John Kasich, Anglican

We Episcopalians like to point out, probably with something that falls short of Christian humility, that we are a church with more U.S. presidents than any other: 11, to be exact, from George Washington all the way through George H.W. Bush. This year, we do not have anyone on the ticket. But we could have, if we had not gone through the splits of the last decade. That’s because John Kasich, the Ohio governor who is arguably the most moderate candidate in the race, is no longer an Episcopalian but instead a member of St. Augustine’s Anglican Church (ACNA) in Westerville, Ohio. So far as I can tell, it’s not a matter of public record why he made the switch, and I do not care to know as a matter of politics: that’s between him and God. But it does bother me to think that a man like Kasich apparently felt like there was not space for him in the Episcopal Church. And it led me to wonder: Given Kasich’s moderate conservative politics — none of the Trumpian “build the wall” stuff, open to Obama’s Medicaid expansion, and strongly pro-life out of the Christian call to care for the poor and the weak, believes in traditional marriage but thinks that after Obergefell it’s time for politics to move on — in how many of our parishes would a guy like him feel at home?