Anti-Defamation League Wants McCain Retraction

WASHINGTON — The Anti-Defamation League is calling on Senator McCain to "reconsider and withdraw" his comment over the weekend that the Constitution established America as a "Christian nation."

The move suggests that a statement of clarification that the Arizona senator's presidential campaign issued on Sunday did not succeed in defusing anger over his remarks in an interview with beliefnet.com.

"We urge you to reconsider and withdraw your statements describing the United States as a ‘Christian nation' and a ‘nation founded on Christian principles,'" the national director of the Jewish advocacy group, Abraham Foxman, wrote in a letter to Mr. McCain yesterday. "Not only were your assertions inaccurate, they were also ill-advised for any candidate seeking to lead a nation as religiously diverse and pluralistic as ours."

Mr. McCain's comments were published on Saturday.

In the same interview, he also said he would prefer a Christian over a Muslim for president, although he later contacted the Web site to say he would support a Muslim candidate if he or she were "best able" to lead the country.

He campaign on Sunday issued a statement saying that the senator "did not intend to assert that members of one religious faith or another have a greater claim to American citizenship over another." It added that the "values protected by the Constitution … are rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition."

Speaking to reporters yesterday in New Hampshire, Mr. McCain echoed the statement. "It's almost Talmudic," he said, according to the Associated Press. "We are a nation that was based on Judeo-Christian values. That means respect for all of human rights and dignity. That's my principal values and ideas, and that's what I think motivated our Founding Fathers."

The McCain campaign declined to comment specifically on the ADL letter, referring instead to its statements over the past two days.