The Republican presidential candidate, who is actively courting religious voters and trying to reassure skeptical conservatives, visited privately with the Grahams on the grounds of Little Piney Cove in the Blue Ridge Mountains in western North Carolina.
"I met with Reverend Billy Graham and his son, Franklin [and] we had a very excellent conversation,” McCain said in a statement obtained by BosNewsLife following his talks Sunday, June 29. “I appreciated the opportunity to visit with them."
He said, "Billy Graham recalled that during the Vietnam War when I was a prisoner, he visited my parents twice in Honolulu, and he and my father prayed together for me." McCain stressed that he had “expressed my appreciation for that a long time ago."
MCCAIN CRITICIZED
McCain had been criticized by some conservative groups for allegedly not reaching out to evangelicals and meeting Graham earlier, which his campaign staff blamed on the senator’s busy agenda. In addition, Billy Graham, 89, has been in poor health, especially following the death of his long time wife and close adviser Ruth Bell Graham, who gave up dreams of missionary work abroad to marry the man who would reach millions with the Gospel.
However he apparently felt well for talks with McCain, who flew to North Carolina and initially did not rule out he would only meet Franklin Graham, who is president and chief executive of the evangelistic association his father founded in 1950.
McCain said he did not know if the Grahams would vote for him. "I didn’t ask for their votes," he said, calling them "great leaders," he stressed in published remarks. Billy Graham has been a friend and spiritual counselor of several presidents, but Franklin Graham stressed that Sunday’s meeting was not aimed at endorsing anyone for the top job.
POLITICAL PROCESS
He said the talks were to urge "men and women of faith everywhere" to vote and be involved in the political process. "I encourage people to vote for the candidate at every level who best represents their values and convictions, and then to pray for those in authority over us as required in Scripture."
Yet, Franklin Graham praised the Arizona senator’s "personal faith and his moral clarity."
He said, "The senator and I both have sons currently serving in the military, and also have a common interest in aviation," In addition he was "impressed by his personal faith and his moral clarity on important social issues facing America today."
Earlier this month, Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama met with the younger Graham as part of a session with a group of about 30 evangelical leaders in Chicago. The Illinois senator, who was baptized as a Christian about 20 years ago, is battling Internet allegations that he is actually a Muslim, because of his name, which includes the middle name Hussein, and the Islamic heritage of his Kenyan father and grandfather, the Associated Press news agency reported.
He has also had to fight off damage done to his candidacy by Reverend Jeremiah Wright, who cursed the United States for its treatment of African Americans. The controversy over Wright’s inflammatory sermons from the pulpit of the Trinity United Church of Christ on Chicago’s South Side finally led Obama to denounce his former pastor and quit the church. (BosNewsLife’s NEWS WATCH is a regular look at key news developments impacting the Church and/or compassionate professionals).
