McCain Reneges on Pledge To Never Seek anti-Catholic Support
Bruce Wilson printable version print page     Bookmark and Share
Thu Mar 06, 2008 at 11:04:36 AM EST
[video inside] In the 2000 presidential primaries, John McCain called George W. Bush "anti-Catholic" for seeking political support from Christian fundamentalist leaders, such as Bob Jones, who called the pope the anti-Christ and the Catholic Church a satanic cult. Before the Michigan 2000 presidential primary McCain's presidential campaign sent out robo-calls advising Michigan voters that Bush had courted anti-Catholic support and, when McCain's campaign received media criticism for those calls, John McCain, in a Fox News appearance, saiod that if he were invited to Bob Jones University, as Bush was, he'd tell Bob Jones to "get out of the 16th Century and into the 21st Century. What you're doing is racist and cruel". In the Fox appearance McCain stated, in reference to Bush's courtship of Bob Jones, "I would never do that." ....Well, John McCain just did.


With his disavowal of hate speech during the 2000 primaries, John McCain seemed to have established a principled position but eight years later McCain has reneged on his 2000 pledge and both aggressively courted and also accepted support from Christian evangelical leaders, such as pastor John Hagee, whom McCain called, in the 2000 primary race, "agents of intolerance". John Hagee calls the Catholic Church a satanic cult and "the Whore of Babylon", but John Hagee's endorsement of the McCain candidacy carries a heavy baggage, of bigotry beyond Hagee's anti-Catholic views and John McCain's refusal to disavow Pastor Hagee's endorsement may prove an unfortunate milestone in the mainstreaming of hate speech in America. In his 2006 book "Jerusalem Countdown: A Prelude To War", Texas megachurch Pastor John Hagee charged that the Catholic Church conspired, along with Hitler and the Nazis, to carry out the Holocaust. Hagee and his fellow Christians United For Israel leaders have also repeatedly vilified Islam, and Muslims worldwide, by characterizing the religion, held by over one billion people around the world, to be-- like the Catholic Church --a satanic cult. Hagee and leaders of CUFI have also repeatedly claimed that the United States is at war with "Islamofascism" and Hagee has stated explicitly that this is a "religious war", between Christianity and islam.

In addition, Hagee, and various of his CUFI leaders, have repeatedly blamed gays and other Americans for natural disasters and key CUFI executive board member Jerry Falwell (now deceased) charged that gays, feminists, "abortionists", the ACLU and People For The American were partly responsible for the September 1, 2001 terrorist attacks.

John Hagee has repeatedly denied having any ulterior motives for supporting Israel but, in 2003 as John Hagee was voicing strong support for a possible US attack on Iraq, Hagee's San Antonio Cornerstone Church megachurch marketed a 3-videocassette series, of Hagee's church sermons, entitled "Iraq: The Final War" and which asserted that a US invasion of that country would inevitably destabilize the entire Middle East and cause a "vast army" of millions of Arabs and Muslims to join in "fanatical unity" in an attack on Israel.

John Hagee's lobbying group, Christians United For Israel, has symbolically encouraged terrorist attacks against the state of Israel, by choosing as a CUFI organizational logo a picture of Jerusalem's Temple Mount from which Islam's third holiest site had been airbrushed out.

But John Hagee is, if anything, an equal opportunity bigot. While Hagee publicly implies that a significant portion of Americans are in a "satanic cult" and his CUFI leaders noisily decry something they refer to as "Islamofascism" John Hagee has also has publicly discussed his expectation of a fate "worse than Auschwitz" for Jews and several of John Hagee's CUFI board members have stated their expectation of a coming Holocaust for Jews in Israel and even worldwide. CUFI founding executive board member Jerry Falwell once told a congregation that million of Jews will be slaughtered in the coming End-Time Hagee and his fellow CUFI leaders feel is now immanent. During a press conference at CUFI's 2007 Washington DC summit pastor Hagee, when confronted by journalist Max Blumenthal with actual text from one of Hagee's recent books, which seemed to suggest that Jews were responsible for the Holocaust, Hagee stated "I never wrote that".

Hagee, who has repeatedly denied having "eschatological" motives for supporting Israel, has sought to reassure critics by repeatedly stating that humans cannot alter "God's plan". But John Hagee has also appeared, in a 1999 joint sermon, broadcast throughout the United States, during which evangelist Kenneth Copeland, now under investigation for tax irregularities, appeared to claim that humans can become Gods or god-like and one of CUFI's regional directors, Billye Brim, has stated unequivocally that God needs humans to carry out his plan. Brim has also publicly fantasized about the destruction of the 3rd holiest site in Islam, the Dome of The Rock on Jerusalem's Temple Mount, an act of terrorism which, it is widely believed in Israel, would have disastrous regional or even global consequences.

In addition, John Hagee also calls Islam a satanic cult and both Hagee and his fellow CUFI leaders vilify Muslims to the extent that, at a summer 2007 CUFI conference which John McCain made a special, surprise appearance at, CUFI speaker Brigitte Gabriel claimed that Muslims and Arabs throughout the Middle East "have no soul". In summer 2007, Gabriel also made an appearance at a symposium, held at the US Joint Staff Command College in Norfolk Virginia, during which she told US armed forces personnel that they should oppose American-Muslims seeking public office because such candidates, in office, could not be trusted in the event the US were at war with a Muslim nation. At the event Gabriel also denied her association with the Hasbara Speaker's Bureau, a pro-Israeli right public relations and propaganda effort.

Pastor Hagee and his fellow CUFI leaders impugn the motives of large swaths of global humanity but they also tar domestic American groups with a hateful and absurdly illogical brush. During a September 2001 700 Club show with Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell-- who, according to John Hagee, was the first Christian leader Hagee consulted with on Hagee's plan to form Christians United For Israel and whom Hagee was to choose as a founding CUFI executive board member --charged, offering no evidence whatsoever, that gays, feminists, "abortionists", the ACLU and People For The American Way were partly to blame for the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York City and the Pentagon.

Pastor John Hagee and CUFI leader Billye Brim have blamed gays for the near-destruction of New Orleans by charging that Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment against New Orleans for homosexual activity in that city. Hagee stated, in a September 2006 appearance on Terry Gross'  Fresh Air radio show, that God sent Katrina to destroy New Orleans because of a gay parade which had been scheduled to occur around the time Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans.




Display:

WWW Talk To Action


Cognitive Dissonance & Dominionism Denial
There is new research on why people are averse to hearing or learning about the views of ideological opponents. Based on evaluation of five......
By Frederick Clarkson (374 comments)
Will the Air Force Do Anything To Rein In Its Dynamic Duo of Gay-Bashing, Misogynistic Bloggers?
"I always get nervous when I see female pastors/chaplains. Here is why everyone should as well: "First, women are not called to be pastors,......
By Chris Rodda (195 comments)
The Legacy of Big Oil
The media is ablaze with the upcoming publication of David Grann's book, Killers of the Flower Moon. The shocking non fiction account of the......
By wilkyjr (110 comments)
Gimme That Old Time Dominionism Denial
Over the years, I have written a great deal here and in other venues about the explicitly theocratic movement called dominionism -- which has......
By Frederick Clarkson (101 comments)
History Advisor to Members of Congress Completely Twists Jefferson's Words to Support Muslim Ban
Pseudo-historian David Barton, best known for his misquoting of our country's founders to promote the notion that America was founded as a Christian nation,......
By Chris Rodda (113 comments)
"Christian Fighter Pilot" Calls First Lesbian Air Force Academy Commandant a Liar
In a new post on his "Christian Fighter Pilot" blog titled "BGen Kristin Goodwin and the USAFA Honor Code," Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan......
By Chris Rodda (144 comments)
Catholic Right Leader Unapologetic about Call for 'Death to Liberal Professors' -- UPDATED
Today, Donald Trump appointed C-FAM Executive Vice President Lisa Correnti to the US Delegation To UN Commission On Status Of Women. (C-FAM is a......
By Frederick Clarkson (126 comments)
Controlling Information
     Yesterday I listened to Russ Limbaugh.  Rush advised listeners it would be best that they not listen to CNN,MSNBC, ABC, CBS and......
By wilkyjr (118 comments)
Is Bannon Fifth-Columning the Pope?
In December 2016 I wrote about how White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, who likes to flash his Catholic credentials when it comes to......
By Frank Cocozzelli (250 comments)
Ross Douthat's Hackery on the Seemingly Incongruous Alliance of Bannon & Burke
Conservative Catholic writer Ross Douthat has dissembled again. This time, in a February 15, 2017 New York Times op-ed titled The Trump Era's Catholic......
By Frank Cocozzelli (64 comments)
`So-Called Patriots' Attack The Rule Of Law
Every so often, right-wing commentator Pat Buchanan lurches out of the far-right fever swamp where he has resided for the past 50 years to......
By Rob Boston (161 comments)
Bad Faith from Focus on the Family
Here is one from the archives, Feb 12, 2011, that serves as a reminder of how deeply disingenuous people can be. Appeals to seek......
By Frederick Clarkson (176 comments)
The Legacy of George Wallace
"One need not accept any of those views to agree that they had appealed to real concerns of real people, not to mindless, unreasoning......
By wilkyjr (70 comments)
Betsy DeVos's Mudsill View of Public Education
My Talk to Action colleague Rachel Tabachnick has been doing yeoman's work in explaining Betsy DeVos's long-term strategy for decimating universal public education. If......
By Frank Cocozzelli (80 comments)
Prince and DeVos Families at Intersection of Radical Free Market Privatizers and Religious Right
This post from 2011 surfaces important information about President-Elect Trump's nominee for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos. -- FC Erik Prince, Brother of Betsy......
By Rachel Tabachnick (218 comments)

Respect for Others? or Political Correctness?
The term "political correctness" as used by Conservatives and Republicans has often puzzled me: what exactly do they mean by it? After reading Chip Berlin's piece here-- http://www.talk2action.org/story/2016/7/21/04356/9417 I thought about what he explained......
MTOLincoln (253 comments)
Fear
What I'm feeling now is fear.  I swear that it seems my nightmares are coming true with this new "president".  I'm also frustrated because so many people are not connecting all the dots! I've......
ArchaeoBob (107 comments)
"America - love it or LEAVE!"
I've been hearing that and similar sentiments fairly frequently in the last few days - far FAR more often than ever before.  Hearing about "consequences for burning the flag (actions) from Trump is chilling!......
ArchaeoBob (211 comments)
"Faked!" Meme
Keep your eyes and ears open for a possible move to try to discredit the people openly opposing Trump and the bigots, especially people who have experienced terrorism from the "Right"  (Christian Terrorism is......
ArchaeoBob (165 comments)
More aggressive proselytizing
My wife told me today of an experience she had this last week, where she was proselytized by a McDonald's employee while in the store. ......
ArchaeoBob (163 comments)
See if you recognize names on this list
This comes from the local newspaper, which was conservative before and took a hard right turn after it was sold. Hint: Sarah Palin's name is on it!  (It's also connected to Trump.) ......
ArchaeoBob (169 comments)
Unions: A Labor Day Discussion
This is a revision of an article which I posted on my personal board and also on Dailykos. I had an interesting discussion on a discussion board concerning Unions. I tried to piece it......
Xulon (156 comments)
Extremely obnoxious protesters at WitchsFest NYC: connected to NAR?
In July of this year, some extremely loud, obnoxious Christian-identified protesters showed up at WitchsFest, an annual Pagan street fair here in NYC.  Here's an account of the protest by Pagan writer Heather Greene......
Diane Vera (130 comments)
Capitalism and the Attack on the Imago Dei
I joined this site today, having been linked here by Crooksandliars' Blog Roundup. I thought I'd put up something I put up previously on my Wordpress blog and also at the DailyKos. As will......
Xulon (329 comments)
History of attitudes towards poverty and the churches.
Jesus is said to have stated that "The Poor will always be with you" and some Christians have used that to refuse to try to help the poor, because "they will always be with......
ArchaeoBob (148 comments)
Alternate economy medical treatment
Dogemperor wrote several times about the alternate economy structure that dominionists have built.  Well, it's actually made the news.  Pretty good article, although it doesn't get into how bad people could be (have been)......
ArchaeoBob (90 comments)
Evidence violence is more common than believed
Think I've been making things up about experiencing Christian Terrorism or exaggerating, or that it was an isolated incident?  I suggest you read this article (linked below in body), which is about our great......
ArchaeoBob (214 comments)

More Diaries...




All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective companies. Comments, posts, stories, and all other content are owned by the authors. Everything else © 2005 Talk to Action, LLC.