they treated me pretty bad. but he goes, he said, one is my faith in god, my love for my family, and my faith in my country. he said those things kept me together. so we kept talking that evening. and as i thought about that discussion, and for this talk i wanted to reflect with you a reading from corinthians 13 which i think captures senator john mccain. corinthians 13. tho i should give away to the poor all that i possess and even give up my body to be burned, if i am without love, it will do me no good whatever.
so we met in virginia at my apologies. it was rough getting up here. alexandria. cindy and c.a. and myself, we had dinner at this nice little restaurant. and we chatted for a while and then all of a sudden with john mccain, you just bond. i mean there s something about his energy level that goes up, he starts talking, starts asking me about my background. of course i, not knowing him that well, asked him about his. before i knew it, we felt very comfortable with each other going back and forth. then i got enough nerve to ask him, i said, congressman, what was it that allowed you to be in a prisoner of war camp? what kept you together? and he said, well, he goes, you know, most people ask me how they treated me, and obviously
bare light bulb and we sang christmas carols and we quoted bible verses that we could remember and we told the gospel story to each other. and i guess just that image of this band of brothers together in this god forsaken place singing to each other, and there at the front, our guy, john mccain. beaten up but not down, singing his favorite christmas carol, silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright, round yon virgin holy child. the words seem so far away from that place but they leaned on
they were world leaders in politics, business, science and education to discuss the most pressing matters of our time. issues like health care, global warming, technology and human trafficking. these leaders gathered to find real solutions, and they gathered because senator mccain asked them to be there. his devotion to making arizona, the united states and the whole world a better place for everyone has inspired countless leaders, like those at the sedona forums. i m confident his legacy will continue to inspire people around the world long after today. a few years ago, he was kind enough to take me on a personal tour of the u.s. senate. it was obvious that senator mccain was highly regarded. he believed to be right and was good regardless of which political side of the aisle his opinion fell on. i saw how respected he was and
people tried to trample the constitution or the bill of rights, including the first amendment. and you know what, he believed in the declaration of independence. when we proclaimed to the world that every single human being is important, every single human being is precious, every single person in this world has the right to live free, not because the government says so but because god gave us that right. so john mccain, his entire life stood by the freedom fighters across the world. he was there. he was there figuratively and literally by their side wherever they were, acknowledging their right to live free. it s a long and winding road that took him from that dirt yard in hanoi to the dirt backroads of hidden valley.