In May 2008, then-GOP presidential candidate John McCain renounced a hard-won political endorsement senator McCain had gained from Texas megachurch pastor and Christians United For Israel founder John Hagee only a few months prior, after mainstream media picked up on an audio recording, from a sermon Hagee gave in late 2005, in which pastor Hagee stated his view that Hitler and the Nazis were divine agents sent by God to chase Europe's Jews towards Palestine. Scrutiny of Hagee has to this day failed to notice an even more offensive statement; in his book Jerusalem Countdown, still on bookseller shelves in 2009, John Hagee claimed that Adolf Hitler was born from a lineage of accursed, genocidally murderous "half-breed Jews."
Since May 2008, both media coverage of, and Democratic Party attendance at, Hagee's CUFI events have slacked off dramatically, while Hagee has sought to regain the national media spotlight. A July 20th, 2009 "exclusive interview" Hagee gave with US News and World Report's Dan Gilgoff suggests the effort made be bearing fruit.
But friendly and uncritical treatments of Hagee such as Gilgoff's can only serve to rehabilitate CUFI kingpin John Hagee's reputation to the extent that they ignore the established record of Hagee's anti-Jewish, anti-Catholic sermon statements and writings as well as John Hagee's history of promoting of crackpot conspiracy theories claiming Jewish bankers rule America through the Federal Reserve and the Texas pastor's pattern aggressive and determined campaigning for a Mideast war. Hagee's Federal Reserve conspiracy theories bear considerable resemblance to similar theories promoted by Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party prior to and during World War Two.
In the "revised and updated" 2007 version of John Hagee'a book Jerusalem Countdown on page 149 in a chapter with the ominous title "Who Is a Jew?", Hagee wrote,
"God promised to be at war with the descendants of Esau and Amalek forever...
Esau's descendants would produce a lineage that would attack and slaughter the Jews for centuries. Esau's descendants included Haman, whose diabolical mind conceived the "final solution" of the Old Testament -- the extermination of all Jews living in Persia. It was Esau's descendants who produced the half-breed Jews of history who have persecuted and murdered the Jews beyond human comprehension.Adolf Hitler was a distant descendant of Esau."
The claim that Hitler was partly Jewish is generally considered by historians to be extremely unlikely, but that theory has traction among adherents to what is probably the most virulently anti-Semitic tendency in Christianity, Christian Identity -- a religious tendency that arose in North America in the 20th Century and which has been associated with acts of domestic terrorism within the US.
Prior to media publicity, in May 2008, of a selected few from John Hagee's numerous anti-Jewish statements and writings, journalistic treatments of Hagee tended to gloss over disturbing aspects to the CUFI leader's claim to be a friend to Jews and Israel -- such as a July 22, 2007 San Antonio Express News story titled "S.A. Pastor Champions For Israel" that nonetheless quoted pastor Hagee as stating the following, about liberal American Jews,
"I think if I could put a dividing line, the Orthodox and Conservatives who have a Torah appreciation give us wholehearted support. The rest [of Jews] who are not driven by the Word of God have a liberal agenda.
And the liberal agenda is they are pro-abortion. They're pro-homosexual. They're pro-gay marriage -- they want men to marry men and women to marry women -- and their difference with me is not really what I'm doing with Israel. Their hostility to me is poisoned by their liberalism."
Pastor Hagee's claim that Hitler was "a half-breed Jew" was not the only instance in which Hagee has claimed Adolf Hitler was partially Jewish. In a March 16, 2003 sermon that Hagee gave on the eve of the US invasion of Iraq, that was broadcast internationally, pastor Hagee told his San Antonio, Texas Cornerstone Church mega-flock that, "There's a phrase in Scripture used solely to identify the Jewish people. It suggests that this man [the Antichrist] is at least going to be partially Jewish, as was Adolph Hitler, as was Karl Marx."
[below: YouTube video widely credited with triggering John McCain's rejection of John Hagee's political endorsement.]
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This is about deep-rooted denial and hatred as a defense mechanism. People who believe this kind of crap want to believe it.
By this I mean that followers of Hagee aren't likely to be convinced by what you write. But what's much more important is to keep in mind that these people are around somewhere. The way to get at their screwed-up cognitive landscape may need to be more basic and less direct. These people are lost to reason and bathe in their bitterness.
But Hagee isn't the only one who needs to be exposed as the fraud and demagogue he is. It is necessary to hold accountable all profiteers of this kind of alternative reality and forgery.
Alice Miller, in her “For Your Own Good,” tracks this connection, and makes a strong case that Hitler's policy of killing up to and including third generation jews was based on this connection. Off point to your article, she also makes the case that be it real or rumour, or even provable due to some monkey business with community documents and the family name, the latter dynamic of rumour might prove even more grist for Hitler's Jewish extermination policy.
It is unfortunate that Hagee gets to exploit this contention, adding to it the Esau twist, but i would feel remiss if i were not to point out this information. Just because Hagee is an anti-zionist does not make the contention that Hitler may have indeed been of Jewish stock wrong.
http://www.alice-miller.com/books_en.php?page=2
"Hitler's grandmother may have been impregnated by the son of a wealthy Jew while she was a cook in his father's employ" - Jews had been banned from the Bavarian town in question, Graz, since the 15th Century. To begin with.
Here is a decent treatment debunking the unfortunate "Hitler was partly Jewish" urban legend:
http://veritas3.holocaust-history.org/questions/hitler-jewish.shtml
The "Hitler was partly Jewish" claim does work radically different in the world of right wing conspiracy theory than what you suggest. Now, you may not have been thinking of that realm, but large swaths of Americans are exposed to right wing conspiracy theories, many of which have heavily anti-Jewish themes. Many exposed to such conspiracy theory may see the "Hitler was partly Jewish" claim as proving that the Holocaust was an expression of alleged Jewish socio-pathological tendencies. The Nazis, of course, made similar claims in their anti-Jewish propaganda.
Give your critics unshirted hell; use more correct words to do it, though. You're not in a pissing contest. You're blogging on HP.
If you wish to use less than proper forms of English-blog on a progressive site which deals in billingsgate such as AlterNet. Thank you.
Fair enough, to a degree, although i will stack Miller's substantial and credible credentials up against anyone you wish. She may be a primarily a psychiatrist, but she is an educated and disciplined woman, knows how to research, and i do no think for one instance, and i think it is short sighted and incorrect of you to state, that she 'shoehorned' this 'urban myth' to support her theory. I did also state that she herself suggested that even if the reports of Hitler’s ancestory were not true, that even rumour of such a questionable connection could be a strong motivating factor in Hitler's destiny.
Urban, and myths in general, come from somewhere, and there may indeed have been false aspersion cast by illiterate, bigoted, and ignorant peasants who could have, for instance, been jealous of granny Schickelgruber and her prestigious position as a servant to a wealthy man.
no one should wonder why the US is on a downward trajectory. it should be apparent to all reading stories like this why humanity is rushing to destroy itslef. professional jesters like: hagee olsteen, swaggert, copeland, dollar, jakes and many others have a solid following and all of them believe in the rapture and end times, is there any question why we are living in this dark age.
But I share your doubts about the functioning of US political discourse.
Prove me wrong:
" I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another Little Horn [the Antichrist], before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things" (Daniel 7:7-8)"
http://www.whatsaiththescripture.com/The.Holy.Bible/Commentary.Revelations.13.html
Hagee sells, very well, little to no responsibility for yourself and turning all problems over to God all he wants in return is payment and obedience. I highly recommend the book Great Derangement by Matt Taibbi for a look into this area if you don't have family involved in evangelical religion.
I have personally converted to the Catholic Church after being involved in the Christian Pro-life movement for years. I found the Catholics more tolerant, and, yet more adherent to the teachings of the Bible than most evangelicals.
That in and of itself wouldn't be too bad except that he's a big player in the GOP. This man really wants to see a major conflict in the Middle East because he believes that would trigger the second coming.
This man needs to be kept as far from the levers of power as humanly possible.