free pass entitling you do whatever I want without consequence. And what of Cindy, seducing a married man from his disfigured and disabled wife. Wow! I'd say that is like stealing candy from a baby, but would not want to put the candy stealer in the same company as someone who would steal another woman's husband from a woman who was in no position to protect herself or fight back. Is this really the couple we want in the White House. I think not!

Arizona voter

Posted: August 27, 2008 1:02 PM

As a Christian, I am very concerned about John McCain's fitness to be President. He has recently endorsed a song by a rap artist named Daddy Yankee that contains repeated references to and glorifies teenage, pre-marital sex. The name of the song endorsed by McCain at a rally at an Arizona High School where he appeared with Daddy Yankee is "Gasolina," which is a slang term within the Latin American / Puerto Rican hip hop community for male ejaculate (semen). I believe the Christian community needs to know about McCain's poor judgement on this, hence I am forwarding you this information. Here's a link to McCain's appearance with Daddy Yankee at the Arizona high school. http://www.youtube.com/... And here's a link to the video of Daddy Yankee's song, "Gasolina" http://www.youtube.com/... This is not the kind of leadership our country needs. He pandered to the Christian community during his conversation with Pastor Warren at Saddleback, but this endorsement is telling.

Paul	Posted: August 27, 2008 12:28 PM

A beer heiress whose husband wants her to enter a topless beauty contest as a drunken biker fest, no less. To many of of us of the intermountain West recognize the Sturgis motorcycle rally is well known for booze, drugs, motorcycle gangs, murder and other playfulness - not that there is anything wrong with that if that's your thing, but its definitely not your wholesome family affair. No one called foul when McCain decided to go to Sturgis promote his campaign, showing his Sturgis family values and his evangelical spirit. I for one am completely disgusted. Not much attention has been paid that the lifelong Episcopalian McCain suddenly last summer switched religions to become a Baptist. We are all free to change our faiths - happens all the time, but the appearance of McCain's religious shopping for election purposes is too transparent here. What's to get excited about McCain. Most telling, Sen Goldwater didn't want anything to do with McCain.

Roberto

Posted: August 26, 2008 1:00 PM

Jonathan Miles' comment should be removed for mischaracterizing McCain's public repentance from his divorce and failing to distinguish the difference between repenting and campaigning. Like Leroy I'm ashamed and embarrassed by the fact that evangelicals have been so easily duped by McCain's phony about face when it comes to religion. Politicians want your vote. They will tell you what you want to hear to get it. Republicans figured out that they could get your vote by throwing you a few bread crumbs and tantalizing you with access to power. Even Billy Graham was duped by Nixon. McCain expressed nothing less than disdain Evangelicals until he figured out that they made up the base of the Republican party, and that he like Bush and Rove would need to tell them what they wanted to hear, knowing evangelicals are naive and will believe what they want to hear. Face it, evangelicals love nothing more than a repentant sinner. McCain dished it up;evangelical lapped it up like manna from heaven.

Alison

Posted: August 26, 2008 9:43 AM

To Worried American/Canadian. Bush has been a horrible president but has done 3 things which I, as a Christian, am very happy about. (1) Signed a bill to end partial birth abortion; (2) signed PEPFAR, allocating more money to the AIDS problem in Africa than any president ever has; (3) made significant strides in undermining sex trade/slavery around the world. If in the greater scheme of things the good he has done outweighs the bad, I don't know, but I do know that I am sick and tired of people who can only see the bad a person has done and not the good. So narrow-minded! As for polarization - that happened during Clinton's administration. He was (and is) a brilliant, captivating man, a self-proclaimed Christian man, but with no moral compass, who even managed to blame Republicans for his extramarital affairs. Some people may disagree with me that the polarization started then (it may have started with Thomas Jefferson), but that is OK. I think in hindsight it will become clear.

strut2k

Posted: August 25, 2008 9:30 PM

I cannot buy McCain as a "values" role model. He may have "repented" of the divorce, but he's become very comfortable in the lifestyle it has provided him. Cindy was a hot blonde beer distributorship heiress, eighteen years McCain's junior. They had their affair, McCain divorced wife Number One, and married Number Two days later. His new father in law got behind him politically, recruited backers and financing for John, and soon a Senator is born. McCain winds up living a very affluent life, with more houses than he can keep track of. And with no track record of being outspoken against adultery, about the plight of single parent mothers. But he's "repented" publicly. I hope he has for the sake of his soul, but forgive me for finding his words ring hollow. And that he doesn't merit trust. Barack Obama has one house. And he has one spouse. Disagree with him about life, but there's a lot about the man and his life to admire and respect.

Just wondering

Posted: August 25, 2008 6:06 PM


So what's going to happen when President McCain makes abortion illegal? How is he going to stop rich women from going to Europe for abortions and middle class women from going to Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean? Fertility Police? Like in Mao's China or Ceaucescu's Romania?

Dorry

Posted: August 25, 2008 4:55 PM


Aren't we concerned with a beer heiress in the White House? That is a lot of influence. I think the beer industry bears some responsible for the root cause of abortion by encouraging immorality in their advertising. Let's look deeper at these issues than we have in the past.

Jonathan Miles

Posted: August 25, 2008 4:03 PM


The previous comment should be removed, not only for mischaracterizing McCain's divorce for which he has publicly repented, but for then referencing the recent, unsubstantiated New York Times report and going beyond it with the claim of "others." This gossip and slander is simply sin.

Leroy

Posted: August 25, 2008 3:58 PM

It's unimaginable to me that fellow evangelicals would consider voting for a known philanderer, who abandoned his disabled and disfigured wife for a rich, trophy wife, several decades his junior, simply because he memorized all the Sunday School answers before showing up at Rick Warren's forum. Do you really believe that the man who as recently as 2000 called leaders within our community "agents of intolerance" really means what he now says when he needs your vote? By contrast Obama is a model husband, father, community leader and advocate of the less fortunate. Please do not revert to the issues of homosexuality and abortion. Republicans like McCain have been promising to amend the constitution etc. to prohibit these twin evils since Nixon seized upon them (as well as race) to divide Southern Democrats and persuade social conservatives to vote against their economic interests. Wake up. You may not agree with Obama on every issue, but he is a man of sincere Christian conviction.

EricR11

Posted: August 25, 2008 3:17 PM

I find it very very hard to regard McCain as a "family" man, especially given the well-documented details of leaving his ailing and hospitalized older first wife for his younger and prettier second even before there was a legal divorce agreement, something for which the Reagans never forgave him. More recent news reports indicate he might be at it again with a Washington lobbyist among others, something which doesn't necessarily even sit well with a good budget conscience, let alone a value of family.

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