The Chaplain Kit, a website that bills itself as an “online chaplain’s museum,” memorialized John McCain this weekend by noting he was once “chaplain” John McCain –while he was a prisoner of war:

While not officially a chaplain, John McCain was elected one by the group of POWs who shared a cellblock with him late in the Vietnam War. McCain wasn’t chosen as chaplain “…because the senior ranking officer thought [he] was imbued with any particular extra brand of religion, but because [he] knew all of the words of the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed.”

The article includes an excerpt from McCain’s book, Faith of My Fathers, on a Christmas service held during his captivity:

Between each hymn, I read a portion of the story of Christ’s birth from the pages I had copied…

We gave prayers of thanks for the Christ child, for our families and homes, for our country…Every now and then we glanced up at the windows to see if [the guards] were watching us…But when I looked up at the bars that evening, I wished they had been looking in. I wanted them to see us — faithful, joyful, and triumphant.

Purely for context, the site also references a 2007 article from the Christian Science Monitor which includes the background that:

Undergirding McCain’s hard-charging image there lies a deep faith in God that he credits with getting him through his toughest moments as a prisoner of war – and which he still relies on.

During his imprisonment in Hanoi, “there were times when I didn’t pray for one more day or one more hour, but I prayed for one more minute,” he says. “So I have very little doubt that it was reliance on someone stronger than me that not only got me through, but got me through honorably.”

McCain says he is not “born again” and has not been baptized. He says he is “just a Christian,” who for many years has been attending the North Phoenix Baptist Church in Arizona with his family…

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