CNN yesterday posted a lengthy report on Republican Presidential hopeful Herman Cain's religious faith and his active involvement as an associate minister in Atlanta's Antioch Baptist Church-- a congregation Cain's parents joined when Cain was 10 years old. CNN reports:
Cain’s religiosity runs deep enough that he regularly delivers sermons at his childhood church, has recorded a gospel music album and has a traveling minister as part of his campaign apparatus.... For all his church involvement, Cain’s message of self-determinism is seemingly at odds with Antioch’s focus on social justice....
Since becoming an associate minister at Antioch, Cain has preached in pulpits around the country, often eschewing the big paydays of motivational speaking gigs for modest preaching honorariums.
Cain has written that his decision to run for the U.S. Senate in 2002 as well as his current run for the Presidency was inspired by God. In 2006 Cain had successful surgery for colon cancer. CNN recounts:
And when it was time for surgery, the doctors explained they would be making a J-shaped incision. “Like J-E-S-U-S?” Cain asked the doctor. The candidate would go on to call the incision a “Jesus cut.”...
By January 2007, Cain was cancer-free. The road signs began to change. He returned to the radio airwaves and began sowing the seeds of a run for president..... Herman Cain did not want to run for president. He did not want to be president. But God told him to.....
“When I finally realized that this was God saying what I needed to do, I was like Moses. ‘You got the wrong man, Lord! Are you sure?’ Now, you're not supposed to doubt God. But I'm going, ‘I think maybe you're looking at somebody else.’”
