Republican family values can be interesting sometimes. We have Joe Biden, who traveled home every night from Washington. And we have John McCain, who has been largely absent from his kids’ lives. But the Republican is the “family values” person.

Cindy McCain likes to call herself an only child, and she was the sole inheritor of her father’s beer fortune. But she actually has two half-sisters, one from her father’s first marriage and one from her mother’s first marriage.

Cindy’s father died in 2000. He left his other daughter, Kathleen Portalski, $10,000. Meanwhile, Cindy got a couple hundred million dollars. She was not only disinherited, but Cindy won’t even acknowledge her existance. Even at the funeral, in her eulogy, Cindy told the crowd she was “his only child.” While Kathleen sat nearby, dumbfounded.

Would Cindy want her family of blended children to treat each other that way? I can’t imagine Pam and her half-sister treating each other that way. They don’t even like being called half-sisters, and will probably chew me out for mentioning it. They are sisters in every way.

Aren’t these legitimate concerns for a Christian to raise?

There are so many ways in which I think Cindy McCain is great. And yet…if you insist on seeing the world (and politics) only in black and white, there’s a lot you must ignore. Life and people are messy.