Saddleback Faithful Cheer McCain's Messianic Complex

Saturday's Saddleback Forum on the Presidency featured a troubling exchange between Rick Warren, John McCain, and the audience in response to a question about whether evil exists and how we should deal with it (transcript available via CNN here).  Here's the question and answer that bothered me:

WARREN: How about the issue of evil. I asked this of your rival, in the previous debate. Does evil exist and, if so, should [we] ignore it, negotiate with it, contain it or defeat it?

MCCAIN: Defeat it. A couple of points. One, if I'm president of the United States, my friends, if I have to follow him to the gates of hell, I will get bin Laden and bring him to justice. I will do that. And I know how to do that. I will get that done. (APPLAUSE). No one, no one should be allowed to take thousands of American -- innocent American lives.

Of course, evil must be defeated. My friends, we are facing the transcended challenge of the 21st century -- radical Islamic extremism.

Not long ago in Baghdad, al Qaeda took two young women who were mentally disabled, and put suicide vests on them, sent them into a marketplace and, by remote control, detonated those suicide vests. If that isn't evil, you have to tell me what is. And we're going to defeat this evil. And the central battleground according to David Petraeus and Osama bin Laden is the battle, is Baghdad, Mosul, Basra and Iraq and we are winning and succeeding and our troops will come home with honor and with victory and not in defeat. And that's what's happening.

And we have -- and we face this threat throughout the world. It's not just in Iraq. It's not just in Afghanistan. Our intelligence people tell us al Qaeda continues to try to establish cells here in the United States of America. My friends, we must face this challenge. We can face this challenge. And we must totally defeat it, and we're in a long struggle. But when I'm around, the young men and women who are serving this nation in uniform, I have no doubt, none.

A few observations.  When asked about evil, Senator McCain limited his answer to a discussion of Al Qaeda.  For John McCain, Evil = Al Qaeda.  He offered a rhetorically powerful image of two mentally disabled women being used unwittingly as suicide bombers, the kind of story that would cause anyone to cringe with disgust.  But his answer was narrow.  Unlike his opponent (whose response I'll examine below), he did not name crime or genocide or other evils - domestic or international - in his answer.  What we got from McCain was a myopic focus, a naively narrow definition of evil - a definition rooted in a US-centric worldview, a definition limited by a narrow set of US foreign policy goals.  Evil surely is broader than any one particular enemy that our country faces.

But more, I was disturbed by his bellicose declaration, "If I'm president of the United States, my friends, if I have to follow him to the gates of hell, I will get bin Laden and bring him to justice. I will do that. And I know how to do that. I will get that done."  Go to the gates of hell?  Is McCain setting himself up as some kind of supernatural power, a Messiah capable of rooting out evil in this world and the next?  For we Christians proclaim in our Apostles' Creed:

I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended into hell.

Only Jesus can go to the gates of hell.  Only God can root out evil.  By limiting his definition of evil to Al Qaeda, and casting himself as the one who could get Bin Laden and Al Qaeda (thus, by positioning himself as The One who can root out evil), he puts himself in the position of Messiah.

That's a problem.  But not nearly as much as a problem as the crowd at Saddleback who erupted in applause following McCain's answer.  Sitting in a church, they cheered on the would-be Messiah as he promised to go to the gates of hell to root out an evil defined in nationalistic terms.  Shouldn't the faithful be concerned about the unrealistic and inappropriate - and possibly even heretical - claims he made?  But instead, they applaud.

Perhaps John McCain was just showing some over-the-top, rhetorical flash.  Perhaps.  But in a church setting with church folks in the pews/seats, I am disturbed that someone would cast himself as a Messiah . . . and that the faithful would respond with such enthusiasm.

OK, let's look at Obama's response.

WARREN: OK, we've got one last time -- I've got a bunch more, but let me ask you one about evil. Does evil exist? And if it does, do we ignore it? Do we negotiate with it? Do we contain it? Do we defeat it?

OBAMA: Evil does exist. I mean, I think we see evil all the time. We see evil in Darfur. We see evil, sadly, on the streets of our cities. We see evil in parents who viciously abuse their children. I think it has to be confronted. It has to be confronted squarely, and one of the things that I strongly believe is that, now, we are not going to, as individuals, be able to erase evil from the world. That is God's task, but we can be soldiers in that process, and we can confront it when we see it.

Now, the one thing that I think is very important is for to us have some humility in how we approach the issue of confronting evil, because a lot of evil's been perpetrated based on the claim that we were trying to confront evil.

WARREN: In the name of good.

OBAMA: In the name of good, and I think, you know, one thing that's very important is having some humility in recognizing that just because we think that our intentions are good, doesn't always mean that we're going to be doing good.

WARREN: OK. All right.

In contrast to McCain's bellicose response - Evil = Al Qaeda, the remedy for which is more war - Senator Obama offers a much more nuanced, a much broader, a much more theologically articulate understanding of evil.  Evil exists, according to Obama, overseas and at home, on our streets and in our homes, in unjust wars and even hidden in our own well-intentioned response to injustice. 

Ask yourself this question - is evil limited to Al Qaeda?  Of course not.  Evil is much more expansive than a single terrorist enemy.  Obama understands this.  McCain does not.  Obama knows that are all sinners, that all capable of evil - even we in this country.  But for McCain, the world is a bit simpler, a bit more black-and-white - we're the poor victims of an overseas evil, period.

Obama also appropriately places the task of ridding the world of evil in God's hands: "We are not going to, as individuals, be able to erase evil from the world. That is God's task."  (Note: no applause from the Saddleback faithful in response to this theologically correct answer.  They cheer on McCain, the would-be macho Messiah, but they simply sit politely and quietly as Obama gives God the glory).  McCain offered fighting words, whereas Obama offered words of faith.

Politically, McCain probably came out on top in this event.  He played to the fears and anxieties of the American people, and that scores political points.  Obama was more articulate and appropriate - at least on his answer to the question of evil - than his opponent.  But I come away from this event most disturbed by the gleeful response of the Saddleback faithful to McCain's militaristic, Messianic promise to root out evil from the gates of hell. 

War is nothing to be cheered, and Messiah-complexes are nothing we should embrace.  The faithful ought to know that.  At the Saddleback Forum on the Presidency, it was not any one candidate but the faithful that fared the worst, and I fear that our nation and our Christian faith suffered by the unfortunate alignment of God and governance, of piety and politics on display that evening.

- - - - -

Read a wonderful critique of the Saddleback Forum over at Progressive Involvement: Luther: I'd rather be governed by a smart Turk than a dumb Christian.  The author is a Lutheran pastor and democratic party activist, and his blog is well worth reading.

UPDATE: Another good critique can be found here, at Blog from the Capital, a wonderful church/state blog from the American Baptist tradition.

Comments

[Judah Himango]

"Evil is much more expansive than a single terrorist enemy. Obama understands this. McCain does not."

So the reasoning is, "McCain cites Al Qaeda as evil, thus he doesn't understand evil is more than Al Qaeda."

That's not serious reasoning.

[Chris]

Judah -

Thanks for coming by. Sure . . . But by his answers on Saturday night and by his campaigning, I have consistently seen an overly simplistic approach to domestic and international affairs. His answer to Warren's question about evil was emblematic of this simplicity.

(And this is a shame. I supported McCain in 2000. He was a good candidate then. He's a different - much more conventional - politician now.)

Furthermore, when we place the candidates' answers side by side, Obama's answer is clearly much more articulate and faithful, and McCain's answer is unnecessarily bellicose and narrow.

[Rachel]

"Politically, McCain probably came out on top in this event. He played to the fears and anxieties of the American people, and that scores political points."

And here's where I think you hit the nail on the head. THAT's really what McCain's answer was about, THAT's what McCain was going for. I find it hard to believe his concept of evil is that narrow. I would not, however, put it past him to believe that that's what Americans want to hear/"can understand" [insert patronizing tone].

What Obama's answer said to me was that he was really trying to explain his view, what he think about evil, and how...difficult it is to see and define and even understand.

[PS]

One commentary worth reading: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/08/18/cafferty.mccain/index.html

Upcoming radio program about the interviews at Saddleback church that probably will be worth the time: "Rick and Kay Warren at Saddleback
(August 21) Rick Warren hosted the first joint appearance of presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain at their Saddleback Church in California. The Warrens are emblematic of a new era of Evangelical leadership where global social concerns come before partisan politics." Find reference here: http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/

and here: http://minnesota.publicradio.org/radio/programs/speaking_of_faith/

[d. w. horstkoetter]

Your juxtaposition is well done. McCain's understanding of "the fight between good and evil" and that these wars "are fights against evil" certainly does scare me from a theological point of view. However, as much as McCain is over-the-top, both McCain and Obama call themselves Niebuhrians, and the realist that Niebhur was, installed Christianity into a form of violent pragmatism that served the state, and even arguably replaced the church with the state. Obama, is certainly less simplistic and I think more honest, however, when he says evil is in God's hands, he means perhaps something different than we assume. Or at least that our involvement with or against evil may still be rather close to what it is now. But, at least he doesn't have a Messiah complex, seems to identify evil better, and is someone I actually like to engage with. Another Bush in the White House would be a disaster.

[scott prather]

Excellent post. Good to come across your blog. Peace.

[Kelly Fryer]

Thanks for this, Chris. Well done.

[Carpenter]

You appear to think Obama is a deeper thinker than McCain and from your tone it is reasonable to assume you will vote for him. Please tell me, as a Christian how can you vote for someone who wants to retain the procedure where a baby is delivered feet first then its skull punctured and crushed? About the only answer you could give that would make sense is that you either are not a Christian or have lost your mind.

[Nathan Smith]

@Carpenter:

You appear to think McCain is a deeper thinker than Obama and from your tone it is reasonable to assume you will vote for him. Please tell me, as a Christian how can you vote for someone who wants to sustain an unjust war which has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent civilians?

Just some food for thought.