Republican Candidate McCain Embraces Armageddon Sect

[Errigal]

+ YouTube Video

Here is a quote from a promotional video advertising Pastor John Hagee's In Defence of Israel:

This book will expose the sins of the fathers and the vicious abuse of the Jewish people. In Defence of Israel will shake Christian theology. It scripturally proves that the Jewish people as a whole did not reject Jesus as Messiah. It will also prove that Jesus did not come to earth to be the Messiah. It will prove that there was a Calvary conspiracy between Rome, the high priest, and Herod to execute Jesus as an insurrectionist too dangerous to live. Since Jesus refused by word and deed to claim to be the Messiah, how can the Jews be blamed for rejecting what was never offered? Read this shocking expose, In Defence of Israel (emphasis added).

This is from a post I read at the Phora.

A link to the video is here:

Amazon.com: Electrum\'s review of In Defense of Israel

McCain Gets Hell For Embracing Armageddon Sect
Jeffrey Feldman Fri Feb 29, 6:28 PM ET

John McCain continued his quest for conservative bona fides by embracing millionaire televangelist and leader of the "End-Times" Evangelical movement, Pastor CEO John Hagee.

In addition to believing that we are the last generation before God destroys the earth and that "international television" is a sign that Christ's return is nigh, Hagee has maligned the Catholic Church as 'The Great Whore' and 'a false cult.' Accordingly, the Hagee endorsement has raised the ire of Catholic activists who claim Hagee is a bigot who regularly preaches anti-Catholic hate and blames the Catholic Church for the Holocaust.
In an interview with Glenn Greenwald, Catholic League Director, William Donohue, warned that there would be hell to pay for McCain's embrace of Hagee:

He's not going to get away with this with the Catholic community...We're going to get this out to the Catholic community and Catholic press around the country...We're going to ride this out and see how far he wants to talk about this.

Donohue previously entered the 2008 presidential race when he demanded the resignation of John Edwards' blogger in reaction to writings on the blogger's personal web site.

According to Donohue, both McCain and Huckabee are equally reprehensible for courting Hagee:

If Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator Barack Obama were fighting over the support of Louis Farrakhan, we'd say they're nuts. So what are we to conclude about McCain's embrace of Hagee, and Huckabee's lament for not getting the bigot's endorsement?

In a press release just previous to his critique of Huckabee and McCain for embracing Hagee, Donohue decried Obama for championing a culture of death during the last Democratic debate in Cleveland, Ohio.

McCain's embrace of Hagee follows on the heels of a recent expose by Bill Moyers showing Hagee as the leader of the influential Christians United For Israel. Moyers' documentary showed a host of Republican leaders including President Bush, Newt Gingrich, and Roy Blunt, as well as Joe Lieberman of the Lieberman for Connecticut Party, embracing Hagee's group. In addition to showing long sermons in which Hagee warns that Armageddon is near, Moyers showed members of Christians United For Israel lobbying Congress to stop the Israel-Palestinian peace process and to wage a preemptive military strike against Iran.

McCain's embrace of Hagee is consistent with his continued support of Bush's military policies, but it also puts in play all of the baggage that Hagee's fringe sect brings to politics.

Hagee and his followers believe, for example, that the suffering experienced by the people of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina was a caused by God seeking revenge for Israeli settlers forced to relocate out of the Gaza Strip:

BILL MOYERS: According to John Hagee, devastating consequences await those who violate God's word. God, he says, may already have sent Hurricane Katrina to punish the U.S. for its role in helping Israel remove Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip.

JOHN HAGEE, SEPTEMBER 18, 2005:
I want to ask Washington a question. Is there a connection between the 9,000 Jewish refugees being forcibly removed from their homes in the Gaza Strip now living in tents and the thousands of Americans who have been expelled from their homes by this tremendous work of nature? Is there a connection there? If you've got a better answer, I'd like to hear it.

Beyond the Catholic League's objections, anti-Arab militancy, and wide-eyed application of prophecy to politics--Hagee regularly talks about Jews and Judaism in terms that many Americans find offensive.
Both in sermons and in conversation, Hagee and his followers seem incapable of distinguishing between actual Jewish people living in the world today and the symbolic "Jews" mentioned in the prophetic scriptures that are the focus of their Evangelical religious practice.

Hagee's insults of the Catholic Church are bound to alienate many voters. Just as many voters will be offended by Hagee's constant reference to Jews as a puzzle piece to be put in place to bring about the return of Christ.

Moreover, to an American electorate eager to find big solutions to long-term challenges, Hagee seems like an obstacle to progress.
And yet, desperate to be seen as a real conservative, McCain has little choice but to embrace a pastor who believes destruction of the world in a storm of fiery torment is just a few years away.

Without Hagee and his flock supporting him, McCain's campaign may burst into flames much sooner than that.

McCain Gets Hell For Embracing Armageddon Sect - Yahoo! News

[Menydh]

Originally Posted by Errigal

Here is a quote from a promotional video advertising Pastor John Hagee's In Defence of Israel:

What a nutcase.

This is from a post I read at the Phora.

Is he a member there?

[Weltschmerz]

OK, call me a nitpicker, but let's quote the passage he is paraphrasing from Revelations 17:

4.
And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
5.
And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
6.
And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.

Now, how exactly is that the blood of the Jewish people???
How does it have anything to do with the crusades?
The Spanish inquisition?
Of course, the holocaust, but again what does it have to do with that locus?
And the "Roman church" is the same as the apostase church in some kind of negative sense, because of the blood of the Jewish people. Hmmm...

He is basically applying the dramaturgy of the Old Testament also to the New Testament, and he speaks about things I simply cannot find in the loci referenced.

And he has an annoying tone of voice.

[Arthur Gordon Pym]

And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.

Maybe it is this woman:

[Errigal]

Originally Posted by Mynydd

What a nutcase.

Is he a member there?

He would not stand out. If he were dressed in pyjamas and a bathrobe he would not stand out among the patients of a mental hospital either.

Originally Posted by Marulus

Maybe it is this woman:

Interestingly, the woman who wrote the famous poem carved into the base of that statue was Emma Lazarus, who came from a wealthy Sephardic Jewish family. It is impossible to swing a cat in US history without hitting one of the Tribe.

[Errigal]

Here are two new items on this topic:

This Bill Moyers program on pseudo-Christian Noahides (Jew-worshippers) is worth watching:
Christians United for Israel
Bill Moyers Journal . Watch & Listen | PBS

As well, we have it straight from the horse's mouth, the American Enterprise Institute:
Why Don't Jews Like the Christians Who Like Them?
AEI - Short Publications - Why Don\'t Jews Like the Christians Who Like Them?

[Arthur Gordon Pym]

Originally Posted by Errigal

Why Don't Jews Like the Christians Who Like Them?

Why should they like those slimy, groveling sycophants? The Jews have every right to despise them. I give credit to Jews on this one.

[Arthur Gordon Pym]

It is an interesting matter that American Jews mostly vote democrat. I the last elections only 24% of Jews voted Bush, the votes of others going to Kerry.

[Errigal]

Calling the Catholic Church the "Great Whore" was fine. Saying New Orleans was punished by God was fine. Saying God sent Hitler to drive the Jews to Israel is totally unacceptable. We now know the rules of the game.

McCain Denounces Hagee

By Juliet Eilperin and Michelle Boorstein
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) renounced controversial Christian pastor John Hagee today, after learning that Hagee had remarked Nazism constituted an expression of God's will.

The comments, which Hagee made in the late 1990s and were first posted on the website "Talk to Action" on May 15, draw from a biblical verse and imply that Adolf Hilter's actions had helped speed the creation of the state of Israel.

"'And they the hunters should hunt them,' that will be the Jews," Hagee said. "'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."

When asked what McCain thought of the remarks, campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds responded with an e-mail from the candidate denouncing Hagee.

"Obviously, I find these remarks and others deeply offensive and indefensible, and I repudiate them," McCain said in the statement. "I did not know of them before Reverend Hagee's endorsement, and I feel I must reject his endorsement as well."

The comments represented a significant shift by McCain, who had refused to reject Hagee's endorsement in the wake of other controversial comments, such as the reverend's attack on Catholicism and his implication that Hurricane Katrina represented divine retribution. After learning of those comments, McCain said just because someone endorsed him did not mean he endorsed that person's views.

At roughly the same time McCain rejected Hagee's endorsement, the reverend issued a statement saying he was withdrawing it to prevent any further damage to the presumptive GOP nominee's candidacy.

"Ever since I endorsed John McCain for president, people seeking to attack Senator McCain have combed my records for statements they can use for political gain. They have had no qualms about grossly misrepresenting my position on issues most near and dear to my heart if it serves their political ambitions," Hagee said in the statement. "I am tired of these baseless attacks and fear that they have become a distraction in what should be a national debate about important issues. I have therefore decided to withdraw my endorsement of Senator McCain for President effective today, and to remove myself from any active role in the 2008 campaign.

"I hope that the Senator McCain will accept this withdrawal so that he may focus on the issues that are most important to America and the world," Hagee added.

At the same time that McCain rejected Hagee, the senator made an effort to draw a distinction between his link to the controversial evangelical and Sen. Barack Obama's (D-Ill.) ties to Chicago pastor Jeremiah Wright. Wright's incendiary remarks about the U.S. government have dogged Obama for months on the campaign trail.

"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," McCain said in the statement. "I have denounced statements he made immediately upon learning of them, as I do again today."

McCain Denounces Hagee | The Trail | washingtonpost.com