John McCain Cuts Pastors Loose

Photo from source, Huffington Post

Presidential primary politics is particularly peculiar. Sorry, I was overcome with alliteration. What's strange is this apology/renouncement parade. Barack Obama was besieged by endless talk (started by Sean Hannity it would seem) about his pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and his association with some dude who was some sort of terrorist 40 years ago. On and on, endless chatter--and Hannity is still at it, even though Obama repudiated the actions and words of both guys.

Now, John McCain has finally had to do the same thing with two pastors he actively courted for endorsements, Rod Parsley and John Hagee. Both of these guys had reputations that were very well known. They're crazy mega-church fire and brimstoners. What did he expect? And what took him so long? When it was Catholics and gays that Hagee was bashing, McCain didn't budge. It took a Nazi reference to get McCain to flip-flop.

[Excerpt]

McCain Rejects Endorsements From Hagee, Parsley

In the face of mounting controversy over headline-grabbing statements from Pastor John Hagee, CNN has learned presumptive Republican nominee John McCain has decided to reject his endorsement.

The Huffington Post had published a recording of Hagee saying that Adolf Hitler had been fulfilling God's will by hastening the desire of Jews to return to Israel in accordance with biblical prophecy. . .

Read more at: Huffington Post

John McCain's Pastor Problem (Redux)

Fortunately--for now at least--the really, really tedious Rev. Jeremiah Wright story is off the front burner. I haven't checked in on bullyboy Sean Hannity lately, but he's probably still flogging the story. And it is still cropping up here and there. But the story about John McCain's dual pastor problem has gotten only a fraction of the attention.

So why not shine just a little more light on John McCain's two favorite pastors, Rod Parsley and John Hagee? Let's do.

Pastor Rod Parsley Endorses John McCain

John McCain had a problem after getting the nomination. He doubtless knows that all of the in-fighting in the primaries tends to go by the wayside once the general election begins (so buck up, Democrats!). But he still faced the problem of his image amongst conservatives. Mike Huckabee had the fundies in his corner. Mitt Romney won (by process of elimination) the allegiance of conservatives. And prominent far-righties were disavowing John McCain, even threatening to vote for Hillary Clinton!

So what's Grampa to do? Shore up his image, of course! He got the (sort of) endorsement of "dancin' fool" George W. Bush, with the White House as a backdrop. He got an uber-conservative talk show host to introduce him (that kinda backfired). And now, he's lining up the endorsements of super-preachy, religion-and-politics types. First, it was John Hagee, who is anti-Catholic and anti-gay--probably anti-lots of things. Now, he's got Rod Parsley of Columbus, Ohio--my hometown.

I am distrustful of religion in general, evangelists in particular, and "mega-churches" especially. If Jesus existed, and was all they say he was, he never expected this sort of thing. Anyway, Parsley gives me a wiggins, and reminds me of LeRoy Jenkins (a 70s evangelical from Columbus), and especially, Ted Haggard. In this video, Parsley rails against "the gay," with such passion--and loss for words--I can only think he's imagining it in vivid clarity.



The problem is not that John McCain has been endorsed by these people. The problem is that he has enusiastically embraced these endorsements. Hopefully, that will be enough to scare any right-leaning Democrats from voting for him.