McCain's Reverends Right: His Faustian Bargain with Radical Christianity

"So I can understand, I can understand why people are upset about this. I can understand why Americans when viewing these kind of comments, are angry and upset." -John McCain on the interminable Jeremiah Wright controversy (April 27, 2008)

John McCain, the great empathizer, is running low on empathy. Quick to condemn the remarks of Obama's former pastor on behalf of American umbrage, McCain is reticent about his own knee-deep quagmire of offensive associational guilt. While Obama has bitterly terminated his unpopular alliance, John McCain continues to cling indefatigably to his.

All is quiet on the radical Christian front.

McCain has made a deal with the devil-- actually, three devils. Desperate to unify what is left of his ideological shamble of a Republican Party, McCain has allied with three of its most bigoted and hateful "spiritual" personalities: John Hagee, Rod Parsley, and (before his death) Jerry Falwell.

Though Americans take sincere offense at the vile statements of his powerful radical Christian allies, John McCain refuses to renounce them or disassociate himself from these hateful hucksters of hypocrisy.

Many, includingFrank Rich today, have already noted that the mainstream media has effectively ignored this most unholy of political alliances. As a result, it is quite likely that many Americans have yet to hear any of these incendiary statements. The following is a 10 minute synthesis of the greatest scatological hits of McCain's fundamentalist friends (see YouTube for myriad full-length footage):

It's not hard to see the thematic and stylistic similarities between the rhetoric of McCain's trinity-of-intolerance and Wright's well-publicized harangue: both claim government orchestration of black genocide; both point to the moral culpability of Americans in causing their own tragedy on 9/11; both exemplify the outrageous theatricality characteristic of evangelical pulpit-speak; and both fulminate with conspicuous rage. Wright has been condemned for speaking kindly of the Jew-hating Farakhan; Parsley's reference to the Rothschilds as he traces the genealogy of an international banking conspiracy wreaks of Protocols antisemitism.

But Obama established his relationship with Wright long before any of his inflammatory comments were made (and before Obama was made aware of them), while John McCain embraced Fallwell, Hagee, and Parsley with full knowledge of their bigoted reputations after they had argued their positions publicly. McCain sold his maverick soul in a Faustian bargain with those very "agents of intolerance" he once impugned.

The Wright affair will at most have raised questions for voters about Obama's ability to negotiate a scandal. Since his final renunciation of Wright, there can be no remaining doubts over where Obama's loyalties lie.

John McCain might privately disparage his radical Christian friends, but he has offered no indication to voters that he can untangle himself from their influence. McCain, like Bush before him, is deeply imbricated in the radical religious constituency that buttresses his party. As Arianna Huffington put it: the lunatic fringe of the party has hijacked McCain, like Bush before him.

Republican loyalists will hardly find these observations disturbing, since after all, better the devil you know than the angel you don't.

Comments

[hinnis]

THE REV. Jeremiah Wright issue is not just a distraction from Senator Barack Obama's campaign for president, and its importance is not as a reflection of Obama's own views. As a voter, I am looking for any and all indications of the candidates' character and leadership. It seems that Obama's strength, his ability to appreciate multiple viewpoints, is also a dangerous weakness when it degenerates into naive moral relativism and paralysis instead of action. If Obama has trouble handling the petty demagoguery of Wright, who just has a big mouth, how will he handle the truly dangerous demagoguery of tyrants such as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who may back up their toxic views with violence and horrific weaponry? This gives me pause.

[PuritanDescendant]

He'll handle them a good measure better than someone who calls Parsley a moral compass and spiritual guide.

Parsley: "I do not believe our nation can truly fulfill its divine purpose until we understand our historical conflict with Islam. ... America was founded in part with the intention of seeing this false religion destroyed".

McCain said on the stage with Parsley: "I'm very honored to have here one of the truly great leaders in America, a moral compass, a spiritual guide, Pastor Rod Parsley" ... shakes his hand and thanks him etc.

The President endorsing one who calls for the destruction of Islam. McCain's going to cause us serious problems in the Middle East if he's elected.

McCain doesn't have the judgment to shun men like this? McCain doesn't have the wherewithal to know what these men are about? McCain doesn't have the political guts to totally denounce these men because he's a vote-pandering puppet of the religious right.

[GPM1]

Excellent point. I've had the same concern.

[wmfor]

It's not a "distraction", my friend. It is a HIT JOB. An attempt to make Americans "vote with their gut" and ignore the real issues and real crises that our country faces.

Maybe Obama misworded it, but his "bitter" comment and later explanation were right on. People's lives are miserable and getting worse? Hit them with gun rights, abortion, the homosexual boogey man, get their votes, pick their pockets, and they are none the wiser.

[BillZBubb]

The sad thing is that going after fundamentalist fanatics like Hagee would have been a good tactic for the Democrats this November, but Obama's relationship with Wright kills that possibility. The right wing will use Wright to interject a racial element into the election, not a religious one. Wright is going to be the gift that keeps on giving for the Republicans. Democrats efforts to say "but, but Hagee!" will not be effective. Wright questions the very foundation of the country, whereas Hagee and his ilk only attack certain cultural aspects. Voters will reject the first, but tolerate the second. This is one of the reasons Obama will lose in November. He's stategically boxed in.

[PuritanDescendant]

Ah, the 7 million Muslims as just a "cultural aspect" of America? Catholics are just a "cultural aspect". Learn the facts.

Obama is not seeking the "black liberation theology" vote, but McCain is seeking the destroy-Islam Catholic-Church-is-a-great-whore vote. The latter scares the s**t out of people who have seen the religious right's role in the most recent presidency. Bush has played religion on RU486, stem cell research, stifling federal science (outrageous), tying foreign aid to anti-abortion measures, who knows what role they had in the Iraq war...

McCain's relations tell much more about a potential McCain _presidency_ than Wright does. It looks with McCain, it will just be more of the same.

As to the campaigning, if the GOP is going to run on Wright, then there are some 527s that are going to hammer McCain on Hagee and Parsley. They're not just harmless televangelists. Hagee and his followers have very clear and agressive goals on US middle east policy. They come to DC and lobby. Parsley says it is the US's destiny to destroy Islam, and advocates the same. He says that US muslims are not loyal to America! McCain calls him a "moral compass" and "spiritual guide" and campaigned with him in Ohio. If McCain wins, these people and their decisive votes will be reminding McCain who got him elected.

Don't fall into the logical fallacy that Hagee/Parsley are somehow OK or less problematic because Wright is Obama's pastor.

[wmfor]

"America was founded in part with the intention of seeing this false religion destroyed""

This doesn't question the very foundation of the country? Yet the basis for Wright's questioning--the inhuman slave trade--has indeed been questioned before, by Lincoln among others.

[lewes17266]

What about a media that gives credibility to con artists like Pat Robertson who tell their viewers to touch their tv screens for a miracle and who claims to be able to leg press a ton and who "heals" on tv then invites his faithful, gullible viewers to send money? It makes me sick the way the media invites this fake holyman, "prophet," self-aggrandizing, gossiping, meddling, hatemongering old kook to speak on serious issues. I do not understand.
I do not understand, either, why a congregation would sit and listen to nonsense from a pulpit meant to be used for the preaching of the Gospel.
Concerning McCain, I am waiting and watching to see if he sells out to the Religious Right, and to that old giggling, hate-filled, child-like Pat Robertson fraud who feigns holiness on tv for the purpose of bringing in money and who helped his fake holyman son Gordon keep his adulteress affair hidden so that he could be placed in that seat in front of the camera for another generation of exploitation. Hagee is nothing compared to those Robertsons.

[LouisPWu]

Lyndon Johnson knew he would lose the south to the Republicans when he pushed through his civil rights agenda. Things haven't changed. The Republican Party has enmeshed itself with radical Christianity, and has no desire to free itself - because they can count (and count on) the votes from the churches south of the Mason-Dixon line where the KKK still festers. The saddest part of the equation - the Republicans know what kind of wretches they're playing to while the wretches are too damn dumb to realize that every time they vote for a Republican they further distance themselves from any kind of economic fairness. They flock to the polls to vote Republican while Republican policies insure that their jobs are headed overseas.

[PuritanDescendant]

Abortion and religious issues are more important to them than economic fairness. What is important is that we make sure the American public fully understands who is going to be voting for McCain (radical religious types) and what the implications are for a potential McCain presidency. This is not going to go away.

[hinnis]

BLACK LIBERATION THEOLOGY: Learn about the so-called “religion” that Obama has been soaking up for the last 20 years. The Internet is a great source for researching this topic...

+++++++++

From Obama's Church Website:

"The vision statement of Trinity United Church of Christ is based upon the systematized liberation theology that started in 1969 with the publication of Dr. James Cone’s book, Black Power and Black Theology."

http://www.tucc.org/talking_points.htm

James Cone defines the theology as thus:

"Black theology refuses to accept a God who is not identified totally with the goals of the black community. If God is not for us and against white people, then he is a murderer, and we had better kill him. The task of black theology is to kill Gods who do not belong to the black community ... Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy. What we need is the divine love as expressed in Black Power, which is the power of black people to destroy their oppressors here and now by any means at their disposal. Unless God is participating in this holy activity, we must reject his love."

Liberation Theology on Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_theology
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberation_theology

[Gma11]

A relative was a liberation theologian in Bolivia (Maryknoll) for 52 years. These brave individuals sought to serve the poor while the Roman Catholic Church continued to suppress and even collaborate in murdering them.

Liberation is revolutionary. Thank god.

[hinnis]

Yes, Gma11, but that liberation theology was not based upon "the destruction of the white enemy." It was not race-based at all. There's a big difference.

[hinnis]

Yes, Gma11, but that Liberation Theology was not based upon the "destruction of the white enemy." It was not race-based at all. That's a big difference.

[superlive]

That was written in the aftermath of the MLK assassination and to this day even the King family is convinced that the US Govt was responsible. At the time wrote it, Cone was of the belief that "We shall overcome" peace marches weren't good for anything but getting a Brother's ass beat, if not shot. In the Bible God repeatedly liberates the Israelites through applied violence against Egyptians, Philistines, Babylonians, Greeks, etc. That was the kind of Old Testament God whom Dr. Cone wanted to emphasize in his writings at age 30, but he softened after the end of the Vietnam War just as so many other 60's radicals did.

[RickO]

These guys are far worse than Wright in every way. Theing thing to remember is that while Wright may have been Obama's pastor, these other guys are actually campaigning with McCain. There's a huge difference in the relationship there.

[hinnis]

You're right, there is a big difference. In McCain's case, Hagee endorsed him, and McCain spoke out against Hagee's anti-Catholic views. McCain does not go to his church, nor consider Hagee to be his "mentor and spiritual adviser." He did, however, accept his endorsement. In Obama's case, he has had a 20-year relationship with his racist and anti-American "mentor and spiritual adviser." You're right, there is a big difference there.

[PuritanDescendant]

McCain's trying to have it both ways. He thinks he can disavow select statements but approve the men and their beliefs. Wrong. What will we tell the Muslim world if McCain becomes president? If McCain wins, a man calling for the destruction of Islam (says it is the US's destiny) will have the official seal of approval of the President, who called him a "moral compass" and "spiritual guide".

McCain seeks their support. He is courting the religious-right vote. His relation with Hagee is not limited to 2008. McCain spoke at Falwell's college after calling him an agent of intolerance. McCain was right, these men are agents of intolerance, and McCain seeks their support and votes. Show me one hate group whose support Obama has sought for this election.

You can't say that you're "glad to have" Hagee's support and then disavow what he preaches. It doesn't work. Obama had to strongly denounce Farakhan, whose support he never sought. Until McCain strongly condemns these men and what they preach, he is in league with them. McCain wants and needs their votes, so he won't back off.

[Gma11]

Wikipedia's summary of Faust: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faust

"It is tragic when someone feels that they understand so much, or try to ignore so much to the point where they think that they should give their soul away with no fear of eternal damnation." --from very simple, basic essay: http://www.123helpme.com/assets/4848.html

It would be a tragedy for America and the world should McCain become president.

[sophistwatch]

Good article. There is a clear double standard in the MSM’s treatment on this issue. Hagee has said some things that I think might even get Reverend Wright to blush.

I noticed that there are a number of hostile comments about Obama’s guilt by association citing that he should have stood up and left at the slightest hint that something was amiss with Reverend Wright’s messages. John McCain knew what kind of perverted and hateful comments Hagee had already made before he sought his endorsement.

There is a very important point to be made here to those who think Obama is guilty because he did not walk out earlier. Anyone who is brave enough to take this stance needs to be reminded that for more than two centuries blacks were routinely savaged in this country. Very few people stood up and walked out or gave up their citizenship in protest to what were clearly human rights violations. Inconvenient to go back that far? Then let’s just go back to the 1960’s and MLK. There were still lynchings, segregated schools, bombing of a black church and a litany of abuses that are mind boggling when you think that we had also gone to the moon during the same time. Who stood up and walked out then?

[SaddieMcCall]

Excellent commentary by Bill Moyers on the Rev Wright issue

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfqCyMU3mfo

[sweatingbanshee]

So seeking an endorsement is equivalent to attending someone's church for 20 years and calling him your spiritual advisor? I find it pretty disingenuous of Obama to pretend that he'd never heard Reverend Wright make racist and anti-American comments in church before. This deflection to pastors whose endorsements McCain has sought is a huge stretch.

[superlive]

I disagree. There is ZERO evidence that Dr. Wright has made either racist or anti-American statements. I have only seen evidence of anti-racist and anti-imperialist comments. By your reasoning Americanism is therefore both pro-racist and pro-imperialist and taking principled stands against such is unpatriotic.

Imagine if Abe Lincoln's antiwar (Mexican War) were held against him 1860, or likewise with U.S. Grant in 1868.

[PuritanDescendant]

It's just another chapter of McSame. Same Iraq policy, same healthcare policy, same economic policy, and now it's turning out that he has the same religious base as Bush (and presumably policy/appointment obligations also).

How will it be perceived in the Arab street that our possible president believes one who calls for the destruction of Islam is a moral compass and spiritual guide?

Don't be so sure that McCain just met these guys on state. Check out Moyer's piece on CUFI. To quote McCain: "Anyone who had the misfortune of watching it [a Senate vote] will know how hard it is to do the Lord’s work in the city of Satan”. Either McCain really believes that our great nation's capital is a city of Satan, or he's a pandering fool who will do anything to get elected.

Bush's alliance with certain religious groups may have resulted in non-funding of stem-cell research, tying foreign aid to abortion restriction, stalling of RU-486, stiffling of scientific conclusions in Fed. agencies and by the Surgeon General, questioning nominees to scientific posts on how they voted, and much more.

Will McCain be more of the same?

[hinnis]

Obama's problem is not Rev. Wright. It is about the character and judgment of someone (Obama) who would join a racist black liberation theology church; stay for 20 years; formulate a close relationship with the racist and anti-American pastor such that he calls him his "mentor and spiritual adviser;" try to conceal this from the public by continually saying that he is a "Christian;" and then expect us to forget about those 20 years, merely because he himself is finally “outraged.” Rev. Wright preaches black liberation theology. Here is a statement by James Cone, one of the founders of black liberation theology, describing Obama's religion:

“Black theology refuses to accept a God who is not identified totally with the goals of the black community. If God is not for us and against white people, then he is a murderer, and we had better kill him. The task of black theology is to kill Gods who do not belong to the black community. Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy. What we need is the divine love as expressed in Black Power, which is the power of black people to destroy their oppressors here and now by any means at their disposal. Unless God is participating in this holy activity, we must reject his love.”

[nsiah7]

You are so prejudiced and nothing can change your mind. You still believe America is best when the bar for accountability is set differently for a black candiate and a white candidate. No wonder Bush won two terms in America. Grow up

[hinnis]

How do you know what I believe? You don't, do you? Racism is wrong, no matter who practices is.

[PuritanDescendant]

That all sounds good on paper. Now prove to me what Wright's typical Sunday sermons were about. The Catholic Church conducted the Inquisition, and has some rules that most Catholics disagree with and do no follow. The same with so-called "black liberation theology".

Until you have the balls to go out and PROVE what Wrigth's average sermon was about, then you have no right to make these accusations for political gain.

Have you surveyed his sermons? Until you can come up with proof that on the whole Wright's church is somehow hateful, then you're just playing games and refusing to do real research or deal in real facts.

And here's something more for you. African Americans are just as decent and American as white Americans. It ought to be enough for you, and all Americans, that 8000 African Americans attend that church (and some whites). That church would not be so successful and popular if it taught hate or racism. You speak of JUDGMENT. I trust the judgment of such a large number of my fellow Americans. DO YOU?

[hinnis]

Please do your homework; then we'll discuss this. By the way, we are talking about now, not the days of the Inquisition.

[sparkandy]

Give it up. You'll get nowhere posting stuff like this here. This is strictly Obama country and his supporters can't tell the difference between ATTENDING a church for 20 years and a strictly POLITICAL alliance. If the shoe were on the other foot, you can bet they'd be all over it. If McCain had attended one of the nutty Born Again churches that spews hate and ignorance, and if Obama had merely made a political alliance with a racist black preacher, they'd all be SHOCKED. And they'd be right. An intimate association of 20 years with a crazy bigot isn't the same as a politically expedient decision to convince crazy bigots to support you in an election. It's just that the difference in degree escapes them. And as far as the damage to Obama, it hasn't done one bit of damage HERE. But you can bet the farm that it's done a massive amount of damage among non Democrats, and even among some of the more conservative Democrats.

[hinnis]

Please do your homework, and then you and I can have an intelligent conversation.

[PuritanDescendant]

You'd make a little sense if it weren't for the precedent Bush has shown. The religious right is the make-or-break vote for McCain (as it was for Bush). That gives them a lot of leverage. We say how they used it with Bush (know anyone with Parkinson's? How they doin'?) The religious right is controlling the GOP and McCain. The "black liberation theology" vote (as if there were such a thing) is not goint to determine whether Obama gets elected or not. He's not beholden to any religious group.

"Politically expedient"... why don't you "do the homework". You'll find much much more than political expediency. McCain's taking the Bush path to the presidency. The Bush administration is living proof of what this would mean for a McCain presidency.

[wmfor]

"the difference between ATTENDING a church for 20 years and a strictly POLITICAL alliance. "

You mean the difference between sitting in a pew and giving someone an active role in government?

[knighthowl]

I am white; irish american with roots back to the Revolution. You quote some lunatic whom I have never heard of, with no apparent connection to Rev. Wright, who himself has been repudiated by Obama and suggest that this is a reason to reject Obama. What connection does any of this have to do with reality? Seriously. No, I mean really seriously. Have you given any thought to what you have written? If you were to claim that you have, I would have no rational choice other than to think that these are the thoughts of one who is either an idiot or a racist. If you have an alternative explanation, I would be grateful to hear it, but more likely amazed.

[hinnis]

Please do your homework, and you will see both the connection and the relevancy.

[HamletsMill]

Strange bedfellows all.

President Cheney went to get that photo op with the Pope.

Lard ass Pastor Hagee calls the Roman Catholic Church the Great Whore of Babylon in his book.

Go figure?

Calling Dr. Freud. Calling Dr. Jung. Stat.

Why haven't any of these people ever read ANY of these books? Why don't they know ANYTHING about the system of Cosmic thought really behind ALL the so called "religions" of the Middle East?

Hamlet's Mill: An Essay Investigating the Origins of Human Knowledge And Its Transmission Through Myth
by Giorgio De Santillana and Hertha Von Dechend
http://phoenixandturtle.net/excerptmill/santillana.htm

The Temple of Man
by R. A. Schwaller de Lubicz
http://www.robertschoch.net/The%20Temple%20of%20Man.htm

Cosmos and Psyche: Intimations of a New World View
by Richard Tarnas
http://www.cosmosandpsyche.com/

From Rev. Wright to Rev. Hagee they are ALL complete ignoramuses. Total morons. It is an embarrassment that any of this is in our political discussion in the catastrophe facing us as a nation.

[grendl]

When asked about using the C word, it's interesting that McCain didn't deny saying it, but simply dismissed the question citing his audience's delicate sensibilities.

He's living a lie John McCain, as you said, embracing whoever will help get him elected. He's flip flopped on a woman's right to choose, and traveled to Iraq eight times now without being able to tell Sunnis from Shiites, and more importantly not really caring about the difference.

He has a profound lack of intellectual curiosity, it seems about the one issue which is supposedly his strongpoint. Maybe war is his strong point not diplomacy. With his Bomb bomb Iran 'joke" he showed very little common sense, a lot of arrogance, the kind of mindset that sent us charging across the Iraqi desert chasing down someone from the Middle East as blood payment for 911. Didn't matter that no Iraqis were involved, let Allah sort them out.

Why hasn't the MSM attacked McCain. He seem a bit sacred. Or is it just he doesn't get the same rating Barack and Hillary's fight gets. Regardless, McCain is in a quandary now, unable to define his candidacy, a puppet to the religious right. Answer the question Senator, did you call her a C or not?

Not very Christian of you.

[sparkandy]

John McCain, as you said, embracing whoever will help get him elected.

Of course he is. He's a politician. That's what they do best. That's why they're politicians. They ALL talk out of both sides of their faces. That's why we should draft, oh, maybe Elizabeth Edwards or Bill Moyers or the Dalai Lama to be Pres.

[Sciguy]

Unfortunately, the Dalai Lama would turn it down. Too bad.