Frederick News Post Logo

Evergreen worship with
Johnny Cash's nephew

Saturday, July 4, 2009

By Ron Cassie
News-Post Staff

On March 22, 1959, President Dwight D. Eisenhower and British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan attended Palm Sunday services at Thurmont's Trinity United Church of Christ. A plaque on the pew where Eisenhower sat commemorates the visit, pastor Les Sims said.

Carey Photo
Courtesy Photo

Lt. Carey H. Cash is pastor at the Evergreen Chapel at Camp David, as reported by Time magazine this week. Cash is the great-nephew of country singing legend Johnny Cash and author of the book, “A Table in the Presence: The Dramatic Account of How a U.S. Marine Battalion Experienced God’s Presence Amidst the Chaos of War in Iraq.”

"I figured with President Obama, since we have the same name as the church he attended in Chicago, he might want to come by, too," Sims laughed. "But I've haven't been contacted by anyone."

Obama, the White House confirmed this week, attends religious services in Thurmont -- but not downtown. He worships at Camp David's Evergreen Chapel, the same nondenominational church George W. Bush primarily attended while in office.

Longtime United Church of Christ members in Chicago, Barack Obama and his family have struggled to find a Washington congregation to call home. Security concerns, media attention and disruptions for other church-goers have been have been cited as stumbling blocks.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said at a press conference this week that the Obamas have made no decisions about joining a church.

"I think they will continue to look for a formal church home," Gibbs said. "I think when he's at Camp David, he'll continue to go to the chapel there. He has told us that he greatly enjoys that É He enjoys the pastor there."

Obama believes that creating a disruption "takes away from the experience that others might get and he certainly doesn't want to do that," Gibbs said.

"(The president) shares the strong belief that there's a very personal nature to one's spirituality."

John Deckenback of Frederick , the Central Atlantic Conference Minister of the United Church of Christ, met Obama's staff to discuss the president attending a UCC church in the capital.

"We're blessed with eight congregations in D.C." Deckenback said. "We've tried to keep our approach low-key -- (other) churches have taken out full-page advertisements in The Washington Post. We've tried to apprise his staff of their options. We'd be delighted to welcome them to one of our churches, but that's their call."

When the president attended services at the Nineteenth Street Baptist Church in Washington this spring, it became "a very popular place very fast," Deckenback said.

"You want the first family to feel free to worship without the media interfering with the spiritual experience," Deckenback said.

He wishes Obama would go to church on the spur of the moment -- the way the president recently went out to grab a hamburger.

Deckenback thinks most people are unaware of the Evergreen Chapel -- which is fine, he said.

"It makes sense. It's a military base that also serves as a retreat for the president. Similarly, you'd hope a president would want a quiet place to go and pray -- given the weight of the decisions on his shoulders."

A right-leaning pastor

The 150-seat Evergreen Chapel, built with private contributions, was dedicated in 1991 by George H.W. Bush. About 50 to 70 people, mostly Camp David personnel, attend weekly.

The director of chapel music at Camp David, Wayne L. Wold, is a professor of music and college organist at Hood College.

Evergreen Chapel's pastor also has a musical background -- or at least his family does. U.S. Marine Lt. chaplain Carey H. Cash, 39, a Memphis native, is the great-nephew of country singer Johnny Cash.

He served a tour of duty with the 1st Marine Battalion, 5th Regiment in 2003 and wrote a memoir, "A Table in the Presence: The Dramatic Account of How a U.S. Marine Battalion Experienced God's Presence Amidst the Chaos of the War in Iraq," published in 2004.

Cash writes in the book's introduction about miracles he and soldiers witnessed in combat -- a rocket slicing through a tank but no one gets hurt, bullet holes found in the helmet of an unharmed soldier, and a rocket-propelled grenade fired at point- blank range suddenly swerving and missing its target.

Cash has recently become the subject of some controversy. Albeit, in a completely different way than Obama's last pastor, Jeremiah Wright.

If Wright heeled to the Christian left, Obama's interim pastor appears to lean to the evangelical Christian right.

Cash was quoted this week as saying in 2005 he supported the use of the U.S. military as a platform to proselytize and convert U.S. soldiers. The remark appeared in a Huffington Post story by Chris Rodda, senior research director at the Military Religious Freedom Foundation.

According to a story first reported in the Minneapolis City Pages, Cash appeared via video conference to endorse the message of Bob Dees, executive director of Military Ministry, a division of Campus Crusade for Christ International. Campus Crusade for Christ is committed to helping take the gospel of Jesus Christ to all nations, according to its website.

"First we get the military, then we get the nation," Cash reportedly said, reiterating Dees' words. It's a statement that, Rodda said, "we considered a big, giant red flag."

Obama, Rodda said in a telephone interview, is unlikely aware of Cash's background.

"The Christian supremacy stuff is so ingrained in the military that it's unlikely anyone would even bring it to the president or his staff's attentions," Rodda said. "But it's something Obama should be made aware of."

Presidential memories

Generally, presidential worship in Thurmont has not been a matter of First Amendment issues or controversy -- but of smiles and a little excitement.

Idella Andrews, 81, of Thurmont , lives across the street from the Harriet Chapel Episcopal Parish and can recall meeting former Presidents Lyndon Johnson, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter after Sunday services.

Things were different then, she said.

"The night before Lyndon Johnson came, Secret Service agents spent the night sleeping on my porch. The next day, all the newspeople were running in and out of my house to use the phone. The chapel didn't have one then."

"I shook hands with Jimmy Carter and told him it was an honor to have him and he just smiled," she said. "They were all just what I'd call 'plain' people, everyday people, no airs about any of them."

Andrews would also be pleased to have President Obama visit.

"He's a little different than the others," she said. "He's younger, of course. No matter your politics, I think you've got to stick by him and give him a chance."


SUPPORT MRFF

The wall separating church and state
in the U.S. military has collapsed.

MRFF desperately needs you to
Help Build The Wall!

Joseph Wilson

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

Without your dedicated assistance
we won't make it.


You can also support MRFF by
donating funds, time, or both.

Please click below to choose how
you'd like to Support the Foundation