Time is reporting that like former President Bush, current President Obama has opted to remain out of any of the D.C. based congregations, many of them historic and traditional, in favor of a secluded chapel at Camp David. For the past few months, speculation remained high that the President would choose a historic black church, or perhaps a congregation that is open and affirming. In the end, he choose to maintain the path that the former President did.
It is a military chapel, pastored by Lt. Carey Cash, and is open to the over 400 personal at Camp David, but draws less than 1/4 of that number on Sunday. Time reports:
Camp David’s current chaplain, Lieut. Carey Cash, leads the services at Evergreen. If the White House had custom-ordered a pastor to be the polar opposite of Jeremiah Wright, they could not have come as close as Cash. (As it is, the White House had no hand in selecting Cash. The Navy rotates chaplains through Camp David every three years; Cash began his tour this past January.) The 38-year-old Memphis native is a graduate of the Citadel and the great-nephew of Johnny Cash. He served a tour as chaplain with a Marine battalion in Iraq and baptized nearly 60 Marines during that time. Cash earned his theology degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth – and, yes, that means Obama’s new pastor is a Southern Baptist.
So, the pastor is a Southern Baptist and a great-nephew of Johnny Cash…this should be interesting.
Joel L. Watts holds a Masters of Arts from United Theological Seminary with a focus in literary and rhetorical criticism of the New Testament. His interests include exploring the role of mimesis in human civilization, specifically in the study of religion and media, as well as science fiction and the way in which it has allowed mythology to be explored in light of scientific discoveries of the past century. He is the author of Mimetic Criticism of the Gospel of Mark: Introduction and Commentary (Wipf and Stock, 2013) and a co-editor and contributor to From Fear to Faith: Stories of Hitting Spiritual Walls (Energion, 2013).
Website: → Unsettled Christianity
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