Christian Author and Beliefnet Editor-In-Chief DOUBTS MCCAIN'S CROSS-IN-THE-SAND Story

[berni_mccoy]

http://blog.beliefnet.com/stevenwaldman/2008/08/the-ever-changing-crossinthedi.html

McCain, who isn't even baptized, is having trouble convincing Christians of his fake story:

McCain's Changing Cross-in-the-Dirt Story

McCain tells the cross in the sand story in his 1999 memoir, Faith of My Fathers:

"We both stood wordlessly looking at the cross until, after a minute or two, he rubbed it out and walked away. I saw my good Samaritan often after the Christmas when we venerated the cross together."

In his campaign ad in December, he adds mention of "the true light of Christmas":

"We stood wordlessly looking at the cross, remembering the true light of Christmas. I will never forget that no matter where you are, no matter how difficult the circumstances, there will always be someone who will pick you up."

At the Saddleback Civil Forum:

"For a minute there, it was just two Christians worshipping together."

The story has gradually morphed from being about the humanity of the guard to being about the Christian faith of the guard and John McCain.

One of the commenters notes the story has been plagiarized. Another one notes that McCain isn't baptized.

Cross-posted at DIGG: Please DIG IT HERE: http://digg.com/politics/Beliefnet_Editor_In_Chief_DOUBTS_MCCAIN_Made_Up_Cross_Story

[AllentownJake]

1. Awesome

He's going to have to feed the fundie beast some more :evilgrin:

[yardwork]

2. We need to get this information out.

[berni_mccoy]

3. PLEASE DIGG IT HERE:

http://digg.com/politics/Beliefnet_Editor_In_Chief_DOUBTS_MCCAIN_Made_Up_Cross_Story

[writes3000]

4. Done. nt

[HowHasItComeToThis]

5. THE REPUB BULLSHEETERS ARE A POX ON AMERICA

THE DON'T WQANT FR=EDERAL GOVERNMENT TO SUCCEED.

[Spazito]

6. I was doing a search on the "cross in the sand"

and noticed a lot of links to blogs with the issue being raised:

Huffington Post
Drudge
Dkos
Beliefnet


and others.

The question is being raised, there is no doubt about it. It will be interesting to see if it continues to grow.

[Gabi Hayes]

7. If a big stink isn't made on TV about this, it never happened

TV is reality

nothing else matters

[Spazito]

8. I agree but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be out there anyway

blogs do have influence in their own right. If there is enough noise, who knows what might happen.

[berni_mccoy]

9. Gabi is very busy tonight telling people that the issues brought up on McCain's b.s. don't matter.

[Spazito]

10. Not just one, there are others as well....

it has been very enlightening. There seems to be, one some posters' part, a new found "concern" for Obama and how exposing McCain's probable plagiarism, his lies regarding knowing the questions at the forum last night and whether he has been baptized will ONLY hurt Obama! Go figure eh!

[Gabi Hayes]

14. blow me with the concern BS, OK?

you give me ONE instance of the media going after ANYTHING McCain has said or done for more than five minutes, and I'll gladly admit I'm wrong

sure, I'm pessimistic, but, as I said, give me ANY example of the media doing its job WRT telling the truth about McCain, and allowing a story to mature into a meme that has any legs. give me an example of a McCain story that lasted as long as the Wright fiasco. The Hagee/Parsley story? good one! nice try! they really ran with that one for a long time, didn't they?

or their exhaustive coverage of the June 4 town hall meeting in Louisiana, when he was asked why he had voted twice against the creation of a commission to investigate preparedness for Hurricane Katrina. McCain responded that he "supported every investigation and ways of finding out what caused the tragedy." you surely remember McCain's actual voting record on this subject because of the massive coverage devoted to his dishonesty there, right? right.

how many more examples would you like?

so provide some examples....try ONE.....where they took an instance of something inimical to McCain's campaign and made an issue out of it, one which put him on the defensive for at least a week, which is what they've been doing to Obama since Hillary threw in the towel, and they focused the GOP blastfax spotlight. specifically on him.

knock yourself out

then go back to your dreamworld where evertything is fine and dandy and Obama will coast into office, just like Kerry did, and Gore before him, and Dukakis, too (he had a thirteen point lead in early August, 1988, which had turned into a 6 point deficit by the end of the month. how, pray tell, did that happen?)

Clinton didn't lose because he fought back HARD, and right away, and didn't get suckered into any lose/lose situations like the one that happened yesterday. let's see how the momentum goes in the next few weeks, because it's definitely not going in the right direction at this point.

[Spazito]

16. I get your pessimism, I just don't accept it....

As the old expression goes, it is better to try and fail than to never have tried at all. I would rather lose trying to change things than to sit back and do nothing.

Posts that say don't bother doing this or that always leave me wondering if they are an attempt to suppress those who are willing to try.

[Blue_Tires]

17. interesting graffitti

where did you find it?

[dansolo]

18. If enough of a stink is raised on the blogs

It can make its way onto TV.

[vets74]

24. Call it BLASPHEMY and contact Christian friends

This lie is the worst of McCain's recent dishonesties.

The Cross is not suitable material for Rovian fascism.

Christians have strong networks outside the corporate media. Getting word out: no problemo.

[EC]

11. Drudge?

The freep types love Drudge don't they?

[Spazito]

12. I was surprised to see a link to Drudge on my search page for that very reason....

but there it was. I did not click on the link to see what was being said as I don't want to taint my computer's memory having that link noted anywhere, lol.

[TrogL]

13. Baptism is Baptism - a single molecule of water is sufficient

[berni_mccoy]

15. Depends on your flavor of "Christianity"

[XemaSab]

23. Some Christians believe baptism as an infant can wash away original sin

Other Christians believe that you have to "choose" Christ, and you can't do so as an infant.

As part of being born again and receiving new life in Christ, your sins have to be washed away. :shrug:

[madeline_con]

19. "Cross in the Dirt" story stolen from Solzhenitsyn

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/8/17/122230/161/239/569299

Keep this kicked!!! :kick:

[TwilightGardener]

20. If I had a million dollars to gamble, I would bet that McCain was pretty

much not a religious person--at all--until he was in public office (and then political convenience dictates that GOPers are big-time Christians). That's why this story doesn't ring true, even if wasn't an obvious plagiarized tall tale. There's nothing about him that suggests he ever had any sort of deep spirituality or firmly-held religious beliefs, but the guard just KNEW he was a devoted Christian and risked his own life to make a connection? Please. His faith is probably just another aspect of his post-POW invented persona.

[highplainsdem]

21. Berni, Steven Waldman said nothing about DOUBTING McCain's story. He said more details

were added in the retellings, but he doesn't question the truth of the story.

Please reread that blog and ALSO read what else Waldman had to say about McCain's appearance at Saddleback:

http://blog.beliefnet.com/stevenwaldman/2008/08/why-obama-didnt-stink.html

Message to Evangelicals: I'm Neither Jeremiah Wright Nor a Radical Muslim

Sunday August 17, 2008

posted by Steve Waldman @ 8:54pm


As I wrote yesterday right after the Saddleback forum, McCain was spectacular. He only really has one riff on his personal faith (the cross in the sand), but it's a damn good one and we have to remember that most people haven't heard the story yet. (He needs to be careful on one point: he keeps adding new details to the story; if he keeps doing that, people will feel like he's embellishing for votes). He started with a stronger hand - he is pro-life and anti-gay marriage - but he played his cards forcefully.

-snip-

Emphasis added.

Waldman believes McCain's story.

[berni_mccoy]

22. No, he doubts it. This post references his doubts about McCain's story. He even says so here

Saying the story is changing does not promote belief in the story.

Furthermore, Steven now knows the story was plagiarized as he reviews comments before they are posted on his blog. He's allowed that comment to stand on the blog post I linked.

Stephen has a strong pro-Obama list of articles and his posts reflect that. In fact, he gives Obama an A performance from the post you linked. He mostly talks about how well Obama did after the paragraph you quote.