John Hagee Interview

Good thing McCain had a spare.

Shows a capacity for forward planning. Or a desire to bomb Iran shoot himself in the foot.

Well, McCain has also Rejected Ron Parsley's endorsement, as well. Just thought it should be noted. I agree that McCain and his campaign advisers should have seriously investigated these loony pastors before accepting their endorsements. One thing, though, McCain is catholic and from my understanding, Hagee is a Christian Zionist. I believe the recklessly biased, appallingly wacko speeches/"sermons" he gave about the Catholic church being the apostate church and about Hitler being the necessary "hunter" for the Jews to return to the Holy Land are a part of DVD's that he sells. So, ok, I guess what I am getting at here, and I am not going to do the whole comparison of Hagee/Parsley to Wright as I think that's been exhausted at this point, I will say that McCain does not subscribe to that particular sect of Christianity and I honestly do not think that he knew about the latter of the two speeches when seeking the endorsement.

Um, doesn't he vet people before asking for their endorsement? I mean, he is trying to get himself elected President of the United States here. Failure of this sort suggests he's not going to do well should he become President.

McCain is a Baptist. Formerly an Episcopalian, he switched denominations in a pathetic attempt to pander to the Southern Baptist vote.

Honestly, I was very bummed when he sought out Hagee's endorsement. It was too extreme, case in point these episodes. There are, and some of you may disagree with me just in principal, but many other, better choices in terms of right-wing, Christian pastors he could have chosen. Buuut, unfortunately, it only takes one apple here to spoil the bunch, and anyone that subscribes to the Christian faith is most likely going to have to spend the remainder of 2008 explaining why and how their sect of Christianity varies, widely, from that of Hagee's and the Christian Zionists craziness.....

haha, thaaaaaat's right....yeah, the Episcopal church tends to be the happy medium, or transitional for someone coming from a Catholic Church to a Protestant one. Even though it was radical in breaking away from the Church of England, as well as "anti-catholic" in a sense, it is absolutely, outside of the Lutheran Church, one of the more conservative sects of Christianity (with, of course, a few exceptions). Therefore, it's often referred to nowadays as "the OTHER Catholic Church" in some religious circles (their church services are more commonly "traditional" and ritualistic in the Catholic way).....thanks for correcting me, though. Always better to be informed.

Oh, yeah, and my point was....sheesh.....it is not uncommon for someone, like myself, to incorrectly be unable to make the distinction....ok...yeah...

The problem is that of the literately millions of religious figureheads in this country, not every single one comes with mailing lists for potential voters and donors, an ability to fund-raise on behalf of the candidate and a national audience that eats up everything that is spoon fed to them. Hagee and Parsley had this, and were sought out for that reason. For the same reason McCain quickly switched churches and gave a speech at Fawell's college. The fact is, I don't know if McCain knew or not what Hagee had all said, but it points to either his campaign can't properly vet people before getting an endorsement or (more cynically) McCain and his campaign knew and didn't care, figuring that in a best case the stuff wouldn't come to light and in the worse the hit would be worth the gain. Either doesn't speak well of him.

Oh, yes, I totally agree....sorry, thought I made that SOMEwhat clear in my above post.....but yeah, Leith Anderson, head of the National Association of Evangelicals would have been, by FAR the smarter choice.....McCain and his people have failed here, simply failed in this aspect....