Credit when it’s due
While I find all this “renounce” and “reject” stuff a bit silly, as long as we’re playing that game, what is good for the goose should be good for the gander. With that in mind, I want to give credit to Bill Donohue for calling on John McCain to renounce the support of the anti-Catholic, anti-Semitic John Hagee.
UPDATE: (Via TPM) Here’s McCain’s response to all of this. Pretty weak tea compared to what Russert demanded from Obama the other night:
“Yesterday, Pastor John Hagee endorsed my candidacy for president in San Antonio, Texas. However, in no way did I intend for his endorsement to suggest that I in turn agree with all of Pastor Hagee’s views, which I obviously do not.
“I am hopeful that Catholics, Protestants and all people of faith who share my vision for the future of America will respond to our message of defending innocent life, traditional marriage, and compassion for the most vulnerable in our society.”
Anti-Catholic, yes. Anti-Semitic, not that I have been able to discover.
It will be interesting to see how (or if) McCain responds. It was good to seem him rejecting the remarks of Bill Cunningham’s in Cincinnati. (It also reminded me how glad I am I left there for New York after graduating from college.)
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-02-26-cunningham-mccain_N.htm
Here’s the basis for the anti-semitic tag, David –
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2007/3/5/105015/2167/
Eduardo,
Thanks for the link. It is disturbing that people say these kinds of things at all, but particularly disturbing that they get rich off of it.
John Hagee’s thinking and rhetoric is dangerous. If Hagee is a friend of Israel, then the devil is a friend of the Christian faith.
Bill Moyers had a discussion not long ago on PBS about this fella’s views.
Hagee = creepy
Will McCain ‘reject and denounce’ Rev. Hagee’s Catholic bashing???? nah…. it’s too risky to alienate another part of the Republican base. By Nov. election time the Repubs will lose everyone except ‘cheap money’ Wall Streeters.
Re: the Catholic Church — Hagee isn’t saying anything worse than some regular commenters around here . . . .
In any event, the principle that one shouldn’t criticize other religious beliefs collapses on itself. If Hagee isn’t allowed to say that he thinks the Catholic Church is wrong, then by the same principle none of us are allowed to say that Hagee’s religion is wrong.
Stuart,
The issue isn’t free speech or the right of people from one religion have a right to criticize the other. The issue is whether McCain is willing to be associated with someone who, in the eyes of Catholics, slanders the Catholic Church. The question is about McCain’s integrity. Is he willing to accept an endorsement from someone with views that I would assume McCain considers odious for the sake of winning votes? I though Ronald Reagan handled it brilliantly when he said (of the John Birch Society, I think), “They support me. I don’t support them.” But I doubt that McCain will even go that far.
Of course he “slanders” the Catholic Church. Anyone who isn’t a Catholic, if they’re able to think clearly at all, would say that the Catholic Church is a monstrous impostor. Think of it: someone who claims to speak for God infallibly? That’s the most absurd and presumptuous thing in the world, if you don’t belong to that religion.
By the way, are you willing to be “associated with someone who . . . slanders” John Hagee? That’s the dilemma here: If you feel yourself free to believe that Hagee’s religious beliefs are wrong, then you shouldn’t think it Hagee bigoted for thinking that your religious beliefs are wrong.
The issue is whether McCain is willing to be associated with someone who, in the eyes of Catholics, slanders the Catholic Church.
I hope that Catholics are smart enough to realize that just as they cannot (by logical necessity) believe that every other religion (or form thereof) is as true as the Catholic Church, neither can non-Catholics (by logical necessity) believe that the Catholic Church is anything but a ridiculous and perverse invention.