At Camp David services are led by Johnny Cash’s great-nephew
One hundred kilometres from Washington’s prying eyes, Barack Obama has been attending church from time to time at Camp David, where services are led by a 39-year-old Navy chaplain with a famous last name, a compelling life story and a fervent belief in a God who works miracles. Carey Cash, the great-nephew of singer Johnny Cash and the younger brother of a former Miss America, sees the hand of God in every part of his journey: from the football fields where he once aspired to the NFL to the medical facilities where he learned he’d never play again; from the battered Humvee where he came under fire on the streets of Baghdad to the tiny chapel where he preaches to the country’s commander in chief in the Western Maryland mountains. Although Cash was assigned to Camp David by the Navy, the president really likes the guy. Cash, Obama told religion reporters this summer, “delivers as powerful a sermon as I’ve heard in a while. I really think he’s excellent.” But the imposing 6-foot-4 Southern Baptist chaplain is not, officially, the president’s pastor. Obama says the Jeremiah Wright controversy is part of the reason he and his wife have been hesitant to pick a permanent church in Washington. And unlike Wright’s megachurch in Chicago, Camp David’s tiny Evergreen Chapel is off limits to the public and the media.