Sen. McCain’s Agents of Intolerance
The New York TimesMr. McCain had it right in his unsuccessful primary campaign eight years ago when he denounced the Christian right’s Pat Robertson and the Rev. Jerry Falwell as “agents of intolerance” who exercised an “evil influence” over the Republican Party. It was particularly disturbing to see him cynically pander this year for the support of that same Christian right.
His belated decision to distance himself from two of the most extreme ministers was long overdue — and we suspect driven more by political ambition than by the principles he espoused in the past.
Mr. McCain had sought the endorsement of the Rev. John Hagee, a televangelist, for more than a year and finally won it in February, only to have the Catholic League denounce Mr. Hagee for waging “an unrelenting war against the Catholic Church.” Mr. Hagee called it “the Great Whore,” an “apostate church,” and a “false cult system.” The pastor apologized and said his remarks had been misconstrued, a truce was declared and Mr. McCain still welcomed the endorsement.
Then a recorded sermon emerged in which Mr. Hagee suggested that Hitler and the Holocaust had been part of God’s plan to drive the Jews from Europe into Palestine — a final straw that led Mr. McCain to reject the Hagee endorsement. He also rejected the backing of the Rev. Rod Parsley whose anti-Muslim sermons have argued that America was founded, in part, to see “this false religion destroyed.”
Mr. McCain has tried to argue that his recent embrace of these two extremists was different from Barack Obama’s 20-year pastoral relationship with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. The Rev. Wright’s bigoted and paranoid rants are appalling, but that does not lessen the hatefulness of the views espoused by the Rev. Hagee or the Rev. Parsley, nor does political expediency excuse Mr. McCain’s willingness to overlook those views until they became a political liability.
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If the US media has not blown this issue out of proportion by now - just as they did with the Rev. Wright issue, then there is something SERIOUSLY wrong.
Senator McCain's now former allegiances demonstrate without a doubt the degree to which politics supersede his policy. But wait a minute. Isn't that what the press and the tunnel visioned conservatives of this nation continually manhandle Senator Clinton for?
This race will be interesting in that a careful analysis will reveal the whether Americans truly believe that race,creed and color have no influence on how a human being should be viewed or treated.
