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Christians: Does John McCain have a scriptial divorce? Since morals and values have been an issue of the republican party and the religious right, I would like to know your thoughts as to what the Bible would say about John McCain's scriptial divorce and the fact that he is living with a woman he cheated with.

John McCain's cheating became an issue in his 2000 run for the Presidency. Former President Bill Clinton was waist-deep in the Monica Lewinsky Cigar Scandal and the nation questioned the relationship of personal integrity to political integrity. When asked about his own cheating by CNN's Bernard Shaw, John McCain replied, "Let me say that I am responsible for the breakup of my first marriage. I will not discuss or talk about that any more than that. If someone wants to criticize me for that, that's fine."

In 2008, McCain's extramarital activities have barely resurfaced as a character issue.



Different hero, different war

John McCain's first wife won't say a harsh word about the man who dumped her. Is she a spineless wimp or a quiet hero?

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By Jennifer Foote Sweeney

With a great deal of restraint and not a trace of opinion, the New York Times last week reported details of what writer Nicholas Kristof calls "an awkward time" in John McCain's life. The story, related in delightfully quaint language, managed to be fairly astonishing regardless of one's feelings about the Republican presidential candidate whose most familiar handle is that of "war hero."

It seems that McCain, who had once revealed to fellow prisoners of war in Vietnam that he wanted to be president, was restless in 1979. As Navy liaison to the Senate, he didn't have the career momentum he had counted on to propel him into an admiralty and on to the White House. He was 42, mired in stifling ordinariness. (Civilians call it "midlife crisis.")

But McCain was making bold career moves on the home front, hotly pursuing a 25-year-old blond from a wealthy Arizona family -- while married. Carol, his wife at the time, had once been quite a babe herself apparently, until a near-fatal car accident (while her husband was in Vietnam) left her 4 inches shorter, overweight and on crutches. The couple had three children, whom Carol cared for alone while her husband was in Vietnamese prisons.

McCain's strategy worked perfectly: After chasing Cindy Hensley around the country for six months, he closed the deal late in the year, had a divorce by February and was married to Hensley shortly thereafter. Bingo! McCain was a candidate for Congress by early 1982, his coffers full, his home in the proper Arizona district purchased.

The story is compelling -- and repellent -- for a lot of reasons. And it raises some familiar questions. We have to wonder why Americans are able to excoriate a presidential candidate (or president) who cheats on his wife but accept one who did the same thing with the concentration and energy of a military strategist. Is it because McCain didn't get caught? Is it because he married his mistress? At this point, after much navel- and penis-gazing, it seems like a moot question, if only for reasons of sheer exhaustion.

The real riddle in that New York Times story, and in the life of John McCain, is his ex-wife's apparent acceptance of his actions and her continuing support. Says Kristof, "No candidate could be luckier in his choice of an ex-wife than Sen. McCain, and he must be the only politician around who could cheat on his wife and divorce her and still get her support and her campaign contributions today."

It is mysterious and yet incredibly important to McCain's legend. Even the people who might have felt some outrage while reading about McCain's shenanigans were probably mollified by the fact that his ex-wife seems to be eternally supportive, even cheerful, after experiencing such incredible cruelty. It becomes very easy to forgive McCain once his wife has: Heck, if it's OK with her, it's OK with me! The whiff of impropriety, the stench of character flaw is suddenly removed. O lucky man!

I was not prepared to vilify the magnanimous homewrecker after learning of his "awkward time." Like a lot of voters, I choose to focus on the issues. But I could not help being fascinated by Carol McCain. What is up with her? And then it occurred to me that what John McCain has benefited from here is the same reward enjoyed by ex-husbands everywhere in the aftermath of bad behavior and take-no-prisoners divorce when the person they are dumping and dumping on is a mother. In particular, a mother who adores her children and is painfully aware of conventional divorce wisdom that says never, ever criticize the departing dad in front of his children. It is an act of maternal suicide.

How many women do you know who willfully, in public and even in private, refuse to say an unkind word about the father of their children after divorce? I know many. They are all well-versed in the terrible damage that dissing daddy can do to children, who are fiercely resistant to any information that puts their father in an unflattering light. They also know that a child's reaction to this sort of information is often anger, and a distancing from mom, who covets her relationship with her children even more in the wake of abandonment.

The constant tongue-biting, the squelching of the truth, the careful avoidance of history can be brutal and is, in many ways, heroic. And yet it is mostly unsung, sometimes completely undetected. I suspect that many of those who read about McCain's "troubled period" (don't you love the New York Times?) will assume that Carol McCain is some kind of ditsy or emotionless punching bag without the good sense to hate her husband. They might assume that she somehow deserved to be humiliated and left to eat her husband's dust as he raced to claim his just reward.

How many will guess that Carol McCain is quite possibly a hero of a different kind of war? How many will read between the lines of her exalted ex-husband's legend and decide that she is simply one of the most courageous examples of a wounded mother who has loved and protected her children at all costs?
salon.com | March 6, 2000


http://archive.salon.com/mwt/feature/2000/03/06/carol/print.html
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This is not about Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton did not get a divorce. Your party, the republican party, for the last eight years has been running on the platform of morals and values. And for the last eight years you have had republicans, senators, mayors, preachers, etc.. to be caught in the closet doing what they preach against. I would call this being hypocritical. The republican party has never forgotten Bill Clinton's sin and they always use it when they don't have anything else to use. Now, I asked a simple question and that question is: Is John McCain's divorce scriptual? He cheated on his wife after she had a car wreck and laid up paralyzed and later left his wife after a long love affair with his present wife now and married the woman he cheated with. I would just like to know what the Christians answer would be to my question. If you are going to set up a platform of morals and values, is that just for the democrats to go by or should both parties go by it? It's like a preacher who is preaching to you not to sin but it's ok for him to do it. Republicans can't have it both ways. If you are going to do the morals and values, then you need to hold your people responsible as well as democrats. If you are going to be the example, then you need to set the examples. So far, republicans have not set any examples of morals and values.
As a Christian who has been divorced, I will try to answer your question. First of all, I do not know what a scriptial or a scriptual divorce is. I believe that should be SCRIPTURAL, as in according to scripture. If all of you would read 1st Corinthians 7:27&28, you will see that you are blowing this all out of proportion. I do not believe that God wants us to be divorced PERIOD. Just as he doesn't want us to bow before graven images or commit murder. I do believe that God is al lot more forgiving than we are sometimes the way we treat people. What ever John McCain (and believe me I am no great fan of his, He is too Liberal for my part )has done can be, and maybe already has been forgiven. That is between him and GOD ALONE. The moral values I judge a person by 9especially one who is running for president) is are they for or against a woman's SO CALLED right to murder her unborn child? Are they for sanctioning same sex marriage? The Bible teaches me that "as the king goes, so goes the Nation. I would like to see a genuine GOD fearing person in the white house who is not afraid of standing in front of Americans and letting them know that he is a Christian and ALWAYS prays for GOD'S guidance before making decisions which are going to have an effect on our country. I don't believe that GOD would lead him astray.Unfortunately, there is a lot of people in this country are afraid that GOD may point out to them that they are wrong. Why do you think there is such a push in this country to try to get GOD out of our lives?
Wouldn't Cindy McCain make a wonderful First Lady? She knowingly slept around with the 'Pub Candidate, knowing he was married and the father of 3 children. I am sure her campaigning on "Morals and Values" will make a huge impact on young people. Maybe she can join up with Dr. Laura, who does the same theme, "Values, Morality, and Ethics." Dr. Laura is a Right-Wing Apologist for the Bush Administration. She cheated on her husband while married, and last, she cheated with a married man after her husband dumped her, and a former boyfriend with whom she was cheating has posted pics on the internet of Dr. Laura spread out in all her glory. She is campagning for McCain, and I would say they have a lot in common. Dr. Laura tried to take legal action against her former boyfriend to prevent his posting her nude pics on the internet, but the Judge ruled that the pics were the property of her boyfriend, and he can do what he wants with them. Poor Little Wench! One of her former boyfriends that she had while she was married refers to her by the nickname of KKK, since she was so "bad" under the sheets.
quote:
a Christian who has been divorced [quote]

me too ida.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[quote]The moral values I judge a person by 9especially one who is running for president) is are they for or against a woman's SO CALLED right to murder her unborn child? Are they for sanctioning same sex marriage? The Bible teaches me that "as the king goes, so goes the Nation. I would like to see a genuine GOD fearing person in the white house who is not afraid of standing in front of Americans and letting them know that he is a Christian and ALWAYS prays for GOD'S guidance before making decisions which are going to have an effect on our country. I don't believe that GOD would lead him astray.Unfortunately, there is a lot of people in this country are afraid that GOD may point out to them that they are wrong. Why do you think there is such a push in this country to try to get GOD out of our lives?


i agree.
quote:
Originally posted by NashBama:
Who the f cares. Our options are a crappy four years or a really, really crappy four years. McCain will make a mess in his term, but not as big as Obama would.

All we can do is hang in as best we can until 2012.

I care, this is our country. Not many good choices to choose from, but it is like the last 4, you have to choose the lesser of the evils.
quote:
I care, this is our country. Not many good choices to choose from, but it is like the last 4, you have to choose the lesser of the evils.


No, who cares about whether McCain's divorce is scriptural or not. How does that matter? It doesn't. So what's the point of even discussing it?

Like you said, this election is identical to the last one. Find the guy who will screw things up the most and vote against him.
While I'm not a big fan of McCain's the difference between him and Bill is that McCain has admitted that he was the cause of the divorce, from adultery, I guess. Bill Clinton repeatedly denied and perjured himself in front of God and everybody about the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

That being said, I don't think that the Lewinsky/Clinton affair should have been anybody's business except their's and Hillary's. The fact that it was THE news for months was ridiculous. It was about the only thing the Right could attack Clinton with and they did- viciously and hypocritically. If Clinton had just owned up to it immediately, he would have come out of it smelling more like roses than a pile of poop. His legacy as President would be much more polished and esteemed.

And I have been wondering, are you any kin to a fella that went by the name of PBA, JJPAUL? You remind me of him, but you have a much longer fuse. Big Grin
quote:
Originally posted by mandomama:
While I'm not a big fan of McCain's the difference between him and Bill is that McCain has admitted that he was the cause of the divorce, from adultery, I guess. Bill Clinton repeatedly denied and perjured himself in front of God and everybody about the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

That being said, I don't think that the Lewinsky/Clinton affair should have been anybody's business except their's and Hillary's. The fact that it was THE news for months was ridiculous. It was about the only thing the Right could attack Clinton with and they did- viciously and hypocritically. If Clinton had just owned up to it immediately, he would have come out of it smelling more like roses than a pile of poop. His legacy as President would be much more polished and esteemed.

And I have been wondering, are you any kin to a fella that went by the name of PBA, JJPAUL? You remind me of him, but you have a much longer fuse. Big Grin


Bill Clinton??? Didnt realize he was the CHEATING DOUBLE TALKIN McCains opponent
Verbatim,

You tried a cheap trick that was old when Goebbels used it. hell, it was old when Pharoah Imhotep's grand vizier used it. I called you on it and you response is an insult to my intelligence. Again, a cheap trick, hoary with age. Please develop better techniques or bow out. Its just embarrassing to see someone struggling to insult, but only harming himself.
quote:
Originally posted by DeepFat:
For chrissakes, is this 1648? Who cares about a divorce?

If we disqualify divorced people from office, the eligible pool would be quite small indeed, and would have excluded Ronald Reagan, among others.

It's a non issue.

DF


Who cares??? Out of all Presidents we have ONLY ONE divorced and we saw popular NYC mayor Guliani slaughtered when he sought the presidency so it does appear many people care
quote:
Originally posted by Mungo Jerry:
quote:
Originally posted by DeepFat:
For chrissakes, is this 1648? Who cares about a divorce?

If we disqualify divorced people from office, the eligible pool would be quite small indeed, and would have excluded Ronald Reagan, among others.

It's a non issue.

DF


Who cares??? Out of all Presidents we have ONLY ONE divorced and we saw popular NYC mayor Guliani slaughtered when he sought the presidency so it does appear many people care


Of course, it works both ways. Anderew Jackson and Gerald Ford, as well as Ronald Reagan, were married to divorced women.

Just as an aside, the sermon tonight was on David, Bathsheba, and Uriah. I kept thinking about McCain through the whole thing.

I support McCain, but I'm choosing the least of three evils.
quote:
Originally posted by FirenzeVeritas:
quote:
Originally posted by Sassy Kims:
Who cares?

But, if you must, if McCain's divorce was not "scriptural", then neither is Hellery's marriage.


Why? Because she chose NOT to divorce Slick Willie? I'm unsure of her motivation behind her "standing by her man," but it is her choice. It's not a sin to do so.


Actually, you're correct. I had to go back and look up a bible verse or two. You get to make the mark on the wall this time Big Grin

Still, as far as McCain' divorce....I could not care less, and I suspect the hundred of thousands (if not millions)of divorced and remarried Americans will feel exactly the same way.
The very people that have used Christianity to get people to vote republican are coming up with the Bill Clinton deal, who is not divorced, who had a wife to forgive him for his wrongdoings and managed to keep their marriage together. This is what so many Christian counselors try to do is to save marriages.

McCain cheated on his wife while married and divorced his wife to marry the one he cheated with. You ask any Christian, or maybe I should rephrase that, ask any true Christian who knows their Bible, if John McCain has a scriptual divorce according to the Bible.
quote:
McCain cheated on his wife while married and divorced his wife to marry the one he cheated with. You ask any Christian, or maybe I should rephrase that, ask any true Christian who knows their Bible, if John McCain has a scriptual divorce according to the Bible.


Again I ask, who cares? What difference does it make?

None.

I don't care if he's been divorced 10 times, as long as he isn't a socialist or even less of a socialist than Obama then I have no choice but to vote for him.

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