“Obama’s presidency would be a disaster in many ways,” Charisma magazine’s Steve Strang writes in an endorsement editorial published today. “McCain’s would move our country in the right direction.”
It’s not really a big surprise, since Strang already told his readers, “I am opposed to the leftist political stands of the Democratic Party and of Obama specifically.” He told them he “didn’t really want to attend” June’s meeting between Obama and several Christian leaders. “But I was curious what the junior Senator from Illinois would say to Christian leaders when it’s well known that he supports abortion and the gay rights agenda. In addition, he has ties to Islam as a child through both his father and stepfather.”
That message continued, and it’s clear that meeting Obama personally didn’t change his mind. In today’s editorial, Strang said he can’t support the Illinois senator.
“One reason is his lack of experience. He does not have one major accomplishment to his name in his life as a public servant. Another reason is his view on the sanctity of life. … The third reason we cannot support Obama is his sympathy toward those who are attempting to legitimize homosexuality.”
But there’s a difference between opposing Obama and supporting McCain, and Strang had earlier made clear that McCain was not his first choice. (Mike Huckabee was.) “The fact he divorced the wife who stuck by him and raised his children while he was in a prisoner of war camp to marry a much younger woman, doesn’t sit well with those of us who believe marriage is for life,” Strang said.
Strang’s positive remarks on McCain started with lauding McCain’s views on limited government, then continued, “When asked [at the Saddleback Civil Forum] about evil, Obama mentioned Darfur and child abuse – both standard liberal answers. But McCain didn’t hedge about evil in the world. He said he’d stop at nothing to get Osama bin Laden.”
Help me out here, comment box user types. Are Darfur and child abuse really just liberal issues? And wouldn’t you expect an orthodox charismatic Christian like Strang to have a view of evil that didn’t quite localize it all in one guy?
Anyway, what struck me most about Strang’s endorsement of McCain, though, was how highly Strang ranked “McCain would allow offshore drilling to solve the dependence on Middle Eastern oil. Obama would oppose it.” He lists this even before noting that McCain and Obama “would each support very different candidates for the Supreme Court.” The Family Research Council just sent out an Action Alert on the issue, too. I understand people are concerned about energy, but I’m surprised that it’s becoming such a talking point for religious conservatives.
Strang, whose son Cameron had been scheduled to give the first night’s benediction at the Democratic National Convention (but withdrew), calls Sarah Palin “an extra reason to vote for John McCain.” But Strang says he wants a chance to interview her personally and to research her background” before he says much more about her.
