McCain's Dilemma: Who's Next After Hagee & Parsley?

John McCain is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't accept endorsements from popular leaders of the Christian Right, many of whom have taken controversial positions regarding other religions, gays, women and God's plan for the Middle East.

McCain did the right thing by rejecting the endorsements of televangelists John Hagee and Rod Parsley, and his taking a stand on their outrageous comments will endear him both to Independents and Republicans who reject the takeover of their party by extreme elements in the Christian Right. Unfortunately for McCain, he could trigger a conservative backlash that will significantly diminish his support among the voters who were crucial for George W. Bush.

Hagee and Parsley are tremendously popular preachers. John Hagee leads the 18,000-member Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas and is CEO of the Global Evangelism Television and John Hagee Ministries. Along with his comments about Adolf Hitler "fulfilling God's will," he has made offensive comments about Catholics, and said that Hurricane Katrina was God's judgment on New Orleans. Hagee appears regularly on Paul Crouch's Trinity Broadcasting Network. TBN is the largest Christian television network in the United States and has tens of millions of viewers.

Rod Parsley is senior pastor at the World Harvest Church in Columbus, Ohio, leads another nine ministries (church organizations), and his "Breakthrough" show appears on TBN. His remarks about Islam (which he called the "anti-Christ religion") forced McCain to back away from his support.

McCain's quandary is that Hagee and Parsley have many devoted followers, and their views are far from unusual among conservative evangelical preachers. Most are against gay rights and feminism. Many believe in a coming Rapture, and that military action in the Middle East is an important part of "fulfilling God's prophecy" for the "Second Coming of Christ." And there is no shortage of offensive comments that would be slammed as unpatriotic elsewhere. On September 13, 2001, Pat Robertson and the late Jerry Falwell speculated that the 9/11 attacks happened because God lifted His protection because of America's sins and secularism (Falwell and Robertson later backed away from their comments).

If McCain makes it a habit to repudiate bigoted, offensive or repressive comments coming from the Religious Right, then he'll probably have to reject the support of the likes of James Dobson (Focus on the Family), Pat Robertson, Tim LaHaye (Left Behind, Council for National Policy), Paul Crouch and many of the preachers appearing on TBN. The more radical comments of the above would offend most of America, and certainly don't appeal to those Republicans who mainly want lower taxes, less government and a strong military.

Taking a stand against "agents of intolerance" will certainly lose McCain millions of votes. So will not taking a stand.

Comments

[BethStuart]

Hagee is holding his annual CUFI conference July 22-24 in Washington, D.C. Speakers include Joe Lieberman, Gary Bauer, Rick Santorum, William Kristol, Daniel Pipes and the Israeli ambassador. Here is a link to the itinerary:

http://www.cufi.org/site/PageServer?pagename=events_washington_summit

The conference will include attendees lobbying members of Congress to promote Hagee's policies.

Just for the record, Ron Parsley is listed as one of CUFI's regional directors.

[Merlin7]

Sooner or later Americans must come to terms with the growing threat posed by religion -- all religion. Not just the obvious kooks like Hagee, Parsley, Robertson and their spittle-spewing counterparts but the entire lot. It's the so-called moderates, with their palatial churches and respected universities and watered-down biblical interpretations, who enable the fanatics who are busy recruiting armies of deluded right-wing operatives. We can't have it both ways. Either we are a rational society or we aren't. And I strongly suspect we aren't. . . So guess who probably will win in November.

If the Republicans win the White House in November it will be a strong sign that liberalism in America is effectively dead, despite the 2006 Democratic gains in Congress. It will mean that a majority of the population not only is ignorant and backward but quite content to stay that way. And most of all it will mean that America won't last much longer as a superpower, as Republican policies will inevitably lead to more backwardness and eventually economic ruin. And religion -- all religion -- will have played a large role in that process.

[BADEN]

"If McCain makes it a habit to repudiate bigoted, offensive or repressive comments coming from the Religious Right, then he'll probably have to reject the support of the likes of James Dobson (Focus on the Family), Pat Robertson, Tim LaHaye (Left Behind, Council for National Policy), Paul Crouch and many of the preachers appearing on TBN. The more radical comments of the above would offend most of America, and certainly don't appeal to those Republicans who mainly want lower taxes, less government and a strong military."

Yes. Let's see if he does.

He is bound by his words.

[GinnyLee]

As to Pastors Hagee and Parsley: "Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake."

[Hempy]

"Islam" means "to surrender." The Iraqi constitution establishes Islam as the official state religion. Bush and McCain have already surrendered their loyalties to the theocratic Islamic state of Iraq.

McCain has jettisoned his Christian fundamentalist Bible preachers (Revs John Hagee and Rod Parsley) and has switched his allegiance to Islamic fundamentalism and the Qur'an.

Wonder when Revs Hagee and Parsley and the rest of the fundamentalist Christian religious right will find that out?