John McCain ‘Honored’ To Receive Endorsement From Bigot

Yesterday, John McCain announced that he was “honored” to receive the endorsement of Pastor John Hagee, a Texas-based preacher who can probably be most charitably described as “pro-Apocalypse”. McCain lavished praise on him for being “pro-Israel”, but as Sarah Posner (via Matthew Yglesias) points out, what he actually stands for is the destruction of Israel in order to facilitate the End Times.

Comparing Ahmadinejad to Hitler, Hagee argues that Iran’s development of nuclear weapons must be stopped to protect America and Israel from a nuclear attack. Preying on legitimate worries about terrorism, and invoking 9-11, he vividly describes a supposed Iranian-led plan to simultaneously explode nuclear suitcase bombs in seven American cities, or to use an electromagnetic pulse device to create “an American Hiroshima.”

When addressing audiences receptive to Scriptural prophecy, however, Hagee welcomes the coming confrontation. He argues that a strike against Iran will cause Arab nations to unite under Russia’s leadership, as outlined in chapters 38 and 39 of the Book of Ezekiel, leading to an “inferno [that] will explode across the Middle East, plunging the world toward Armageddon.” During his appearance on Hinn’s program at the end of last March, for example, the host enthused, “We are living in the last days. These are the most exciting days in church history,” but then went on to add, “We are facing now [the] most dangerous moment for America.” At one point, Hinn clapped his hands in delight and shouted, “Yes! Glory!” and then urged his viewers to donate money faster because he is running out of time to preach the gospel.

Paging Tim Russert: How about asking McCain if he supports uniting the Arab nations against Israel under the control of Moscow?

In addition to Hagee’s pro-Apocalypse views (and, for the record, let me state that I am anti-Apocalypse), he also has a long, long record of bigotry.

For example, John Hagee is on record as stating that Hurricane Katrina was sent by God to punish New Orleans for hosting a gay pride parade:

All hurricanes are acts of God, because God controls the heavens. I believe that New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God, and they were recipients of the judgment of God for that.

The newspaper carried the story in our local area, that was not carried nationally, that there was to be a homosexual parade there on the Monday that the Katrina came. And the promise of that parade was that it would was going to reach a level of sexuality never demonstrated before in any of the other gay pride parades.

So I believe that the judgment of God is a very real thing. I know there are people who demur from that, but I believe that the Bible teaches that when you violate the law of God, that God brings punishment sometimes before the Day of Judgment, and I believe that the Hurricane Katrina was, in fact, the judgment of God against the city of New Orleans. (link via Glenn Greenwald)

In addition to his antiquated views on meterology and homosexuality, Hagee also has a long history of anti-Catholic bigotry, to the point where he blames the Holocaust on Hitler’s education in Catholic schools. Seriously.

Of course, I suppose that according to Hagee, Hitler was merely doing God’s will:

In “Jerusalem Countdown: A Prelude To war” Hagee has stated that Jews brought the Holocaust upon themselves by rebelling against God and that the Holocaust was God’s way of forcing Jews to move to Israel where, Hagee predicts according to his interpretation of Biblical scripture, they will be mostly killed in the apocalyptic Mideast conflict Hagee’s new lobbying group seems to be working to provoke and which John Hagee believes to be a necessary precondition for the “Rapture” that will lift Christians, but not Jews, bodily into Heaven to enjoy physical immortality amidst paradise.

You heard that right, folks. John Hagee, the man that John McCain is “honored” to have the support of, believes that God is reponsible for the Holocaust.

Look, I understand that a candidate cannot necessarily be held responsible for the thoughts and opinions of their supporters. I am on record as saying that. Nor do I believe that a political candidate has any kind of obligation to repudiate every bad idea of every supporter–that’s mostly a waste of time.

But when a political candidate makes a plane trip to accept the endorsement of a prominent person, in public, and states that they accept that endorsement and are “honored” to do so, I think that speaks volumes about the candidate. I think that John McCain has a lot of explaining to do about what, exactly, is “honorable” about having the support of a pro-Apocalypse, homophobic, anti-Catholic, anti-Semitic, pro-Holocaust bigot.

FILED UNDER: 2008 Election, LGBTQ Issues, Middle East, Terrorism, , , , , , , , , , , ,
Alex Knapp
About Alex Knapp
Alex Knapp is Associate Editor at Forbes for science and games. He was a longtime blogger elsewhere before joining the OTB team in June 2005 and contributed some 700 posts through January 2013. Follow him on Twitter @TheAlexKnapp.

Comments

  1. Brian says:

    Does this guy not learn?!

    My guess is that he had no idea what Hagee was about, but this comes at a time when he should have been hyper-sensitive to the possibility of what he walked right into. We had the Cunningham incident last week which was also probably not McCain’s fault but should have been a sufficient wake up call. About the same time Clinton and Obama spent precious minutes of their debate talking about whether to “denounce” or “reject” troublesome supporters.

    This smacks of the “timetables” debate where Anderson Cooper had carefully and thoroughly laid out Romney’s defense for him and McCain still returned to the same attack twice more in the last half hour of the debate!

    You’re about to face a politically nimble opponent. You can’t be this slow to adjust.

  2. David says:

    While I’m no Hagee fan, I think it’s a bit sensationalistic to claim that he’s “pro-Holocaust.” In my experience with theological study, it’s perfectly plausible for someone to disapprove of an act (the Holocaust) but recognize that God’s hand (or withholding His hand) could have somehow used that horrible act to facilitate something (the movement of the Jewish people back to the Holy Land).

    I find it hard to refute your other labels for Hagee, though. As a Christian, it’s tough to have guys like him representing me on a national level.

  3. Alex Knapp says:

    While I’m no Hagee fan, I think it’s a bit sensationalistic to claim that he’s “pro-Holocaust.” In my experience with theological study, it’s perfectly plausible for someone to disapprove of an act (the Holocaust) but recognize that God’s hand (or withholding His hand) could have somehow used that horrible act to facilitate something (the movement of the Jewish people back to the Holy Land).

    I think there’s a difference, theologically, between what you’re describing and what Hagee is describing. Hagee seems to be implying that the Holocaust is God’s punishment against the Jews, rather than merely facilitating a greater purpose out of it. From a Christian thelogical standpoint, I think it’s difficult to argue that God’s punishment is unjust. I think that if Hagee views the Holocaust as punishment, then that implies approval of God’s act.

  4. Triumph says:

    it’s perfectly plausible for someone to disapprove of an act (the Holocaust) but recognize that God’s hand (or withholding His hand) could have somehow used that horrible act to facilitate something

    Its only possible if you are totally lacking in rationality and are an idiot. “God” didn’t murder millions of people–other people did.

  5. legion says:

    I normally give a wide latitude to discussions about the philosophical underpinnings of religion, but I’ve gotta side with Triumph on this one – David’s explanation sounds reasonable enough, but if you look closely it only holds water if you presume people have no free will. If everything that happens is by “God’s will”, then there is no such thing as “good” or “evil” – could the Nazis be considered “good” (or even indifferent tools) if they were only carrying out God’s plan? I think not.

  6. dkapitalist says:

    This is crap. Hagee is not pro-Apocalypse nor does he “welcome confrontation with Iran to bring about the Apocalypse.” The link to the New York Times your provide does not even hint that he has such a position. Apparently you are an anti-Christian bigot who feels free to publish smears and provide literature bluffs and hearsay to support it.

    If you are going to publish such an inflammatory smear job, why don’t you find something to back it up?

  7. Steve says:

    If everything that happens is by “God’s will”, then there is no such thing as “good” or “evil” – could the Nazis be considered “good” (or even indifferent tools) if they were only carrying out God’s plan? I think not.

    But Scripture is full of examples of people choosing to do evil and God using them to accomplish His will. The Babylonians chose to attack Israel and carried them away into captivity. This is clearly attributed to God’s will multiple times in scripture. The Babylonians were not “good” to the Israelites while they were defeating them. Many Israelites suffered and died during the siege of Israel.

    The question in this discussion shouldn’t be “can God direct mens affairs and allow them free will?” but “can a man declare God’s intentions without God directly telling him what they are and to go tell others?” I would answer a definite “NO”. God states that “your thoughts are not my thoughts and your ways are not my ways”. If a man presumes to speak for God but God has not specifically told that person why an event happened then that man is a false prophet and should not be listened to.

  8. Triumph says:

    God states that “your thoughts are not my thoughts and your ways are not my ways”.

    Thank you for telling me what God “states.”

    If a man presumes to speak for God but God has not specifically told that person why an event happened then that man is a false prophet and should not be listened to.

    Thanks, false prophet.

  9. Maybe I missed it. Did you do a similar piece on when Obama didn’t disavow the endorsement of Farrahan?

  10. just me says:

    God states that “your thoughts are not my thoughts and your ways are not my ways”.

    Thank you for telling me what God “states.”

    If a man presumes to speak for God but God has not specifically told that person why an event happened then that man is a false prophet and should not be listened to.

    Thanks, false prophet.

    Posted by Triumph | February 29, 2008 | 08:16 pm | Permalink

    your statement makes no sense the poster was quoting the bible not pretending to be God so he isn’t a false prophet…you guys are really strange