In a letter to the Catholic League's Bill Donohue -- hardly a paragon of tolerance himself -- John Hagee apologized that his statements that the "apostate church" was the "great whore" of the Book of Revelation were perceived as anti-Catholic, and for suggesting that the Spanish Inquisition and Adolf Hitler's Catholic upbringing defined the Catholic Church. He came under fire for suggesting that the Catholic Church was to blame for the Holocaust, for which he apologized. But in the same book in which he made those arguments Jerusalem Countdown, he also suggested that the Jews were to blame for the Holocaust. That, he explained last year, came straight out of the Book of Deuteronomy -- remember all that stuff about blessings and curses? God punishes people for their "disobedience."
As I've said before, I've heard Hagee preach many, many times, and this anti-Catholicism is not a prevailing theme. Screeds against LGBTQ people, feminists, women, people on welfare, Muslims, secularists, the ACLU, and even environmentalists are his primary and persistent targets as instruments of Satan. And, although he touts his supposed "love" for the Jews, he perpetuates anti-Semitic myths and, like he did with Catholicism, uses the Bible to interpret world events through the lens of God's blessings or curses, and godly forces locked in spiritual warfare with Satan.
None of this stopped George W. Bush from accepting Hagee's endorsement in 2000 -- although much, much more quietly than McCain did this year. Bush was prodded by his evangelical liaison Doug Wead -- today the staunchest defender of Hagee's friend Kenneth Copeland's defiance of a Senate investigation into his possible abuse of his tax-exempt status. For years Hagee had been spewing his diatribes, yet the "compassionate conservative" got all the benefits of a Hagee endorsement without the downsides from a public embrace.
Bush knew full well that Hagee's (and Copeland's, who also lent his support) point of view on everything, from abortion to feminism to government entitlements to Middle East Policy, was informed by his fixation on the end of days scenario he believes is foretold in the bible. (Wead actually ghost-wrote Hagee's 1997 book, Day of Deception.) McCain is no doubt familiar with Hagee's eschatology as well. And as much as Hagee can apologize to Bill Donohue for denigrating the Catholic Church, he will never back away from his fundamental belief that our foreign policy should be dictated by biblical prophecy, because acting against God's word will only bring God's wrath. Ironically, "God damn America" is truly the defining principle of Hagee's worldview, not Jeremiah Wright's, but somehow the soundbites -- Wright's "God damn America" and Hagee's "great whore" -- are what make news.
--Sarah Posner
