Feeds: 
symbol identifies content for paid subscribers only.
MCCAIN, HAGEE, AND SYMPATHY FOR THE ASSASSIN.
As Sarah Posner has noted, one reason that that Texas pastor and popularizer-of-the-apocalypse John Hagee gave for endorsing John McCain was the latter's "support of the state of Israel." Hagee also claimed that he personally backs Israel because it is a democracy, not because of its place in apocalyptic scenarios.
To believe this, you have to avoid reading anything Hagee has ever written about Israel -- particularly his 1996 giga-seller, Beginning of the End: The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the Coming Antichrist. In most ways, Beginning is a standard popularization of the fundamentalist theology known as dispensational premillennialism: To prove that the final seven years of history are about to begin, Hagee presented a list of verses and a collection of headlines that supposedly fulfill scriptural predictions. Hagee's innovation was to fit the murder of Yitzhak Rabin into his scheme.
But before getting to the End, Hagee expressed uncommon sympathy for Rabin's assassin, Yigal Amir. Israeli society, Hagee explained, is divided between Jews "who put more faith in man than in the God of their fathers" and those "motivated by a Biblical imperative to redeem the Land of Israel." Hagee spent several pages quoting scripture to support the latter group. Then he indicated that Amir acted because he belonged to the believers. If you follow his argument, there's no doubt whose side he's on. The implications roar.
So far, McCain has mostly taken heat from Catholics for cuddling up with Hagee. The minister has called Catholicism "the great whore of Babylon" -- which is also pretty standard dispensationalist fare. (Tim LaHaye’s Left Behind books, as I’ve written in TAP, have long, wild riffs against Catholicism as handmaiden of the antichrist.)
But Jews should be joining Catholics on this one. If McCain were as pro-Israel as Hagee says he is, the candidate would want nothing to do with Hagee. You don’t back a democracy by siding with someone who regards a handgun as the means to change policy. There is a certain dissonance between supporting a country and giving theological justifications for the murder of its elected leader. We don’t even have to talk about Hagee's earnest hopes for war on Israeli soil, or his classic theological delegitimization of Judaism.
Mr. McCain, do you know how to say "denounce and reject"?
COMMENTS (8)
"The minister has called Catholicism "the great whore of Babylon" -- which is also pretty standard dispensationalist fare. (Tim LaHaye’s Left Behind books, as I’ve written in TAP, have long, wild riffs against Catholicism as handmaiden of the antichrist.)
But Jews should be joining Catholics on this one."
It's pretty standard *protestant* fare.
Don't worry, you'll get used to it.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 3, 2008 10:19 AM
That McCain won't denounce or reject Hagee is the lesser problem.
By far the greater problem is that the media won't call him - or GOP pols generally - on their embrace of right-wing crazies.
Posted by: low-tech cyclist | March 3, 2008 10:25 AM
When are these fundies going to stop supporting Israel's genocide against the Palestinians? Isn't there something against murder in the bible?
Posted by: Anonymous | March 3, 2008 1:40 PM
TMP has a link up where senator Hutchinson defends Hagee by saying he's dedicated to Isreal and the "Peace Process."
With friends like these, huh?
Oddly enough, the only pro-Israel person I have ever heard denounce the Apocalypse crowd's support of Israel was Hecsh's daughter on the Sopranos.
(Of course, I assume the often quite good and brave people at Ha'aretz have probably pointed out the irony of this situation at some point. But you don't hear much about this kind of thing in the American media.)
Posted by: fredo bush | March 3, 2008 3:20 PM
"The politics begin with conspiracy: Early in the first book, a source in London tells a journalist that "a secret group of international money men" meets in a French chalet and controls global economic developments."
Oh, Jesus, that chalet isn't in France, it's in *Davos.*
Posted by: Anonymous | March 3, 2008 6:30 PM
The scary thing about Hagee is that Joe Lieberman and Tom Delay, along with McCain have praised the guy. Donahue doesn't have that kind of power. And its also ironic considering that we are fighting religious fanatics overseas.
Too much evil has been hidden in the guise of “faith”.
Oh, and as far as the "Left Behind" series, I think it should be put on the shelf right next to "Mien Kamp" and "The Turner Diaries".
Posted by: Anonymous | March 4, 2008 8:53 PM
The scary thing about Hagee is that Joe Lieberman and Tom Delay, along with McCain have praised the guy. Donahue doesn't have that kind of power. And its also ironic considering that we are fighting religious fanatics overseas.
Too much evil has been hidden in the guise of “faith”.
Oh, and as far as the "Left Behind" series, I think it should be put on the shelf right next to "Mien Kamp" and "The Turner Diaries".
Posted by: George Arndt | March 4, 2008 8:54 PM
The FDR Principle of International Democracy applies, I'm afraid; the GOP wingnuts say "but he's our son-of-a-bi.ch". Hypocrisy is nothing new to "Pastor" John Hagee.
These are the same folks, mind, who think of The Turner Diaries as wholesome Christian entertainment. Extremism kills, and it isn't just the "Other's" extremism.
Posted by: Jeff | March 6, 2008 5:55 AM