03/21/2008
Pastor John Hagee: Anti-Gay Katrina Remarks 'So Far Off-Base'
Deborah Solomon of The New York Times Magazine quizzes John McCain's buddy, the controversial pastor John Hagee in this Sunday's issue, according to Editor & Publisher:
"McCain has attempted to distance himself from some of Hagee's views, much as Barack Obama is doing in relation to Rev. Jeremiah Wright. But unlike McCain, Obama has not stood on stage with Wright and accepted his accolades this year. Interviewed by Deborah Solomon, Hagee refused to discuss his statement that Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment for a gay rights parade in New Orleans, calling it 'so far off-base.' He claims, 'Our church is not hard against the gay people. Our church teaches what the bible teaches, that it is not a righteous lifestyle. But of course we must love even sinners.' He also said that charges that he had bashed the Catholic Church ('false cult system,' etc.) have been 'grossly mischaracterized....I was referring to those Christians who ignore the Gospels.' Asked what he thinks of Obama, he answers, 'He is going to be difficult to beat, because the man is a master of communication. If he were in the ministry, he would make it in the major leagues overnight.'"
Hagee's statements about Catholics and the U.S. support of a two-state Israeli/Palestinian solution, not to mention gays, have been widely condemned, yet McCain refuses to distance himself from him. In mid-March, McCain said: "I will say that he said that his words were taken out of context, he defends his position. I hope that maybe you’d give him a chance to respond. He says he has never been anti-Catholic, but I repudiate the words that create that impression."
View the John Hagee-McCain clip, AFTER THE JUMP...
John McCain Embraces, Rather than Denounces, Wingnut John Hagee [tr]
Posted 9:20 AM EST by Andy Towle in Election 2008, John Hagee, John McCain, News, Republican Party | Permalink
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My comment Hmmmmm I get so tired of blame throwing, and the use of religion for just cause. If you live by an ocean yes you could get hurricanes, if you live by a valcano yes it can erupt, if you live in tornado alley yes I believe you will have a tornado, and if you live by a fault line you can have an earth quake. Gee there are wars and disagreements and quarls from religion, so that religous figures can't even agree on heaven. An then they want you to believe in something they can't even agree on.
Posted by: duane harrison | Mar 21, 2008 9:42:18 AM
Gays don't build an igloo on a glacier, then we will be blamed for global warming, hehehe
Posted by: duane | Mar 21, 2008 9:59:25 AM
When you build a city below the flood line, you are risking it's flooding when there's a hurricane. New Orleans placement was an ignorant scheme when it was founded, it's been lucky for too long. Katrina shows the reality of when luck runs out. To say that a natural disaster is a sign of God's displeasure is like saying 911 is Allah's will. Both sides are just plain crazy.
Posted by: Johnny | Mar 21, 2008 10:10:46 AM
Gluttony is one of the 7 deadly sins.
I wonder how often Haggee preaches a sermon about that? Hmm... now where's that buffet?
Posted by: anonymous | Mar 21, 2008 10:20:32 AM
Remember man wrote the religous books to give you an illusion of beliefs, I beleive in god created the universe, but man creates the illusion of how life is. The main objective is to create unity of mankind for servival and respect and peace of all mankind
Posted by: duane | Mar 21, 2008 10:21:51 AM
Duane makes a good point. If we had an Arctic Gay Pride, the wing nuts might actually start noticing global warming.
Posted by: sam | Mar 21, 2008 10:33:32 AM
It's nice to see how John McCain gets a free pass on associating with and seeking the endorsement of a stringent anti-Catholic, virulently homophobic minister.
Double standards...
Why isn't Michael Bedwell here denouncing McCain for his embracing Hagee?
Posted by: noah | Mar 21, 2008 11:29:34 AM
Thank you andy for showing the double standard...now maybe people will see how this is part and parcel when accessing the situation with BO...people sit in churches in the US all day on countless sundays listening to hateful rhetoric from the pulpit and claim to not take those parts to heart...so as whites are 'shocked and outraged' when they actually take a look at black culture and find sexism, homophobia or racism where do you think they learned it from...the culture at large...and to state this is not to BLAME white people or to cause any measure of 'white guilt' that would be ridiculous, it's to try create more of an amount of empathy, but there's simply not enough trust from either side...whites don't feel or think blacks are capable of ever truely 'getting over' the inequaties of the past, blacks don't feel or think whites will ever honestly relinquish white superiority and consider them actually equal...and those of either group that don't fall into these catergory can understandably wallow in apathy...which side will blink first?
Posted by: yeahisaidit | Mar 21, 2008 1:02:35 PM
Let's not forget that McCain also embraced Falwell and Robertson, who on September 12, 2001 said ON NATIONAL TELEVISION,
"I really believe that the pagans and the abortionists and the feminists and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way, all of them, who tried to secularize America, I point the finger in their face and say ‘you helped this [9/11] happen."
Doesn't that sound ALOT like "America's chickens are coming home to roost"?
Except, when Wright said it this he was talking about the way we have abused people around the world with our Corporate imperialism; about the way we have deposed democratically elected governments and replaced them with murderous dictators like WE did in Iraq (Sadam, Yeah, WE did that) and in Iran (the Shah); about how we plunder the worlds resources (especially those of poor countries) to feed our gluttony and how we have had a long tradition of always taking the side of anyone who uses or abuses Arab people without ever considering their side of the story not to mention insulting Muslims through our ignorance of their religion and it’s Holy places.
THAT is what Wright meant by chickens coming home to roost. He didn't say it was OK he just said that it was the reason. I happen to agree with him.
I can also say that I have sat in MANY WHITE Southern Baptist churches, including the one where my father was pastor, and heard ranting sermons about how America will be damned by God, will be punished even up to the point of destruction, for a whole litany of thing including accepting homosexuals, killing babies and voting for Democrats. Somehow they aren't getting the same attention as Rev. Wright who said that God would damn America for not taking care of its most vulnerable, stacking the deck against the poor and the oppressed and then setting up the rules to punish them more harshly and lock them away for life. He said "it's in the Bible!" and guess what IT IS!
This isn't about Wright being racist or un-American at all. This is about Wright being a vocal black pastor who speaks against an American system that is full of corruption and not living up to IT’S OWN promise of equality for all and the right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. He also has the misfortune of being the controversial pastor of a presidential candidate in a FIERCLY contested campaign where two candidates are looking for any way to take him down.
Posted by: Zeke | Mar 21, 2008 2:24:26 PM
Thanks, Zeke. Between you and Noah, I can always count on reading something valuable on Towleroad everyday. And you even got PATRICK NYC to come back to the Obama Camp. I feel NIC about to budge away from Hillary. We'll keep workin' on him.
Posted by: Derrick from Philly | Mar 21, 2008 2:35:31 PM
C'mon, guys, what to you expect from the MSM? Thought? Investigation? Even-handedness? From people owned by HUGE conglomerates that support the GOP and its tax cuts for them and bail outs for their investment portfolios when they go bust but dumps on people scammed into a bad loan on their house? St. John can make any mistake he wants, rant and rave when he wants, screw around on his wife and divorce her and marry his trophy girl then appear to do the same to her and he's given a pass by the media -- hell, he's even fawned over by the likes of Chris Matthews -- because he's "really serious." The coverage on his and his supporters is so fucking obviously one-sided, it's pathetic.
Posted by: Jemmytee | Mar 21, 2008 2:42:03 PM
The Baptists have adopted the Jewish theological notion that we suffer collective punishment for individual sins. Almost all other Christian denominations have grown to reject that notion, concentrating on individual salvation. The weird part is that Protestants originally claimed that faith alone was necessary for salvation, ending the need for "acts" as Catholics long thought necessary.
Hagee should avoid baring false witness and own up to his prior statements.
Posted by: anon | Mar 21, 2008 2:42:27 PM
Thanks DERRICK.
I do hope that PATRICK NYC is coming to a place where he can put some of this "scandal" into context and consider rejoining us as Obama supporters. I understand his anger and his reaction; especially considering how the whole thing was presented and misrepresented in the media, in the most sensational way possible.
As for NIC, he's my bud. He'll join us once we get the nomination. ;)
Now, there's my good friend MICHAEL BEDWELL. We've got some serious work to do there, but GOD won't it be great to get his passion and devotion back on the same team with us!!!
:)
:)
Posted by: Zeke | Mar 21, 2008 5:03:52 PM