It'd be funny, if these spiritual snake oil salesthings weren't regular guests in the White House. Or if they didn't count members of Congress and local governments as close friends. Funny. Ha, ha.
Posner will be with us from 1-3pm today to answer as many questions as she can, and she clearly spent a very long time exposed to these people on your behalf, so come join us in the comments for a chat!
With the season now officially over, let's take a look back at the primary campaigns' most notable casualties--those boosters lucky enough to have resigned, been fired or publicly chastised by one of the Presidential campaigns.
In this edition of the Scalp Count:
Barack Obama's foreign policy adviser Samantha Power, pastor Jermemiah Wright and the Trinity United Church of Christ.
McCain campaign staffers and federal lobbyists Douglas Goodyear, Doug Davenport and Tom Loeffler. Plus: Bonus spiritual baggage toted by pastors John Hagee and Rod Parsley!
Clinton New Hampshire chair Bill Shaheen and '84 veep nominee Geraldine Ferraro.
See how the mighty have fallen. A timeline awaits you in the extended entry ...
In the wake of John McCain's belated split with controversial "Word Of Faith"* Christian Zionist televangelist John Hagee, pressure continues to mount on Joe Lieberman to sever his ties with Hagee as well, and to withdraw as the keynote speaker at the upcoming conference of Hagee's organization Christians United For Israel. (Petition from J-Street here.)
Pressure on McCain came to a head when it was revealed that Hagee saw Hitler as an agent of God, a "hunter" sent to chase the Jews back to Israel. Extensive research condensed into a powerful YouTube video by Bruce Wilson of Talk2Action.org was instrumental in finally making this a story that McCain wanted no further part of.
But that's only one facet of Hagee's obsessional belief system, that has deep roots in centuries of anti-Semitism and its putatively more benign twin, dispensational philo-Semitism, which embraces most of the same stereotypical and conspiratorial beliefs about Jews, but see them as an integral part of God's plan for Apocalypse. A new Bruce Wilson video, Hagee: AntiChrist Is Gay, German & "Partly Jewish" (digg it here) highlights another highly offensive aspect of Hagee's belief system-his claim that the anti-Christ is "at least partly Jewish":
A further aspect of their obsessional view of the Jewish people, the other side of their thinly-veiled eliminationist fantasy, is a desire to replace them, to become Jewish-God's chosen people-in place of the actual Jews.
There is a long history of similar thinking along two lines. One is the claim by some to actually be Jewish, by descent from the "lost tribes" of Israel. An historically prominent example of this is the tradition of "British Israelism", most notably used to justify the Church of England's break with Rome. An even more extremist off-shoot of British Israelism, Christian Identity, is a thoroughly racist belief that Europeans are the true Jews, that Jews are not Jews at all, and that only "true Jews" (i.e. white gentiles) are eligible for salvation.
* "Word of Faith" is a form of "prosperity gospel" that stands the traditional Judeo-Christian teachings about charity towards the poor on its head, instead insisting on the need to give money to wealthy "men of God," the better to enable them to squeeze their camels--not to mention their private jets--through the needle's eye.
Readers may recall that in an effort to counteract the media's anti-McCain bias, I gathered the top 10 best quotes uttered by McCain's spiritual advisers. While the liberal press was giving its undivided attention to Reverend Jeremiah Wright, I decided I would highlight the invaluable but overlooked and ignored contributions McCain's own religious allies, most notable Pastor John Hagee, whose endorsement McCain went out of his way to seek and "ye shall" find. In light of recent revelations about Hagee's spiritual insights into the Holocaust, I am updating this list so it truly reflects the utterly amazing and unbelievable words of Hagee. (Pastor Rod Parsley, if you're reading this, I apologize to for cutting you from the updated top ten list. I do appreciate you commitment to destroying Islam and his attempt to raise awareness of the low lesbian life expectancy. But you and Hagee and are too special to have to share a top ten list. I will make you your own next week.)
So here are the "Updated Top Ten Hagee-isms," new and improved, with never-before-released hits from his "Thank God for Hitler" sermon.
1. NEW! "God says in Jeremiah 16 - 'Behold I will bring them the Jewish people again unto their land that I gave unto their fathers' - that would be Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - 'Behold I will send for many fishers and after will I send for many hunters. And they the hunters shall hunt them' - that will be the Jews - 'from every mountain and from every hill and from out of the holes of the rocks.' If that doesn't describe what Hitler did in the Holocaust... you can't see that. So think about this - I will send fishers and I will send hunters."
- Pastor John Hagee in a sermon
2. NEW! "Then god sent a hunter. A hunter is someone with a gun and he forces you. Hitler was a hunter. And the Bible says -- Jeremiah writing -- 'They shall hunt them from every mountain and from every hill and from the holes of the rocks,' meaning there's no place to hide. And that might be offensive to some people but don't let your heart be offended. I didn't write it, Jeremiah wrote it. It was the truth and it is the truth. How did it happen? Because God allowed it to happen. Why did it happen? Because God said my top priority for the Jewish people is to get them to come back to the land of Israel."
- Pastor John Hagee in a sermon
3. NEW! "Theodore Herzl is the father of Zionism. He was a Jew who at the turn of the 19th century said, this land is our land, God wants us to live there. So he went to the Jews of Europe and said 'I want you to come and join me in the land of Israel.' So few went that Herzl went into depression. Those who came founded Israel; those who did not went through the hell of the holocaust."
- Pastor John Hagee in a sermon
John McCain may have finally broken with Christian Zionist televangelist John Hagee last week, but McCain's close friend Joe Lieberman has not. In fact, Lieberman, who has publicly compared Hagee to Moses and called him "an Ish Elochim," or "a man of God," is still scheduled to headline Hagee's upcoming Christian Zionist Summit on July 22, according to a story by Max Blumenthal at Huffington Post.
Open Left readers are strongly urged to sign the petition, Digg the Huffington Post article, and generally do anything they can to help bring media attention and public pressure to bear on Joe Lieberman.
The idea that someone who sees Hitler as an agent of God can be a friend of Israel is a monstrous lie. Of course there are many monstour lies in the world. But this one is now in the spotlight, and the spotlight can use all the extra intensity that we can bring to bear.
Before Jeremiah "Obama's Pastor" Wright spews even more nonsense, and quotes even more ambassadors, we want to shed some light on the brilliant gems uttered by some of McCain's own spiritual advisers, Pastor John Hagee and Reverend Rod Parsley. When Hagee endorsed McCain, because he is a man of principle, McCain said he was "very honored by Pastor John Hagee's endorsement." Reverend Parsley calls McCain a "strong, true, consistent conservative" and McCain calls Parsley "a spiritual adviser." Because the liberal media refuses to give any credit to McCain, it is up to us to be fair and balanced. So here are the top 10 Memorable Quotes said by McCain's religious advisers:
1. "Do you know the difference between a woman with PMS and a snarling Doberman pinscher? The answer is lipstick. Do you know the difference between a terrorist and a woman with PMS? You can negotiate with a terrorist."
- Pastor John Hagee in his book What Every Man Wants in a Woman (Charisma House, 2005)
2. "The Quran teaches that [all Muslims have a mandate to kill Christians and Jews]. Yes, it teaches that very clearly."
-Pastor John Hagee
God's Profits deals with the relatively little-known (to the outside world) Word of Faith movement, which lies behind some of the most politically active religious right organizing that remains just outside the national spotlight, but that has had an increasing impact in recent years.
Sarah also blogs at the American Prospect website where she does The FundamentaList. I'm going to begin by asking her a kick-off question, and then others can jump in as well.
Sarah, welcome to Open Left. I'd like to start by asking the following--
The contrast between the brief blip over Hagee's endorsement of John McCain and the firestorm over Barack Obama's relationship with Jeremiah Wright is both dramatic and routine. Such double standards have become a standard feature of our political discourse. But your book unveils a great deal more than mere hyporicrisy and double standards.
How SHOULD the American public understand:
(A) The nature of John Hagee and his relationship with John McCain?
(B) The larger power/polticial relationships involved?
(C) The contrast between Hagee and Wright, and their respective relationships with political power?
Done, But Not Done
The formal, hurly-burly part of the salon is over. But Sarah has promised to drop back by in the next day or two to answer any additional questions people may pose. So those who missed it--or just didn't get around to posing the questions you had, there's still time to participate. Come in, and enjoy.
A couple of weeks ago, a brief tremor disturbed John McCain's presidential campaign. His endorsement by televangelist John Hagee caused momentary problems because it seems that Hagee is just a tad anti-Catholic. As in 19th-Century, "Know-Nothing" Party, "great whore" anti-Catholic.
No biggie. "He endorses my views, that doesn't mean I endorse his," is a magic incantation that works automatically if you're a politician who is (a) white, (b) male and (c) Republican. Check, check and check! But Hagee was a good deal more than just virulently anti-Catholic. He was much more anti-Islamic, and positively gleeful over the prospect of Armageddon. He was also a fairly significant force in Republican politics, having organized the largest contingent of so-called "Christian Zionists" to militantly oppose anything remotely approaching a peaceful resolution of Mideast tensions. I was just one of many bloggers to note such things, even as the corporate media ignored them.
Hagee, you see, is part of a religious movement, known as "Word of Faith," that stands the Gospels, with their talk of God in "the least of these" on its head. It is not the poor, amongst whom Jesus lived, who are the children of God in Hagees world. It's the moneychangers in the temple. Hagee should know. He's one of them.
Jeremiah Wright is a bad, bad man. He said mean things about America, how God should punish America. Nobody says that.
Nobody except Thomas Jefferson, Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jr., Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and John Hagee.
Yup, all sorts of people say God should (or already has) punish(ed) America. The only difference lies in just what they think we've been doing wrong....
The Democracy Now! piece was particularly strong, as it was set up by some clips that are-of course-better heard than read in transcript. Russert badgering Obama about Farrakhan, for example. And McCain proudly embracing Hagee. Then, in the interview itself, Amy strated right off, asking Sarah just who this Hagee fellow is:
SARAH POSNER: Well, his church has been around since the early 1970s. He actually started it after a previous church went out of business, so to speak, after he divorced his first wife. And he has built this church that he has now, Cornerstone Church, to 19,000 members.
Hagee preaches the Prosperity Gospel, which essentially says that God wants believers to be rich, that you-believers can call riches into existence for themselves through their faith, and that you get rich by tithing to your pastor ten percent of your income, what Hagee calls your "first fruits," meaning pay him your tithe before you pay the rent, before you make the car payment.
Gosh! Divorced first wife? Prosperity Gospel? Is this a match made in Heaven or what? And you thought BushCo had made parody obsolete! The M$M doesn't like to talk about McCain's first mariage and divorce, you see. It makes him look like Newt Gingrich. Heck, it almost makes Gingrish look good!
As a follow-up to my previous diaries on John McCain and John Hagee today, here's a bit of light/dark entertainment for your Saturday Night enjoynment, just to give folks a flash-fried experiential taste of what it feels like to be inside the head of John McCain supporter John Hagee. Enter at your own risk!
This video presents a dramatic representation of Hagee's vision, using only his own words, but with more mundane portions of sermon edited out. Complete with the know-nothing mistranslation of the motto from the Great Seal of the United States! (Novus Ordum Seculorum="New order of the ages") The editor/creator of this video knows better, but Hagee does not.
It does not necessarily matter to AIPAC if you preach "New World Order/Illuminati" conspiracy theories involving "international bankers," a classic coded anti-Semitic trope.
There was a time when a man who rails against "international bankers" and the "Illuminati" and who cites the design of the $1 bill as evidence of an occult-Masonic "New World Order" conspiracy would have been seen as something of a crank. But not any more, apparently, if the success of John Hagee is anything to go by. Max Blumenthal has already highlighted the cosy relations between the conspiracy theorist and AIPAC; now Hagee has had the satisfaction of seeing John McCain come as a suppliant for votes at the Washington conference of Christians United for Israel, of which he is the prime mover (along with some more urbane figures, such as David Brog).
Then I wrote:
Bartholomew's post gets even more explosive, as I'll explore in a follow-up diary.
Now's the time to make good on that promise. Hagee, you see, is the driving force behind Christians United for Israel, a "Christian Zionist" counterpart to AIPAC that's orders of maginitude more powerful than the Nation Of Islam ever dreamed of being. And what Christian Zionists want is nothing short of the destruction of Israel, America, and the rest of the world as we know it. They think the Apocalypse is a good thing. Health care??? Education??? Jobs??? PHOOEY! Blood and guts for everyone!
Compared to them, the neocons are just sissies....
Believe it or not, the party of Willie Horton is worried about appearing racist--but that's only the beginning of their problems, as their presumptive candidate, John McCain may be starting to have problems with his base. No, not the conservatives, stupid! The media! With so many bigots behind them, it was only a matter of time before the GOP started suffering from friendly fire, "big time" as their number two war criminal would say.
The Republican National Committee has commissioned polling and focus groups to determine the boundaries of attacking a minority or female candidate, according to people involved. The secretive effort underscores the enormous risk senior GOP operatives see for a party often criticized for its insensitivity to minorities in campaigns dating back to the 1960s.
"Insensitivity." That's a great word for a party that's run against women, blacks, gays and immigrants every election since 1968. As Steve Bennen noted at The Carpetbagger Report:
Let me put it this way: I'm supposed to believe that the Republican National Committee, which has never shown so much as a hint of concern about propriety in modern political times, is not only worried about crossing lines of respect when it comes to diversity, it's also leaking word to the Politico about being only worried about crossing lines of respect when it comes to diversity? The RNC?
It seems a little far-fetched.
Look, RNC officials know the difference between a clean attack and a dirty one. They recognize when an attack is driven by race-based politics, and when one is substantive and above-board. The only reason they would need a focus group to help them out on this is if they planned to walk right up to the decency line, and wanted to know how far they could go without crossing it.
But I actually think that Steve is being too kind....
