Posted on 02/29/2008 4:08:41 PM PST by Responsibility2nd
John McCain is refusing to renounce the endorsement of a prominent Texas televangelist who Democrats say peddles anti-Catholic and other intolerant speech.
Instead, the Republican presidential candidate issued a statement Friday afternoon saying he had unspecified disagreements with the San Antonio megachurch leader, John Hagee. Hagee endorsed him at a news conference Wednesday in San Antonio.
"However, in no way did I intend for his endorsement to suggest that I in turn agree with all of Pastor Hagee's views, which I obviously do not," McCain said in the statement.
His campaign issued the statement after two days of criticism from the Democratic National Committee, the Catholic League and Catholics United.
Democrats quoted Hagee as saying the Catholic Church conspired with Nazis against the Jews and that Hurricane Katrina was God's retribution for homosexual sin, and they recited his demeaning comments about women and flip remarks about slavery.
"Hagee's hate speech has no place in public discourse, and McCain's embrace of this figure raises serious questions about John McCain's character and his willingness to do anything to win," said Tom McMahon, executive director of the Democratic National Committee.
McCain was pressed on the issue Friday morning in Round Rock, Texas. Hagee "supports what I stand for and believe in," McCain said.
"When he endorses me, that does not mean that I endorse everything that he stands for and believes in," McCain said. "I don't have to agree with everyone who endorses my campaign."
He added that he was "proud" of Hagee's spiritual leadership of his congregation at the 17,000-member Cornerstone Church.
The Catholic League and Catholics United called on McCain to reject the endorsement.
"By publicly addressing this issue, you will reaffirm to the American public and to Catholics that intolerance and bigotry have no place in American presidential campaigns," Chris Korzen, executive director of Catholics United, wrote McCain in a letter sent Thursday.
McCain's response to the two days of criticism stood in contrast to his rapid denunciation of a radio talk show host who denigrated Barack Obama, repeatedly using Obama's middle name, Hussein, and calling him a "hack, Chicago-style" politician.
McCain immediately apologized and said he repudiated the statements of the radio host, Bill Cunningham, while warming up a Cincinnati crowd for McCain on Tuesday.
"Any comment that is disparaging of either Senator Clinton or Senator Obama is totally inappropriate," McCain said at the time.
Let's lift the dialog up a notch.
Soooo....he’s not PC enpugh for you?
Yes, I didn’t clarify myself. In Evangelicalism we talk about the Gospel and basic tenants of faith as nonnegotiable. Other peripheral issues such as the exact interpretation of eschatology, the security of the believer, the granting of ecstatic gifts, etc, as peripheral and given to much debate amonst the many denominations. On the core issues I believe Rev. Hagee to be be faithful and his spiritual insights need to be heeded.
So I am guessing that whether or not bearing false witness is sinful is considered a peripheral issue up for debate since that is what Hagee engages in with his pronouncements on Catholicism.
I'm not sure Hagee's first wife would necessarily agree with you, after the way he treated her (he had an affair with the woman who would become his much younger second wife). Hey, that reminds me of someone -- can't think who...
I've seen some of his sermons and the only conclusion I've come to is that you have to be an outright masochist to be a member of his church the way he rails on at his congregation.
Nothing like a bout of self-flagellation on an early Sunday morning.
Anyway, Hagee is pompous, self-righteous fringe demagogue who runs his church as his own personal fiefdom, accountable to no one but himself. McCain was a fool to seek his endorsement.
Just like the pope.
Go peddle your hate someplace else.
If I had any, I might. But I don't. YOU challenged me to produce documentation, and I did. I have no problem with the document, other than being on the receiving end of the anathemas; but I've known about them for a long time. I can live with it. I put my money where my mouth is, too, doing just what you said we ought to do, i.e., we work together, protestants and catholics, hand-in-hand. We know about our theological differences. We also know our significant common ground. So I have no hate to peddle. How is yours doing? Plus, I've been a FReeper practically as long as it's existed. So I've got no someplace else to go, nor do I intend to.
Research some of the things Hagee has said (and there's a lot) about the Catholic Church.
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