McCain Drops Pastors Like They’re Hot

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2008/05/mccain_drops_pastors_like_they.html

Early and Often
5/23/08
McCain Drops Pastors Like They’re Hot

What is it with troublesome pastors and presidential candidates? We all know Barack Obama was forced to eventually break ties with that rapscallion Reverend Wright, but yesterday John McCain rejected the endorsement and support of not one but two crazy pastors! John Hagee had been creating controversy for a while — calling Catholicism the "Great Whore" is bound to rile a few people, like Catholics. As is claiming Hurricane Katrina was punishment for New Orleans's gayness. But when it surfaced this week that Hagee apparently once claimed in a sermon that Hitler and the Holocaust were part of God's plan for coaxing the Jews into Israel, McCain decided that was about enough. But while he was rolling, he let go of another pastor, too, Reverend Rod Parsley, of Ohio, whose statement that Islam (among other things) is an "anti-Christ religion that intends through violence to conquer the world" was played on Good Morning America yesterday. So what are people saying about McCain's pastor dumping?

• Jonathan Martin thinks it's a shrewd move to dump these pastors now, while the media is mostly distracted by veep talk and his own medical records, and it's far enough from the general election that it will likely be forgotten by voters. [Politico]

• Josh Marshall says he doesn't think McCain knew about the Hitler statements, but given all the other things Hagee has said, it really shouldn't have come as a surprise. [Talking Points Memo]

• Matthew Yglesias wonders if this could be the beginning of a "high-risk, high-reward" McCain strategy of separating himself from the party (as conservatives have "nowhere else to go") and appealing to voters in the middle. [Atlantic]

• Holly Bailey thinks it's a guarantee that people are digging for more pastor gold and that we probably haven't heard the last of Hagee. [Stumper/Newsweek]

• John Nichols isn't sure what Hagee's de-endorsement of McCain really means. Hagee still believes McCain is "the candidate most in line with his religious and political views," which should be what concerns people. [Campaign '08/Nation]

• Eve Fairbanks concurs. What is a "de-endorsement"? [Stump/New Republic]

• Matt Lewis thinks the "attacks" on Hagee are liberal payback for the Reverend Wright affair and an attempt to win over some skeptical Jewish voters. He's disappointed that McCain didn't show more "toughness." [Town Hall]

• Dan Gilgof places McCain's latest stumble in the context of his overall "ham handed approach to dealing with the Christian Right and with handling religious matters generally." The Hagee disaster will likely make McCain even more hesitant to reach out to the religious right later in the campaign. [God-o-Meter/BeliefNet]

• Domenico Montanaro posits that maybe McCain's "anxiousness about Evangelical support" caused him to jump the gun on these endorsements and not properly vet them first. [First Read/MSNBC] —Dan Amira

McCain Spiritual Adviser Recants Earlier Statement

http://www.pensitoreview.com/2008/04/26/mccain-spiritual-adviser-recants-god-damned-nola/

McCain Spiritual Adviser Recants Earlier Statement That God Damned New Orleans with Katrina
Jon Ponder Apr. 26, 2008

John McCain’s spiritual adviser, John Hagee, has apparently gotten the word from on high and has now recanted his assertions that Katrina was God’s curse on New Orleans because it hosted an annual gay event:

“As a believing Christian, I see the hand of God in everything that happens here on earth, both the blessings and the curses. But ultimately neither I nor any other person can know the mind of God concerning Hurricane Katrina. I should not have suggested otherwise. No matter what the cause of the storm, my heart goes out to all who suffered in this terrible tragedy. There but for the grace of God go any one of us.”

Hagee first declared that God damned New Orleans in September 2006:

“I believe that New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God, and they are — were recipients of the judgment of God for that. The newspaper carried the story in our local area that was not carried nationally that there was to be a homosexual parade there on the Monday that the Katrina came. And the promise of that parade was that it was going to reach a level of sexuality never demonstrated before in any of the other Gay Pride parades.” He later added, “I believe that the Hurricane Katrina was, in fact, the judgment of God against the city of New Orleans.”

Just last week Hagee reaffirmed this assertion:

HAGEE: The topic of that day was cursing and blessing. Moses taught in the book of Deuteronomy that everything in life is either a blessing or a curse. There are days that things happen that at the time look like a curse. In the passing of time, they may become what appears to be a blessing. An illustration is Joseph, when he was sold into slavery it looked like a curse, it looked like the worse day of his life. When his brothers came into Egypt looking for food, what looked like a bad day 13 years before turned out to be a blessed day. What happened in New Orleans looked like the curse of God, in time if New Orleans recovers and becomes the pristine city it can become it may in time be called a blessing. But at this time it’s called a curse.

The timing of Hagee’s statement on April 22 was embarrassing for McCain because it pulled focus from his campaign stop in New Orleans two days later.

Hagee is best known for espousing the belief that the Catholic Church is the Whore of Babylon referred to in the Book of Revelation.

Topics: Louisiana, Republicans, Campaign 2008, Jesusland

Hagee Says McCain Sought His Endorsement

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003728364

Hagee, in 'NYT' This Sunday, Says McCain Sought His Endorsement
By Greg Mitchell
Published: March 20, 2008

NEW YORK 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, calling it "so far off-base." He claims, "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 answers, "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 also denies that he is a strong supporter of Israel because of any coming "Rapture" in the holy land.
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Greg Mitchell is editor. His new book is "So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits -- and the President -- Failld on Iraq."