The candidate and the pastor

By Weekly Archive On May 14, 2008

Imagine
this: A preacher endorses a candidate for president. Then we learn
the preacher has, for years and from the pulpit, made disgusting,
inflammatory and un-American statements. Yet the mainstream media
totally ignores the preacher’s remarks and never pressures the
candidate to explain all the ugly things the preacher has said and
done over the last 20 years.

Impossible
scenario? That depends on whether your name is Barack Obama or John
McCain — and whether the preacher’s name is Jeremiah Wright or John
Hagee. Obama, of course, was held personally responsible by the media
for everything Jeremiah Wright ever said, and forced to repudiate
him. McCain, on the other hand, has been given a free ride by the
media and never challenged to answer for Hagee’s comments — even
though, in many ways, they are more outrageous than anything heard
from Pastor Wright.

Hagee
is founder and senior pastor of San Antonio’s 19,000-member
Cornerstone Church. He’s also a leading televangelist, whose radio
and television broadcasts are seen and heard in 99 million homes. On
many occasions since he began his ministry in the 70s, Hagee has come
under criticism for his controversial remarks on women, gays, Israel
and Catholics.

Hagee
shows no mercy for the Catholic Church. He has called it "the
Great Whore" and "an apostate church," and accused
Catholicism of being nothing more than "a false cult system."

Hagee
also blames the Catholic Church for the Holocaust, telling viewers in
one telecast that Hitler learned his hatred for Jews from growing up
as a Catholic. When launching his wholesale slaughter of Jews,
according to Hagee, Hitler told his followers: "I’m not going to
do anything in my lifetime that hasn’t been done by the Roman Church
for the past 800 years. I’m only going to do it on a greater scale
and more efficiently."

On
women, Hagee makes St. Paul, notorious for treating women like
second-class citizens, look like a feminist. "Do you know the
difference between a woman with PMS and a snarling Doberman
pinscher?" asks Hagee. "The answer is lipstick." As if
that’s not insulting enough, he continues: "Do you know the
difference between a terrorist and a woman with PMS? … You can
negotiate with a terrorist." Real cut-up, that John Hagee.

We
all remember that Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson were condemned for
asserting, the day after Sept. 11, that God had punished America for,
among other "sins," our tolerance of gays.

Yet
John Hagee made a similar claim five years later about Hurricane
Katrina and nobody cared. Appearing on NPR’s "Fresh Air" on
Sept. 18, 2006, Hagee said: "The newspaper carried the story in
our local area that was not carried nationally that there was to be a
homosexual parade there on the Monday that Katrina came. And the
promise of that parade was that it was going to reach a level of
sexuality never demonstrated before in any of the other Gay Pride
parades."

An
incredulous host Terri Gross asked if he was really saying that God
had flattened the entire city of New Orleans, because a gay pride
parade was scheduled in the French Quarter. Yes, said Hagee, that’s
exactly what I meant. "All hurricanes are acts of God because
God controls the heavens. I believe that New Orleans had a level of
sin that was offensive to God and they were recipients of the
judgment of God for that."

Hagee
is also founder of Christians United for Israel, which sounds
innocuous enough until you realize that, like most evangelical
Christians, he only supports Israel in order to trigger another war
that would bring about the end of the world. As he himself told a
July 19, 2006, CUFI event in Washington, D.C.: "The United
States must join Israel in a pre-emptive military strike against Iran
to fulfill God’s plan for both Israel and the West … a biblically
prophesied end-time confrontation with Iran, which will lead to the
Rapture, Tribulation and the Second Coming of Christ."

Now
here’s what’s different about Obama/Wright and McCain/Hagee. John
McCain actually sought out Hagee’s endorsement, said he was proud to
receive it, and continues to brag about it.

My
question is not: How could a Christian preacher say such ugly things?
But rather: Why did the media pay so much attention to one preacher,
and zero attention to the other?

Bill
Press is host of a nationally syndicated radio show and author of a
new book, "Trainwreck:
The End of the Conservative Revolution (and Not a Moment Too Soon)."
You can hear "The Bill Press Show" at his Web site:
billpressshow.com. His email address is: bill@billpress.com.