[Vision2020] McCain and Hagee Renounce Each Other

[nickgier at adelphia.net]

Greetings:

The following is a post by Frederick Clarkson, the monitor of the blog Talk-2-Action.  Clarkson is the one who solicited my series on Douglas Wilson's Religious Empire (www.home.roadrunner.com/~nickgier/WilsonEmpire.htm.) 

I agree with Clarkson that the McCain's active courting of Hagee is far worse than Obama's non-political association with Rev. Wright.  Talk-2-Action has pursued this connection almost on a daily basis and can be given much credit for forcing McCain to cut his ties to his hate monger.

Clarkson: 

CNN reports that John McCain, apparently trying to stanch the bleeding, has finally "renounced" the endorsement of John Hagee.  Two hours earlier, Hagee withdrew his endorsement, but CNN reports that McCain  "...added that his relationship with Hagee did not compare with Obama's lengthy association with Rev. Jeremiah Wright."

Well, actually, it is far worse, as Bruce Wilson has reported here at Talk to Action.  It is ridiculous that McCain's response is reduced to comparing problematic pastors, but if that is the game, I'd say Obama wins.

John McCain and John Hagee have co-endorsed each other (multiple times). John Hagee says God sent Hitler. McCain pursued Hagee's endorsement for over a year and showed up, at Hagee's July 2007 "Christians United For Israel" event, to give a speech. 

In 2000, McCain said he'd 'never' solicit political support from people like Hagee. In early 2007, John Hagee and Jerry Falwell helped stage a fund raiser for McCain. Hagee and his CUFI members envision 'worse than Auschwitz' for Jews in Israel. 

US Senator John McCain has shared a stage with Hagee multiple times, endorsing Hagee simply by his presence but McCain has also praised (multiple times, on national television and at public events) Hagee and Hagee's leadership. Hagee expounds a crypto anti-Jewish conspiracy theory.

Obama has certainly had a longtime and now defunct, personal relationship with Rev. Wright. But Wright has had no role in Obama's presidential campaign. Wright is not a politically powerful figure and has not sought to be.

Conversely, McCain agressively sought out the endorsement of John Hagee -- one of the most prominent and powerful figures on the religious right, and every bit as controversial as say, Pat Robertson. Nevertheless, McCain turned a blind eye to the extreme views in Hagee's published work and public statements.

Here is what CNN announced about the renouncement:

    The Huffington Post had published a recording of Hagee saying that Adolf Hitler had been fulfilling God's will by hastening the desire of Jews to return to Israel in accordance with biblical prophecy.

    "Obviously, I find these remarks and others deeply offensive and indefensible, and I repudiate them. I did not know of them before Reverend Hagee's endorsement, and I feel I must reject his endorsement as well," McCain said in a statement to CNN Thursday.