Given the hype that's kept Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's association with outspoken pastor Jeremiah Wright booming in the media echo chamber, a story that's been curiously underreported is that of the love feast between Republican candidate John McCain and pastor John Hagee. McCain has spoken with great satisfaction of the endorsement he received from Hagee, who is famous, among other things, for his remark that God sent Katrina as punishment for gay people in New Orleans. God was also angry, Hagee said, because the U.S. had put pressure on Israel to abandon some settlements on territory claimed by Palestinians. Hagee is CEO of Global Evangelism Television and in 2001 reportedly earned more than $1.25 million, which makes him one of the nation's most highly paid televangelists.
Wright, for all his inveighing against America (which, by the way, he served in the military for six years), is far less dangerous to the country than Hagee, who is influential in Washington and whose apocalyptic theology is driven by a wish to shape events to speed the coming of the Rapture. Hagee supports a U.S. military strike against Iran, scoffs at environmentalism as "pagan" and opposed the Evangelical Climate Initiative, a petition for legislation to limit greenhouse gas emissions that won the signatures of 86 leading evangelicals.
Hagee is a founder of Christians United for Israel, which lobbies Congress on Israel's behalf on the grounds that Jews are God's chosen people. A prolific writer and media figure, Hagee gave NPR listeners this view of Islam: "&those who live by the [Koran] have a scriptural mandate to kill Christians and Jews… it teaches that very clearly."
This is McCain on the subject of Hagee, whose endorsement he actively sought: "I am very proud of Pastor John Hagee's spiritual leadership to thousands of people and I am proud of his commitment to the independence and the freedom of the state of Israel. That does not mean that I support or endorse or agree with some of the things that Pastor John Hagee might have said or positions that he may have taken on other issues."
Whoever said Obama endorsed or agreed with all Wright's positions, even before the hullabaloo pushed him to disown Wright publicly? McCain said later that wooing Hagee "may have been a mistake," but that he's still glad he has the endorsement of the man who has said in the past that a head of the European Union will be the Antichrist.
