In an Oprah Winfrey-era where soul-baring and expressions of faith are the norm for public figures, the presumptive Republican nominee, open and candid about much else, retains a shroud of privacy around his Christianity.
Raised Episcopalian, John McCain now attends a Baptist megachurch in Phoenix, but he has not been baptized and rarely talks of his faith in anything but the broadest terms or as it relates to how it enabled him to survive 5½ years in captivity as a POW.
In this way, McCain, 71, is a throwback to an earlier generation, when such personal matters were kept personal. To talk of Jesus Christ in the comfortable, matter-of-fact fashion of the past two baby-boom-era presidents would be unthinkable.
What drives him — at least outwardly — is precisely what he has been talking about this week: a love of country and sense of duty instilled by a military family with a long legacy of service.
