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McCain, Hagee and Armageddon as Foreign Policy

February 28, 2008

Few developments provide greater schadenfreude for liberals than division and conflict among the ranks of the American Taliban. So watching the Catholic League's Bill Donahue burst a blood vessel over John McCain's embrace of the endorsement of Pastor John Hagee is must-see entertainment for Democrats. But as I first wrote almost two years ago, when it comes to his End Times vision of conflict with Iran, John Hagee is no laughing matter.
In San Antonio on Wednesday, the Texas pastor and head of Christians United for Israel (CUFI) threw his support behind McCain:

"John McCain has publicly stated his support of the state of Israel, pledging that his administration will not permit Iran to have nuclear weapons to fulfill the evil dreams of President Ahmadinejad to wipe Israel off the map."

For his part, Senator McCain was only too happy to have Hagee's blessing. "All I can tell you," he said, "is that I am very proud to have Pastor John Hagee's support."
Donahue, who has raised frothing at the mouth to an art form, demanded that McCain reject what he deemed Hagee's anti-Catholicism. "If someone said to me: who is the biggest anti-Catholic bigot in the evangelical community," Donahue fumed, "I would say: hands down, John Hagee."
Be that as it may, Americans of all faiths should be frightened indeed by Hagee and his view of Armageddon as foreign policy. If Hagee has his way, the biblical battle against the Anti-Christ will be fought by the United States - against Iran.
As I wrote back in May 2006 ("Bush, Iran and the Second Coming"), key figures in the radical religious right see Israel and end-of-times conflict with Iran as the fulfillment of biblical prophesy contained in the Book of Revelation.
But it is Hagee who is at the bleeding edge of a Christian Zionist movement seeking to accelerate the Second Coming of Christ and the final battle in Israel. Since the 1990's, Hagee and his group CUFI (Christians United for Israel) has tried without success to breed the "red heifer," the perfect calf that will signal the Second Coming." As Sarah Posner wrote in the American Prospect, "for Hagee's new project - agitating for war with Iran - his influence over Washington is less important than his influence over his audience." His book Jerusalem Countdown sold over 500,000 copies. And as Posner reported, Hagee is not alone:

Hagee calls pastors "the spiritual generals of America" an appropriate phrase given his reliance on them to rally their troops behind his message. The CUFI board of directors includes the Reverend Jerry Falwell, former Republican presidential candidate and religious right activist Gary Bauer, and George Morrison, pastor to the 8,000-member Faith Bible Chapel in Arvada, Colorado, and chairman of the board of Promise Keepers. Rod Parsley, the Ohio televangelist who is rapidly becoming a major political figure in the Christian right, signed on as a regional director.

Just how much influence the likes of Hagee have over President Bush and his foreign policy team is open to debate. But as Max Blumenthal and Bill Moyers each reported last year, Pastor Hagee counts Washington's hardest of hard liners among his friends and CUFI allies. In October, Moyers described CUFI's annual summit in DC featuring Hagee's friends in high places:

At the recent annual CUFI summit in Washington, D.C., prominent politicians were present to pledge support for this growing movement, including Senators John McCain, Joseph Lieberman, House Minority Whip Roy Blunt, as well as former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. Lieberman particularly sang Hagee's praise:
"He is a Ish Elokim, a man of God and those words really fit him...like Moses he's become a leader of a mighty multitude, even greater than the multitude that Moses led from Egypt to the promised land."
CUFI considers its defining issue to be the growing challenge of radical Islam, particularly as relates to the security of Israel and the United States. CUFI is incresingly concerned by Iran and its potential nuclear threats. Hagee often alludes to Nazi Germany in order to underline what he believes to be the gravity of the situation:
"Ladies and gentlemen, we are reliving history. It is 1938 all over again," Hagee explains in a 2007 speech. "Iran is Germany. Ahmadinejad is Hitler. And Ahmadinejad, just like Hitler, is talking about killing the Jews."

During the 2006 CUFI conference, Hagee made perhaps his clearest statement of Armageddon as American foreign policy:

"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 Second Coming of Christ."

Meanwhile, back in what John McCain himself once called "crazy base world," William Donahue is outraged by the anti-Catholic bigotry of John Hagee. As for the rest of the American people, it's Hagee's rapture-ready foreign policy that should cause trembling. As for John McCain, he's "very honored" to have Hagee's support in November - and at the End of Times.
UPDATE: As Glenn Greenwald notes, the pushback against McCain for embracing is Hagee is starting to gather steam. In response, McCain issued a feeble statement restating his acceptance of Hagee's backing while noting, "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."

68 comments on “McCain, Hagee and Armageddon as Foreign Policy”

  2. According to the number code sequence as laid out in his Prophecy Code Book, it seems that the rapture if you want to call it that (I prefer the word resurrection), can't happen for at least another 27 years. May I suggest you check out the website http://www.prophecycodebook.com which shows the Menorah's pictogram. In his book Prophecy Code, Jeff Manty decodes the rapture using the number (2520) from the prophecy of the seventy 'sevens.'
    He says the secret to understanding the return of Christ is to know that this number 2520 is a number of years as well as days. As proof he connects this number to the years of Israel's reestablishment or the years 1897, 1948, and 1967 to the years 587, 536, and 517.
    Manty uses the prophecy's commencement as the key to unlocking the rapture. May I suggest you get a copy of his book you'll love it...

  3. What bothers me about these religious leaders is that they will "apologize" for the remarks they have made, in deference to politcal leaders. It really tells you in no uncertain terms that their real goal is power and they submit to the authority of other men instead of sticking to their messages which they have been spouting for decades.

  4. If it is God's will that Israel must perish, His prophets will tell the world. What is so amazing is that some people do not believe in Pastor Hagee's prophecies but how can one be sure that it is not from God? He uses quotations from the Bible to back all his arguments and christians and non-christians must not doubt it. Again, terrorist groups have never made the world a happy place so why should christians by sympathetic towards Palestinians? Hamas believes Israel does deserve to exist and Iran has also told the world who the nuclear bombs will be targetting. These are frightening times and we must all support Israel against these people.

  6. i believe that we are the generation ,that willnot die that will see jesus. i also believe that all sisgns are in place,ialso believe that the rapture is any moment.

  7. hi good thank you Again, terrorist groups have never made the world a happy place so why should christians by sympathetic towards Palestinians? Hamas believes Israel does deserve to exist and Iran has also told the world who the nuclear bombs will be targetting. These are frightening times and we must all support Israel against these people.

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Jon Perr
Jon Perr is a technology marketing consultant and product strategist who writes about American politics and public policy.

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