Why presidential candidate John Kasich still takes breaks to study the Bible

?? – Meetings are not on his public agenda, but every two weeks Republican presidential candidate John Kasich does his best to get to an Italian restaurant in a suburban Ohio mall for spiritual development.

Every alternate Monday Kasich, the governor of Ohio who has frequently spoken about the importance of faith as he runs for the Republican nomination, discusses the Bible with longtime friends in his hometown from Westerville. He joins about seven other men to discuss God, Bible stories, and their own lives, as a study group, then congressman, Kasich helped found in 1988.

“We’re pretty much talking about everything, my Bible guys and I,” Kasich wrote in a 2010 book, “Every other MondayAbout his three-decade-old group, which has lawyers, doctors and a farmer among its members. “Over the years, we’ve probably touched every human emotion, every human condition, every human frailty. “

Kasich’s faith played a central role in his life from the start, when he stood out as a Catholic altar boy whom his friends nicknamed “Pope,” he writes in the 2010 book. became less observant as a young adult, but said he had reconnected with God after a drunk driver killed his parents in 1987, and he now worships in an Anglican church.

“I’m a man of faith, so, but I don’t go out, like I’m wearing this on my sleeve,” he said in an interview with Fox News last week. In campaign, he often spoke of the importance of the Judeo-Christian tradition of the United States.

A spokesperson for Kasich told ABC News in December that the governor still attended regularly, although Reverend Ted Smith, a Methodist minister who has led the group’s discussions from the start, told ABC News that Kasich and other busy schedules sometimes came before, like when the governor missed a meeting last week.

“For the guys, it’s a time investment,” Smith said. “When he’s not in New Hampshire or Iowa, the governor makes it a priority to meet with this group, luckily.”

Bob Roach, a wealth management consultant in Columbus, Ohio, who founded the group with Kasich, told ABC News that as Kasich rose to political prominence the only noticeable change was a security detail that accompanies the governor to meetings. Roach said Kasich sometimes linked the Bible to speeches he gave, but current events do not return very frequently.

“He enjoys having a group of us where he knows he can pick up the phone and talk to us, and we don’t have ulterior motives, and we don’t have an agenda that we try. to move forward, ”Roach mentioned. “We are first and foremost his friend and his brother, and that’s what he appreciates. And that’s what we like about him.”