If one isn’t thinking about the American political campaign, it might seem oddly out-of-the-blue that in the course of criticizing Russia’s action in Georgia, John McCain noted that Georgia is “one of the world’s first nations to adopt Christianity as an official religion.”
Of course our Founding Fathers believed that having official state religion was a bad thing, not a good thing. But one can assume that McCain saw some political gain with American evangelical Christians by making this comment. That line simultaneoulsy enabled McCain to convey:
1) I think having Christianity as an official religion is a fine idea in general
2) This is just like the Cold War when the forces of Christianity are at war with the forces of Atheism
3) I view the protection of Christians from attack worldwide as an important goal