Yesterday, John McCain appeared with John Hagee, a high-powered evangelical pastor from Texas, to accept his endorsement.
Sen. John McCain picked up the support of Texas pastor John Hagee, an evangelical Christian who has made support for the state of Israel a centerpiece of his ministry.Hagee endorsed McCain today, saying he did so because McCain is a pro-life, pro-Israel politician who has pledged to secure the country's borders.
"John McCain is a man of principle," Hagee, a televangelist and the pastor of Cornerstone Church, told reporters. "He does not stand boldly on both sides of any issue."
Sounds harmless enough, doesn't he? Erik Kleefield enlightens us as to the true extremism of Hagee's beliefs.
Some readers might remember Hagee from this video put out last year by Max Blumenthal, from Hagee's Christians United For Israel conference. During the event, Hagee proclaimed that the United States must consider a preemptive strike on Iran, and also said that Jews had been responsible for their persecution throughout history because of a failure to properly accept God. [...]In 2006, Hagee laid out his views on eschatology in a book called Jerusalem Countdown, in which he claimed that sources had told him a year earlier about world events to come -- and amazingly enough, all those predictions had come true over the past year. Next on the agenda, according to his March 2006 interview in Human Events: Israel would go to war with Iran before May 2006. And from there, Hagee eagerly anticipated an all-out world war against Iran and Russia, followed by the Second Coming.
Sounds about as extreme and divisive as Louis Farrakhan, whose endorsement Barack Obama was compelled to denounce yet here John McCain is free to appear on stage with Hagee to accept his endorsement. As dday says:
If we had a press that applied the same rules to John McCain that it has to Democrats as of late... [...]We'd have constant questions asking McCain to renounce or reject or oppose or renouncereject or just say no to the support of John Hagee, a Biblical end-timer who believes that God caused Hurricane Katrina for its gay pride parades, that Muslims are programmed to kill nonbelievers, and that we must hasten the Rapture by invading every country in the Middle East. McCain should be asked about every single one of those statements and whether he explicitly supports them. I mean, I know Hagee's not black, but you'd think his rhetoric of hate would be held to the same standard as Louis Farrakhan.
In the strange bedfellows department, this is a sentiment shared by none other than Catholic League's Bill Donohue (h/t TPM).
"There are plenty of staunch evangelical leaders who are pro-Israel, but are not anti-Catholic. John Hagee is not one of them. Indeed, for the past few decades, he has waged an unrelenting war against the Catholic Church. For example, he likes calling it `The Great Whore,' an `apostate church,' the `anti-Christ,' and a `false cult system.' To hear the bigot in his own words, click here. Note: he isn't talking about the Buddhists."In Hagee's latest book, Jerusalem Countdown, he calls Hitler a Catholic who murdered Jews while the Catholic Church did nothing. `The sell-out of Catholicism to Hitler began not with the people but with the Vatican itself,' he writes. [...]
"Senator Obama has repudiated the endorsement of Louis Farrakhan, another bigot. McCain should follow suit and retract his embrace of Hagee."
At this point, having appeared with the guy, even if McCain is asked to renounce Hagee you know he won't. But this episode does point to the difficult tightrope McCain has to walk between sending signals to the right to assure them he's one of them and not alienating independents who are suspicious of the right, especially the religious variety. Luckily for McCain, it's a balancing act that's made easier by the extraordinary continued kid gloves with which the media handles him and the double standard they have for Democrats and Republicans. I'd love to see Barack Obama call John McCain out on this, maybe then the media will cover it.
Update [2008-2-28 21:54:26 by Todd Beeton]:Jane Hamsher makes a great point:
I have noticed that the passion that fueled the virulent hatred against Hillary Clinton in comments across the blogosphere just does not transfer to John McCain. Those who were the most vociferous about accusing her of racism, of running a "Southern Strategy," of gaming the system, of conducting a scurrilous smear-driven campaign, who would argue until the death that she must be defeated lest she continue the war forever, just do not get that worked up about John McCain appearing on stage with religious wack-job racists or threatening to bomb Iran and stay in Iraq for 100 years. Every word uttered by the Clinton campaign would propel a hundred outraged "did you see this?" emails into my inbox. John McCain? Not so much.
|
|
|
Permalink :: 66 Comments :: Post a Comment
|
In order to post a comment, you must be logged in. If you have a member account, please log in to comment.
If not, you can make an account right here. It's quick and free.
