Exclusive: Rev. Hagee, in Upcoming NYT, Confirms McCain Sought Endorsement
In an interview that will appear in this Sunday's New York Times Magazine, controversial televangelist Rev. John Hagee declares, "It's true that [John] McCain's campaign sought my endorsement."
McCain has attempted to distance himself from some of Hagee's views, much as Barack Obama is doing in relation to Rev. Jeremiah Wright. But unlike McCain, Obama has not stood on stage with Wright and accepted his accolades this year.
Interviewed by Deborah Solomon, Hagee refused to discuss his statement that Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment for a gay rights parade in New Orleans, now calling it "so far off-base." He claimed, "Our church is not hard against the gay people. Our church teaches what the bible teaches, that it is not a righteous lifestyle. But of course we must love even sinners."
He also said that charges that he had bashed the Catholic Church ("false cult system," etc.) have been "grossly mischaracterized...I was referring to those Christians who ignore the Gospels."
Asked what he thinks of Obama, he answered, "He is going to be difficult to beat, because the man is a master of communication. If he were in the ministry, he would make it in the major leagues overnight."
He denied he had become a strong supporter of Israel because of the coming "Rapture" in the holy land.
Greg Mitchell's new book is So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits -- and the President--Failed on Iraq. It has been hailed by Arianna, Bill Moyers, Glenn Greenwald, Bruce Springsteen and others. He is editor of Editor & Publisher.
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Hey everyone! CNN's Roland Martin is starting a blog to have people look at Rev. Wright's sermon's in full context... What we need to do is get as many people to read this as possible..
http://ac3
this is the site... please go there and read it.
And are you thinking that Hagee and Parsley should NOT be looked into? Just Wright? That
is So Wrong!! Hey - could you look into Hillary's 15-yr. relationship with her strange religion as well?
And can you go through all of those 15 years too? Oh what childish fun!
Hagee is typical of fundie preachers - always playing down their actual extremism before a general audience. That aside, given he's on tape stating the the End Times are unfolding in the Middle East his enthusiasm for McCain - bomb, bomb, bomb - bomb, bomb Iran - ought to be a lot more troubling to voters than anything Rev. Wright said.
The one group of Americans who have NO representation are those of us who are not affiliated with some crappy religion. As far as I'm concerned, organized religion is the root of all evil.
The entire world is in constant chaos and war BECAUSE of religion.
It seems SO stupid. "My imaginary being is better that your imaginary being"
PROVE IT.
I support Barak in SPITE of his christianity, but the stupidity, destructiveness, and insanity of this world's religions is the real subject that no one will touch.
You can get rid of religion and then you've got: the Soviet Union.
Or France. Or Spain. Or Sweden . Or Iceland.
While I agree that religion causes far more problems (and wars) than it solves, I think the root problem is "tribalism
Oh, I forgot one more thing about Hagee - he clearly supports bombing Iran.....H
"But unlike McCain, Obama has not stood on stage with Wright and accepted his accolades this year."
You've got to be joking. I'm sure the BHO campaign would gladly trade 20 years of spiritual guidance, sitting and watching Wright's sermons, and being married by Wright for only one stage appearance with Wright. A little honesty, c'mon, you can do it.
I just lost my post, so I apologize if it comes up twice.
I am so thankful that Greg Mitchell has written this blog. And I'll tell you exactly why. Weeks ago, right before the Ohio and Texas primaries, the first Hagee story broke. I found it interesting and began to do some research on the man. At any rate, the story broke on Wednesday and McCain chose to take the weekend off in Arizona (or go into hiding as I like to think of it) and the press completely dropped the story. Since then, I have sent comments to any blog which was appropriate, written to papers, CNN, etc.
Nothing more. You needn't be reminded that there was another Republican candidate at the time. Now while I was not a Huckabee supporter, he deserved to have this story run. The American people deserved to have this story run then. It has been extremely frustrating to me - especially during the past 1 1/2 weeks of seeing Obama "vetted" and not seeing this story take on steam. Hagee is a frightening man. What little the press did say led one to believe that he was simply anti-Catholic. He is so much more than that. He is a man whose endorsement McCain is "proud to accept" - stood on the stage with him - will receive large amounts of money from him. But he's anti-Catholic, ultimately anti-Jew (although he manipulates those to think he supports Israel for only the right reasons). The link to a documentary is below. It is not a nasty clip - rather an informative one. We all deserve to learn about this man and about Preacher Parsley as well who has also endorsed McCain. Reverand Wright's comments were deplorable, shameful and they have been painful to watch over and over. Senator McCain, during the past week or so, has taken the high road and has defended Obama when others wanted to tear him apart. And while I certainly appreciate that - and I try not to be a skeptic - I have to believe that he did so - not quite out of the goodness of his heart - but rather gearing up for what he will now have to face. But he's also not here in America now is he? There should be total transparency for all three candidates. Hillary needs to come forth with her taxes, contributors & talk about the fact that she and Bill are facing a 17 million dollar law suit - accused of campaign fraud. How she manages to always make sure her stories are under the radar is nothing less than shameful. But for now, the link to Hagee's Motivation is below. He would like us all to believe he supports Israel for the right reasons.
You decide. He also thinks that Katrina came to us because there is so much homosexuality in that part of the country. Charming guy.
http://www
Tomorrow I'll send links for the Clinton trial information & an article about Hillary's weird religion as well.
VOTE A, B, C this time. Anyone But Clinton!!
What happened to the rest of my post???
HuffPost's Pick
Oh you mean there is a double standard? Nah!
I do not want John McCain or any other Republican to win the White House in November, but I could care less about endorsements from religous leaders or what these religious leaders preach to their followers.
Elected officials and MSM forget that we have separation of church and state in this country. History tells us that organized religion has proven to be a great divider.
I agree. I left organized religion 20 years ago and never looked back.
give me a break, im as left leaning as you can be, but trying these absurd arguments to cover for such bad judgement, then getting caught in lies trying to cover it up ( i didnt hear anything objectionable/did i hear anything controversial, yes), please this guy can not win the general because of his BAD judgement (wright/re
This isn't anywhere close to an isolated case. The Dobsons, Robertsons and Hagees have been the kingmakers in the Republican Party for many years now. McCain sought Hagee's endorsement because you have to do that to gain the GOP nomination. Just like you have to visit Bob Jones University.
It's not really a question of whether or not McCain believes what Hagee preaches. From some of McCain's statements in earlier years I suspect that he doesn't. The problem is that Hagee is so influential within the party that anyone seeking the nomination has to suck up to him.
Look at this website, it is the truth about Obama's church. I would only hope that you are openminded enough to accept the truth from members at the church.
http://tru
Mr. Mitchell:
Will your colleagues in the media raise as much noise about Sen. McCain seeking the endorsement of Rev. Hagee? Absolutely NOT! They have had ample time to raise the issue.
Mr. Mitchell, how can one not question Sen. McCain’s values to court such individuals? Also, no one questions Sen. McCain’s efforts to win the support of the late Rev. Jerry Falwell?
Mr. Mitchell, your colleagues in the media love to call Sen. McCain heroic - do they actually consider his throwing his adopted daughter under the bus to gain support from the likes of Jerry Falwell heroic?
Sen. McCain does not mention his adopted daughter and she is noticeably absent from the campaign trail and even missing from the Blog that Sen. McCain's very blond daughter writes.
The adopted daughter wasn't in a single photo of the BBQ that Sen. McCain hosted a few weeks ago. Why didn’t any of your colleagues questioned the daughter’s absence? It was not surprising that the adopted daughter was absent considering the BBQ was held the very weekend after Sen. McCain stood and proudly accepted Rev. Hagee's endorsement.
Regrettably, your colleagues did not press Sen. McCain on the endorsement in the same intense manner in which Sen. Obama has been scrutinized. Why the double standard? Bias? Bigotry? Racism?
Thank you for these comments. Could not agree more. I hope my comments are posted soon
as well. Please watch for them.
I mentioned this in another post, and was accused of being uneducated, racist. I asked where this daughter is, not being at the BBQ or on the campaign trail. The person replied that she is at someplace called "school" which I probably never attended. All I said was "If McCain cannot defend his daughter against Bush/Rove smears, how do we expect him to defend the rest of us?" Race was not mentioned.
No, but he's scary . . . McCain wanted his endorsement to get the "Armageddon" crowd.
"Our church is not hard against the black people. Our church teaches what the bible teaches, that it is not a righteous lifestyle. But of course we must love even sinners."
Hmm... just change that one word...
And even though I'm a sinner he still loves me. How... icky.
Hillary '08
Try though you will, McCain's preacher man aint no Rev Wright. Not to the general public. Good try though.
Hillary '08
But why? the parallels are obvious and undeniable. is it just because the press and media and right wing radio will pursue one endlessly and ignore the other? I think Hillary would prefer a McCain presidency to Obama.
There must be some video somewhere, eh?
Why? there is no reason in your post, none. Oh yeah, you open and close with the reason.
Well, I'm in the dark as to your intent. But I see Hagee as worse than Wright on every single issue. Wright is angry over what whites have done to him and blacks in general, Hagee is angry because he isn't being obeyed. Wright simply wants people to be decent to others, Hagee wants to accelerate the end of the world so his imaginary friend in the sky gets here sooner.
Truth is: John Hagee is a fine man and a defender of what morals we may have left. To compare him with Rev Wright is as totally misguided as it is to believe that John McCain will not be the next President of the united States. Now your understanding why Bill O'reilly gave Ms. Huffington the airtime last night. Trust me, I'm a reasonable, level headed Republican, unlike some of what I've read on this Blog.
Thanks,
Richard Waserman
Why don't you read about Hillary's scary religious group? Easy to make comments when you're behind a computer isn't it?
yeah, of course you shouldnt look at obama look at Hillary, are you trying out for the part of the wizard from "the wizard of oz"
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