John McCain needed an evangelical to embrace and send a message to the Christian right that he will do their bidding, even if he's not quite one of them. He settled on San Antonio End-Timer John Hagee.
Hagee's bizarre theology would be harmless enough (perhaps) if confined to his multimillion-dollar temple. But John Hagee has a constituency that extends beyond his congregation. He used that constituency to build a foreign-policy advocacy organization--Christians United for Israel (CUFI)--that is now pressing for a pre-emptive war with Iran. CUFI brought 4,500 End Times activists to Washington for its July 2006 inaugural event, followed by a day of lobbying on the Hill.
Hagee was straightforward in announcing his agenda: "The United States must join Israel in a pre-emptive military strike against Iran to fulfill God's plan for both Israel and the West," he said.
John McCain has been pressed to renounce Hagee. He cannot. Louis Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam leader, whose unsolicited "endorsement" created a problem for Sen. Barack Obama, can preach religious hate. But he works on the fringe of American religion and politics and is an unlikely guest at anyone's White House. The influence of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright--Obama's longtime pastor who is cut from a different cloth than Farrakhan--doesn't extend beyond the African-American community in Chicago.
The Republican Party, on the other hand, is deeply invested in John Hagee and his followers.
OOPS - I can!!! I read all about John Hagee right before the Ohio and Texas primary when Johnny accepted his endorsemen
Since then, I have worked so hard to get this grimey/sli
Oh Happy Day! No wonder you were so kind in defending Barack Obama! Talk about
transparen
GWW
For you humanists, let it be known that this is a trying time for Christians too, when leaders such as Hagee encorse McCain over Huckabee, or even Paul or Hunter (which of them a Christian might endorse would depend on his position on war and the Constituti
It's not a good time for any of us, folks. Suffering is widespread among Christians as well as among humanists. We have the same skin, which is bleeding at this time. Weep for us all.
You and your ilk helped bring this misery on "us folks".
So bleed and suffer. And be sure to vote for McCain so we can have four more years of it.