Pawlenty on CBNWe noted a couple of weeks ago that Christian Broadcasting Network senior correspondent and blogger David Brody had picked up Andy Birkey’s June 10 MnIndy story on Tim Pawlenty’s evangelical religious beliefs. Now Brody has snared an interview with Pawlenty (albeit a very brief one, apparently) in which Minnesota’s governor addresses the subject publicly for the first time that we can recall.

Says Pawlenty:

“As a person, I am defined by my commitment to Christ and people always say well there is an official role and there is but I don’t think people in public life should shy away from sharing their faith perspective because it informs others about their value system and what they believe and who they are and so I am a committed Christian and I am someone who is proud to say that my value system, my beliefs are shaped my faith and my faith in Christ and I think that is informative for people to know and I’m not bashful about that.”

See that clip here. Also: TP on McCain and evangelicals [1] [2].

There’s nothing particularly revelatory in Pawlenty’s words–as quoted above, or in reference to flogging John McCain to evangelicals–but the fact of his speaking with the Pat Robertson-founded CBN certainly underscores Pawlenty’s willingness to testify to his heretofore little-discussed faith if it will advance the cause of the McCain campaign (and perhaps, only incidentally of course, the cause of Tim Pawlenty).

If Pawlenty really does make the GOP ticket–per Politico, we should note, he’s trailing Mitt Romney in today’s handicapping even though McCain and Romney despise each other–you can expect to see him deployed to court dubious evangelicals on an extremely regular basis.