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."
What slays me is how easy it is to slam an evangelical who speaks his mind on what he believes but if a liberal says something about others, he is lauded for his courage.
And I don’t even like Hagee, nor have I heard his pronouncements, but liberal pastors say much worse about Jews or Bible believers in general and get talk shows for doing so.
Huuck and Hagee are much closer in theology than McCain is with anyone who sites in a church at all on Sunday.
Hagee says Jerusalem belongs to the Jews, and the Jews already have a valid path to redemption and need not convert.
You really can't hold Hagee's beliefs regarding Jews and not run into trouble with Rome.
So? He is not running for anything. If you agree on politics then what does it matter. As long as you stay free to defend your faith, as long as Hagee’s beliefs are not imposed on you by law, what does it matter? I vote for Catholics all the time and I’m not Catholic. The guy is a pastor. He will be vocal about his beliefs. Or at least I would hope so. It’s not like Catholic priests and bishops and theologians want to be stiffled in expressing their theological disagreements for the sake of political unity. No one should have to sacrifice one for the other. If we agree on moral principles and political structure of government then we should be happy. Let the divisions of religion and theology remain and be debated/defended. That’s the only way religious freedom survives.
It would have been OK for Cunningham to bash Catholics. Unfortunately the GOP tolerates just anti-Catholicism.
Bush shouldn't have apologized for the past errant policies of Bob Jones University. People shouldn't go around apologizing for other people's mistakes. They especially shouldn't apologize for other people's differing theology.
Apparently I had more faith in the reasoned response of Catholics than I should have. If we are political allies, shouldn't that be enough? Must everyone forever be silent about their theological disagreements? Is that really a rule Catholics want to live by themselves? If you save your own ears from offense it will come at the expense of your own freedom to speak about your beliefs.
Well stated, but the idea is lost on those who seemingly want to be offended.
“Bill Donohue appears ready to repudiate the Peace of Westphalia and reinitiate the Thirty Years War.Catholics should take this guy by the shorthairs and toss him under the nearest ecclesiastical bus before he uses any more fighting words.”
No thanks. Bill Donohue is a true Catholic hero.
It wasn't his baptism but his later dealings with Eugenio Pacelli --
This Catholic is grateful for him.
He may have been baptized a Catholic, but he was a pagan, looking to re-create a Germany that never existed. He persecuted Catholic priests, nuns and laypeople almost as much as he did the Jews, because they were standing up against his racist policies.
Only pagans vote to murder innocent babies and promote perversion and steal and covet.That would imply that 55% of Catholics are not followers of the Christ.
shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua
Interesting, because in 2000 and 2004, I believe that George W. Bush got a majority of the Catholic vote. It likely changed in 2006, because the Democrats were very public in running 'pro-life' Democrats, so all those Democrats in blue collar areas who would not have voted for a Democrat in the recent past felt like they could do so in good conscience. They didn't realize that no matter now pro-life an individual Dem might be, he or she will have absolutely NO power in Congress to do anything about it.
So you'll feel better when Hillary or Obama is holding the office of President of The United States?
You never hear Donohoe take a swipe at Democrats. Let's hear him argue theology with Obama's minister first.
You might well reconsider what it is you're grateful for when it comes to this guy. Remember, he's speaking for the entirity of Roman Catholicism, and Orthodoxy, and the Coptics when he sounds off. That's about 2 billion people! Hagee speaks only for Hagee ~ a minister at a non-denominational church ~ a mere 15,000 people.
Neither the Pope, nor the Church, was never in league with Hitler, revisionist history to the contrary. The Catholic Church was the only major religious institution that spoke out against Hitler during WWII. Hitler hated the Pope, and it was the first time in history that the Swiss Guard actually carried firearms, in order to protect Vatican City.
The Pope allowed many networks to run, and funded them when possible, that saved many Jews throughout Europe. The actions of many priests, nuns and laypeople in trying to save Jews resulted in their being sent to concentration camps, where they died, along with the Jews. The Pope is one of the reasons why Italian Jews survived in such great numbers. Italian Nazis weren't hot to trot about rounding them up, after the order was given. It took the Germans coming into the country to do that. But by then, the escape lines had been well established and were run, not only out of the Vatican, but in parishes all over Italy.
Donohue is in violation of the provisions of the Treaty of Westphalia signed by the Pope himself (and not since repudiated by any Pope). He can go to Hell for that sort of thing you know. Hardly makes him a Catholic hero! More a candidate for excommunication.
Huh? He does that all the time! He may not take on the Democrat party, but he stands against actions they might take against Catholics. He doesn't argue theology, he's simply defending the right of Catholics to hold our beliefs without persecution and derision by individuals or groups.
And I frankly don’t like him that much; he flies off the handle too easily for my taste, but I understand why he does it.
You really can't cover this little problem up with a mere wave of the hand. It doesn't go away. Donnohue, by a continuing stream of actions like this, let's Conservatives know what a phoney he is.
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