Evangelist's 'tone incited hatred of Muslims'; station apologized to Islamic activist group

World Net Daily ^ | November 5, 2003 | Art Moore

[yonif]

An American evangelist's television series on Islam in America was canceled by a Canadian station after the first program because Muslims complained his tone and demeanor was an incitement of hatred.

San Antonio-based pastor John Hagee's "tone in his comparison of what Christians believe according to the Bible and what Muslims believe according to the Quran" violated the code of ethics of Toronto station CTS, said Program Manager Rob Sheppard in a letter of apology to a Muslim activist group.

Sheppard told WorldNetDaily he believes Hagee's primary intent was not to preach from his religious convictions but to incite hatred.

"It was a tonal thing," he said. "You could see what he was trying to do by his tone and body language."

It wasn't so much his exact words, Sheppard said, but Hagee's purported inference Muslims cannot be loyal Americans.

CTS pulled the final two of three programs in the series titled "Islam in America," scheduled to run in August on "John Hagee Today," which continues in its daily time slot, albeit under closer scrutiny, according to Sheppard.

The program manager said his station's actions – a letter of apology to Muslims and a warning to Hagee's group – was prompted by 50 to 100 letters of complaint from viewers, followed by contact from the Council on American-Islamic Relations Canadian branch in Ottawa.

Judging by the names, Sheppard said he believes most of the letters were from Muslims.

In his apology to CAIR Canada, Sheppard wrote, "I trust you will understand that we are very sorry for this incident and we are very aware of the effect it has had on the Muslim community. We have made it very clear that he must follow our code of ethics and any program that does not meet our standard will be rejected."

Sheppard said, "Once we were made aware of complaints made by viewers … we responded immediately."

Charles McZety, Canadian representative for John Hagee Ministries, told WorldNetDaily this is not the first time complaints of this kind have been lodged against the pastor's program. He contends the charges in this instance are too vague.

"When you get down to talking about tone, the tone of one's voice, then there is nothing to talk about," he said. "It's too subjective."

Hagee, who is traveling in Israel, was not available for comment.

Sheppard acknowledged the judgment against Hagee is based on subjective criteria, but said it was the response from viewers that precipitated pulling the remainder of the three-part series.

"I listened to the people who contacted us, and they perceived his tone to be demeaning," Sheppard said. "It is subjective, but there were a lot of people who contacted us who were upset."

CTS, or Crossroads Television Systems, which positions itself as a "family friendly" inspirational station, reaches 6.5 million people in the Toronto area, Sheppard said, and many more across the nation via satellite. It features programming from a variety of religions.

McZety said complaints about program content related to Islam was a longstanding problem on the previous Canadian carrier of Hagee's program, the multi-faith Vision TV network, which censored each one of the shows for 12 years.

A program in which Hagee played video of Muslim imams in both the United States and overseas preaching hatred and violence against Jews and Israel upset Muslims and resulted in complaints filed with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, the equivalent of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, or FCC.

That action forced Hagee Ministries to pull the rest of the programs in that series. On another occasion, programs about Iraq also were pulled.

Finally, this summer, Hagee Ministries decided to part ways with the Vision network after it went on record comparing the U.S. to the Hitler regime. Vision charged the U.S., in collaboration with its "CIA-trained partner" Osama bin Laden, planned the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks as a pretext for attempts to gain world dominance. The U.S. is going about this, Vision said, in much the same way Nazi brownshirts torched the Reichstag, or parliament, in Berlin and blamed it on Adolf Hitler's enemies to provide a pretext for a crackdown propelling Hitler into power.

Vision, which reaches nearly every Canadian home and has a virtual monopoly on religious broadcasting, was founded by members of the United Church of Canada, regarded as a theologically and politically liberal denomination.

Another American evangelist ran afoul of Canadian standards last year when a leading Islamic group prepared to take legal action under the country's hate-crimes laws.

Canadian Islamic Congress President Mohamed Elmasry told WorldNetDaily he believed criminal charges could be brought against Rev. Jerry Falwell and CBS television for the minister's assertion in a "60 Minutes" interview Islam's prophet Muhammad is a "terrorist."

Canada's genocide and hate-propaganda law bars a public statement that "willfully promotes hatred" against groups "distinguished by color, race, religion or ethnic origin." The code has an article that excuses statements expressed in "good faith," including religious expression, but judges have ruled against defendants deemed to have intentionally incited hatred. It also has a defense if the accused establishes that the statement in question is true.

Violators of the law are subject to a prison term of up to two years. Critics of the controversial statute say its vague wording can be used to criminalize legitimate public dialogue. The House of Commons passed a bill this year adding "sexual orientation" as a protected category of people, creating a scenario in which the Bible or Quran could be considered "hate literature" for its condemnation of homosexual behavior.

[SevenofNine]

Hey Yonif I kinda know about John Hagee he is on TBN network and other here in the US

I could understand why Muslum are tick off reason is Hagee telling the truth about Islam

Dubya forgetaboutit not religion of peace SORRY Dubya truth hurt

[Lo-Pro]

program in which Hagee played video of Muslim imams in both the United States and overseas preaching hatred and violence against Jews and Israel upset Muslims and resulted in complaints... let's see ...but no complaints filed against the imams I suppose...

[ETERNAL WARMING]

John Hagee is one of a few Christian teachers I admire. He unerringly adheres to scripture and is tireless in speaking the truth, no matter what the issue. He is a very well respected man in the Christian community.

[oilfieldtrash]

I love to read this sort of stuff. It is about time muslims had to stand up to some criticism of their religious beliefs.

[ladyinred]

Ditto

[NewRomeTacitus]

Hey, I'm going to die after paying too many taxes and won't take a dime with me. That's a true prophecy.

The cult gets no respect from me until it's adherents give up their criminal terrorists and join the rest of the human race.

[tubavil]

A program in which Hagee played video of Muslim imams in both the United States and overseas preaching hatred and violence against Jews and Israel upset Muslims and resulted in complaints filed with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, the equivalent of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, or FCC. That action forced Hagee Ministries to pull the rest of the programs in that series. On another occasion, programs about Iraq also were pulled.

Insane. Eff Canada.

[tubavil]

He is a very well respected man in the Christian community.

Good. He has my respect for telling the truth.

[BibChr]

Just keep chanting this:

Christian disapproving of another religion = evil

ANYONE disapproving of ANY Christian = virtuous

Rinse, repeat -- and you're a Canadian!

Dan

[harbingr]

Allah for PM of Canadastan

[B Knotts]

Canada will not survive long as a nation.

[Matchett-PI]

tubavil:"He is a very well respected man in the Christian community."

ETERNAL WARMING: "Good. He has my respect for telling the truth."

He, like the majority on TBN, only has respect in the religious kook community.

Check him out on google using key words like: John Hagee - heresy - apologetics - false teaching - religious kooks, etc., etc.

[Mark17]

The cult gets no respect from me until it's adherents give up their criminal terrorists and join the rest of the human race.

I guess they won't be getting any respect from you anytime soon, because they won't be doing this.

[Hat-Trick]

Canada will not survive long as a nation.

It is becoming more difficult to believe that this is the nation that brought us the great game of Hockey.

[Skooz]

Nonsense. Hagee is well respected by Christians nationwide. He preaches the truth and does not tone it down for public consumption.

[Matchett-PI]

"Nonsense. Hagee is well respected by Christians nationwide. He preaches the truth and does not tone it down for public consumption." ~ Skooz

Hagee is well respected by religious kooks. Here is just the tip of the iceberg of what's on google:

John Hagee / Religious Cults and Sects
http://www.apologeticsindex.org/h31.html

Excerpts:

Theology

Christians have listened for many years to the preaching of John Hagee, senior pastor of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas.
[snips]

A number of people consider Hagee's teachings to be thoroughly biblical. We would disagree with Hagee, however, on the following points.

Preaching Prosperity
John Hagee believes that all Christians should be financially prosperous so long as they continue to walk in obedience to God's ordinances. Although he does not subscribe to every doctrine common to the so-called Faith movement, he does agree with the movement's view that “poverty is caused by sin and disobeying the Word of God.”1 Hagee, like most other prosperity preachers, believes that “poverty is a curse.”
[...]

Promoting Positive Confession
Along with the prosperity message, Hagee accepts and promotes the doctrine of positive confession — a foundational teaching of the Faith movement which maintains that Christians can speak (i.e., positively confess) physical realities into existence as long as the believer exercises enough faith to accompany his or her verbal confession.
[...]

Salvation Without Conversion?
Hagee is recognized as a fierce foe of anti-Semitism. An outspoken supporter of the Jewish people, Judaism, and the nation Israel, he has been given the “Humanitarian of the Year” award by the San Antonio B'nai B'rith Council. Hagee has also been bestowed the “ZOA Israel Service Award” by the Zionist Organization in Dallas and honored with the “Henrietta Szold Award” by the Texas Southern Region of Hadassah.

While his bold stance against anti-Semitism is certainly praiseworthy, Hagee's zealousness for the Jewish people and their cause has led him to commit a most serious doctrinal error — salvation for the Jews without conversion to Christianity.

Though many may claim Hagee's preaching is helping to spread the Word of God and building a bridge of unity between the Christian and Jewish communities, the fact remains that his message contains elements which lie in direct and serious opposition to biblical truth.
Source: John Hagee, Christian Research Institute Statement DH005

• Articles

John Hagee Entry in the Rapture Index's "Who's Who In Prophecy?" section http://www.raptureready.com/who/John_Hagee.html

The Other Gospel of John Hagee "Christian Zionism and Ethnic Salvation". By PFO. http://www.pfo.org/jonhagee.htm

[Skooz]

So some people disagree with him. They are free to do so.

I wonder how much of the above is blatant mischaracterization, along with your fallacious "Hagee is well respected by religious kooks" statement. Any response by Hagee anywhere? Does it matter?

The old "Do a Google search on [blank] and [blank]" means nothing.

Do a Google search on GW Bush, Lyndon Larouche, ameoba and space aliens. Sure that would yield some interesting results.

[B Knotts]

You know that it will be all over when Hockey is declared a hate crime by the Supreme Court of Canada.