Did John McCain Make Up "Cross in the Dirt" Story?

Image from source, Raw Story

There's something a bit disquieting in the focus on religion in the current Presidential campaign. I don't see anything wrong with a candidate being religious, but I'm uncomfortable about what was essentially a contest to see who was more religious, John McCain or Barack Obama. That's pretty much what happened this weekend, at Saddleback Church with Rev. Rick Warren. More on that later.

There is another religion story, one that seemed like little short of pandering to the religious, by John McCain. In recounting a Christmas story during his captivity in Viet Nam, McCain told what is to some a heartwarming story about religious solidarity with one of his captors. Strangely though, the story is eerily familiar to a story told by a Russian novelist. Interesting. . .

[Excerpt]

Did McCain ad lift 'cross in the dirt' story from Russian novelist?

"It just sounded so fake and so contrived, so I did a little research about it," said DailyKos contributor rickrocket. The research revealed a similar story by recently departed novelist and McCain favorite Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, recounting his experience in a Soviet gulag in The Gulag Archipelago, released in the United States in 1973. . .

Read more at: Raw Story