Guess what, John? All these fundamentalists megachurch preachers are nutjobs. You’re going to have a hard time sucking up to the Religious Right without these people.
You’re not going to be a “maverick” with them.
Guess what? You’re going to lose.
But did McCain denounce him too?
From the OP’s link:
That’s funny, because McCain called Parsley “one of the truly great leaders in America, a moral compass, a spiritual guide.”
Sounds like “straight talk” to me! 
Now that’s one helluva first impression!
What’s the debate?
“I have said I do not believe Senator Obama shares Reverend Wright’s extreme views. But let me also be clear, Reverend Hagee was not and is not my pastor or spiritual advisor, and I did not attend his church for twenty years. I have denounced statements he made immediately upon learning of them, as I do again today,” said McCain.McCain also rejected today the endorsement of Jesus Christ after learning that He commanded people to love their enemies. “I really have never spoken directly with some of these nutjobs,” McCain said of Jesus, adding “But He sounds like He’d fit right in with Senator Obama’s staff.”
How will this help/harm McCain’s election prospects?
Well, thing about religious whackjobs is that after lesbian democrat single mothers, what they hate most is other religious whackjobs, so it’s possible to alienate one and have the others cheer you on.
People like Parsley and Hagee make the Baby Jesus puke His little guts out.
From the OP’s link,
No question about it, God’s prophecy must be fufilled yet the Jews were dragging their feet so God hardened Hitler’s heart (like Pharoah) and unleashed the plague of Nazis. MAKE MY PEOPLE GO !
But then Hagee had this to say
There is only one conclusion that I can draw from Hagee’s statements. Hagee is condemning God !
Now if McCain can read Hagee the way I did, he might be able to salvage some fundamentalist voters who are not inclined to condemn God.
It won’t make any difference. This is a non-issue.
Probably. Unless it’s “Anything Can Happen Day”. Which, in politics, are the ones that end with a “y”. But its likely to alienate the dewlaps and venom sac demographic.
It’s an indication he was feeling at least a bit vulnerable about having sought out and willing retained the endorsement of such an offensive religious crazy.
And if he or his allies drag out Reverend Wright from under the bus, Obama’s people can replay Hagee’s spittle-flecked rantings about Catholics etc., plus ask why it took McCain so long to distance himself from this garbage.
Hagee’s endorsement was only semi-important for one reason- his leadership of Christians United for Israel. And now a soundbite is supposed to convince everyone he’s pro-Hitler & anti-Semitic?
Trouble is- he made a statement in a sermon on a subject that requires extreme nuance- the role of Divine Providence in the face of horrific evil. I certainly would not have said Hitler was a tool or used of God (whatever Hagee actually said). I could make the argument that even in the horrors of the Holocaust, God was working to restore Israel to her land, and that even greater benefits would eventually be brought to the Jews & the world due to God’s grace. However, though I don’t have time to do this, I bet I could wade through The Prophets
Isaiah to Malachi and find statements indicating that the anti-Israel invaders & oppressors of Israel from Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Edom, Persia, Greece & Rome were tools or used of God to work His Judgment against Israel, but that they too were going to be brought down by God for their crimes even in working that judgment.
As for Parsley (who I can’t stand to listen to for even a minute)- of course Islam is Anti-Christ. It’s waged war against Christians & the Jews from its start, unless they accepted dhimmitude. Mohammed claimed Divine revelation which, among other things, totally denies Jesus is the Son of God- that’s the NT definition of Anti-Christ. BUT it’s not a political issue, and McCain didn’t need his endorsement.
Finally- there IS a big difference between accepting, even courting, the endorsement of two fundy blowhard preachers and sitting under the pastorate of a lefty blowhard preacher for decades.
There are Jews that see Jewish trials as evidence that they are not fulfilling their end of the Covenant.
FriarTed is right, people don’t see the nuance here. Of course what’s funny about it is that generally the people who get the most glee out of a situation like this are those that hate religion in general.
On the other hand, we opened this era of gotcha politics, and people will be distancing themselves from fire-brand preachers regularly now. When right-wing Christians I know were gleefully denouncing Jeremiah Wright, I saw it coming that in general this would lead to a disenfranchisement of preachers as a whole.
Heck, that’s throughout the entire Hebrew Bible from Torah on.
Though, to be fair, Rev. Hagee wouldn’t recognize nuance if it bit him in the tail (which it has).
That’s to be expected. But it really turns ironic when those people who decry things like fundy anti-Catholicism or anti-Semitism also display virulent hatred of
serious Catholic teaching or the Hebrew Bible. Protestant Fundies may hate Catholicism or Judaism for the wrong reasons, while anti-religious Lefties hate them for the right reasons. G
Another real problem is that the media LOVES people like Wright, Hagee, Parsley, Robertson, Falwell, etc. The laid-back moderate liberal or conservative pastors could hold day-long press conferences endorsing candidates & would get very little attention. The media doesn’t do nuance either.
I doubt this will have much effect on McCain but Hagee is if not crazy himself, certainly making a living off those who are.
From your lips!
The irony is that the separation of church and state was something that Jesus seemed to be a fan of. If you consider politics to be ‘worldly’. The impression I always got from it was that by engaging in worldly politics one was corrupting the spiritual message. So ultimately it’ll be a good thing for Christianity. Though, I’m sure there is plenty of mileage left in the ‘Jesus wants you to be rich.’ racket, despite the fact that he explicitly says that he doesn’t.
No, Christian Zionist, which is not quite as insane as Naziism but it definitely plays in the same league. (Israelis and pro-Israeli Jews and political neocons Jewish and gentile are in the habit of welcomingthe CZs’ support, and biting their lips over the fact that in the CZs’ fevered vision of the coming End Times, all Jews will be drawn or driven to Israel and then all will either convert to Christ or die; or both.)