Sen. John McCain / Rev. John Hagee
Posted on 03/01/2008 6:21:35 AM PST by NYer
.- The endorsement of Senator John McCain by a Catholic-bashing Texas minister won swift rebuke from the president of the Catholic League and a Jewish leader concerned about his “vicious and inflammatory” anti-Catholicism.
Both compared the minister to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
On Wednesday Pastor John Hagee endorsed Senator John McCain’s bid to become the Republican presidential candidate in the 2008 election.
Senator McCain responded to the endorsement by calling Hagee “the staunchest leader of our Christian evangelical movement,” praising Hagee’s pro-Israel stance.
President of the Catholic League Bill Donohue harshly criticized the endorsement.
“There are plenty of staunch evangelical leaders who are pro-Israel, but are not anti-Catholic. John Hagee is not one of them,” Donohue said on Thursday. “Indeed, for the past few decades, he has waged an unrelenting war against the Catholic Church. For example, he likes calling it ‘The Great Whore,’ an ‘apostate church,’ the ‘anti-Christ,’ and a ‘false cult system’.”
Donohue said that in Pastor Hagee’s latest book the minister claimed Hitler was a Catholic who murdered Jews while the Catholic Church did nothing. “The sell-out of Catholicism to Hitler began not with the people but with the Vatican itself,” wrote Hagee, according to Bill Donohue.
Donohue criticized the remarks, saying, “For the record, Hitler persecuted the Catholic Church and was automatically excommunicated in 1931—two years before he assumed power—when he acted as best man at Joseph Goebbel’s Protestant wedding. Hitler even bragged about his separation from the Church. As for doing nothing about the Holocaust, Sir Martin Gilbert reminds us that Goebbel denounced Pope Pius XII for his 1942 Christmas message criticizing the Nazis (the New York Times lauded the pope for doing so in an editorial for two years in a row). Much to Hagee’s chagrin, Gilbert also says that Pius XII saved three quarters of the Jews in Rome, and that more Jews were saved proportionately in Catholic countries than Protestant countries.”
Rabbi Irwin Kula, president of the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, echoed Donohue’s criticisms. In a Friday statement, Rabbi Kula said, “Just as Jews and other people of good will have appropriately demanded that Barack Obama unambiguously renounce and reject the endorsement of Minister Louis Farrakhan because of his bigotry and rabid anti-Semitism so Jews and other people of good will should demand that John McCain renounce and reject the endorsement of Pastor John Hagee because of his vicious and inflammatory anti-Catholicism.”
Rabbi Kula said Pastor Hagee’s position on Israel “does not mean he should be given carte blanche to denigrate and malign another religion.” He continued, saying, “Barack Obama showed his integrity when he rejected Minister Farrakhan’s hate whatever the political costs and sensitivities. John McCain is also a man of integrity. He needs to similarly reject Pastor Hagee’s hate whatever the political calculations and consequences.”
In a Friday statement Bill Donohue said Senator McCain’s opponent for the nomination, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, had expressed “disappointment and surprise” that Hagee had not chosen him. Donohue also compared Hagee to Louis Farrakhan, wondering why the candidates were fighting over the endorsement of such a figure.
Donohue also called on McCain to shun Hagee’s endorsement.
“Just this week, McCain repudiated the remarks of talk radio host Bill Cunningham,” Donohue said. “He should now repudiate Hagee’s long record of bashing Catholicism. After all, George W. Bush apologized for speaking at Bob Jones University, and Hagee makes Jones look like a lightweight in the ring of bigotry."
One of the arguments atheists or more accurately anti-theists use to denigrate Christianity is to state Hitler was a Christian.
Because he quoted scripture at his hatefest rallies, that is the sole determining factor in figuring out if he, or anyone else is a Christian.
I don’t know much about Catholicism and their views on what it means to be to “be a Christian” but for Protestants to be a follower of Christ and indeed a Christian, one must profess that Jesus Christ died for their sins, is the saviour of mankind and repents of his or her sins and becomes filled with the Holy Spirit and is “born again”.
I don’t know if Hitler ever did such a thing, but somehow I doubt it.
It would be nice if the RCC would post “that 1931 record of excommunication”. The story is often that he was excommunicated “de facto” or that he was excommunicated “de facto” after executing a group of priests in Poland in the late 30’s. Someone needs to get their story straight —
Hagee is not as bad a Farrakan. Nevertheless, the principle is correct, that a prospective president should not associate himself with anybody who denigrates any of the great religions of the world (and should be tolerant even of cult religions).
As for Catholics and the Halocaust, our protestant friends should first consider the role of Lutheranism is disposing the German people to slavish obediance to the state, before denigrating Catholics. (Which is not to knock Lutherans, who have reconsidered Luther’s teaching that it is mortal sin to disobey civil government.)
The proper Judeo-Christian principle was expressed by Shadrach, Mishack and Abendigo, who refused to cowtow to state, but put their trust in God; and, by the rulng of the early church, that we will obey God rather than men.
The idea that Jesus taught blind obediance to the state when he said “Give unto Ceasar the things that are Ceasar’s and to God the things that are God’s,” compltely misinterprets him, having no understanding of Jewish expression.
As a person walks with Christ, he should come to see that God loves all his children and is desirous of the unity of all men and women of good will. Hopefully, Brother Hagee will come to see this.
Catholics should take this guy by the shorthairs and toss him under the nearest ecclesiastical bus before he uses any more fighting words.
Maybe it’s like nailing the mob for tax evasion when you know they’ve committed worse crimes. It’s just easier to prove? I don’t know.
Donohue has been for a long time an obvious shill of the DNC. He’s gonna’ have to come clean with us eventually, but until he does, he’s best considered soiled linen when it comes to politics.
Not going to be settled any time soon!
Wow!! I guess McFlap will throw Hagee under the straight talk express.
John Hagee is a pompous rotund fuzz ball whose sermons consist of one liners planned to receive applause. He was on the board at Oral Roberts University which mismanaged the school and got it $50 million in debt.
I don’t know whether it was a “de facto” or a “de jure” kind of excommunication involving a formal pronouncement or what. I think the formal pronouncement kind is pretty rare today, but I don’t know about in 1931. I also don’t know if it would have involved anything reaching the level of the Vatican or been handled at a local level. The Catholic Church keeps very good records at both the diocesan and parish level, but it’s not likely that a “signed in blood, notarized public proclamation” of Hitler’s ex-communication exists and, if it did, it still wouldn’t stop certain Catholic bashers. So he was baptised as a Catholic in infancy and that makes the Catholic Church complicit in his subsequent evil?
Too many of these evangelicals, especially the “high profit mega-church TV sorts”, seem to need to bash Catholics as a means of justifying their own existence.
During the 1990’s Hagee spoke how YK2 was a sign of the End Times. Hagee may be loopy in his Bible teaching but calling Hagee a hate monger is a bit of a stretch.
In 2006, Catholics voted 55% Democrat vs 44% Republican. Catholic leadership seems more liberal than the laity. I see this as Catholic leadership wants a Democrat.
Hagee sounds like a complete douchebag.
And Huckabee is a whack-job for wanting his endorsement.
Disagrees is one thing. This guy sounds like a rabid attack dog.
“Anti-Catholic pastor who endorsed McCain likened to Farrakhan”
Oh this is Bull(bleep)
If the man knew his history and anything about the real issues he'd be talking entirely differently.
NOBODY ELSE wants to restart the Thirty Years War but him!
******************
Donohue is right, but I hope he's not holding his breath.
NAsbU Luke 6:23 "Be glad in that day and leap for joy, NAsbU Luke 6:26 "Woe to you when all men speak well of you, NAsbU Luke 6:27 "But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, NAsbU Luke 6:22 "Blessed are you when men hate you, and ostracize you,
shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach Adonai
and insult you, and scorn your name as evil, for the sake of the Son of Man.
for behold, your reward is great in heaven.
For in the same way their fathers used to treat the prophets.
for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way.
do good to those who hate you,
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.