AmericanPapist Comments
Considering the following from the Politico, it would seem a bad strategy for McCain to do anything that might turn Catholics away:
"Barack Obama’s 11 straight Democratic primary and caucus victories have been marked by continued and impressive gains among women, lower-income workers, Hispanics and virtually every other demographic group. Yet one potentially critical set of voters remains stubbornly resistant to his appeal—Catholics."
I seem to recall reading that the Catholic vote has been the deciding factor in the last few presidential elections.
As I state on my blog (the Black Biretta), Sen. John McCain MUST disavow BOTH Pastor Hagee's remarks AND the man himself since he refuses to recant, retract or revise his anti-Catholic statements. Had a racist or anti-Semitic pastor endorsed McCain and made prejudiced remarks about African-Americans or Jewish Americans, McCain would have repudiated both the remarks AND the bigot who made them. Ironically, anti-Catholic sentiments do not disqualify someone from being thanked, praised and respected for other ideas they have.
If I were advising McCain, I would have told him to accept the endorsement without hesitation. There's no guarantee that evangelical voters will get off the couch and vote in November, and so you do what you can to secure them and then take your chances that the Catholic vote will not only turn out in large numbers as it's their obligation, but also to vote based on the fact that he's the best pro-life option in this election. Makes plenty of sense politically.
Hagee strikes me as a cross between People's Court's Wapner and a bad used-car salesman. Maybe the Catholic Church has made its mistakes, but this kind of thing by us Protestants more than compensates for them.
Viva il Papa!
Endorsements are over-rated. Outside of very small religous cults, what's left of medium sized unions and the teamsters, they bring with them few votes. There are just too many "endorsements" out there for candidates to feel they need to evaluate each one of them. I don't feel strongly on this one, but I think a candidate can pretty much ignore them. I mean, really now, if a line of crackpots came out and said "I really like Fr. Trigilio's writing on this or that," would Fr. T feel the need to rush out and tell everybody "I disavow his support"? Busy men have better things to do than have their public remarks react to weirdos. imho.
Come now - the only difference between Hagee and every other Protestant in history is that Hagee is a little more blunt and honest in his opinion of the Catholic Church. As far as I know, McCain is a Protestant, and if he cares about Christianity at all, he probably thinks the same way Hagee does about Catholicism. The difference is that Hagee is paid to teach what he believes, and McCain is paid to be a fork-tongued vote-monging politician.
The difference between Hagee and Farrakhan is that Hagee is a Protestant who holds typical Protestant beliefs and Protestantism is the majority religion of your country.
You may think that such views of Rome are not required by all Protestants, but I do not believe this is true. John Henry Newman wrote in several places that such a view of Rome is required as the intellectual foundation of the Protestant religion. If some Protestants hold milder and less fanciful views of Rome, it is likely due to politeness or intellectual dishonesty.
I'm with Ed on this. I see little to be gained by playing pin-the-tail on the Protestant ulterior motives. There is a far more substantial question on McCain's ESCR policy. The endorsement thing is barely a blip on the well-the-pope's-not-running radar.
I look at it this way: I would rather have McCain as president than Obama. I'll take my chances. McCain, I belive is now a Baptist and a former Episcopalian. Not unusual.
There has always been Anti-Catholicism in our country and there always will be. The election of JFK 50 years ago didn't change anything.
The problem with this is that McCain went out of his way to condemn a guy who used Barack Obama's middle name, and here he kinda shrugs and states "I don't agree with everything he says." His moral outrage seems to wax and wane when it is convenient.
yes paul, i see the point. that's why it's better to say nothing, than something, in re endorsements. else, it turns into a never ending game of whatever
Paster John Hagee is fascism wrapped up in the cross.
I get it. We all bash pro-life McCain over this endorsement, and end up with
pro-abortion Hillary or Obama as president. Makes sense to me! What a masterstroke.Tom
Tom:
I fully intend to vote for John McCain in November, and agree that an Obama or Clinton presidency would be a disaster on many fronts, particularly abortion. But we shouldn't cease critically evaluating McCain nor blind ourselves to his faults.
TJM,
If I fail to stand for my beliefs, then they will not even need to be taken from me: I will forfeit them.
Re-Read Paul Zummo's post: it shows how John McCain failed miserably here.
As a former anti-Catholic myself, all I can say is that most Catholics' failure to live out and know there own faith and their refusal to talk about it with anyone is the reason John Hagee and Huckabee and McCain are anti-Catholic. There are degrees of it. John Hagee is just more extreme. McCain is a Mason. Huckabee a Baptist. If orthodox Catholics would befriend or would have befriended them, they would not be anti-Catholic to such an extreme. Look, my own parents are anti-Catholic to an extent. They are still very good and Christian people. But you have to realize, it is almost unconscious. They are not aware of it. As an anti-Catholic, I had little or no contact with Catholics. I lived in a Protestant world and culture. How could I believe differently about Catholics?
I wouldn't worry about it, but instead pray that Hagee will come in contact with true Catholics. It is the anti-Catholics like Hillary who worry me!
"I wouldn't worry about it, but instead pray that Hagee will come in contact with true Catholics."
Agreed, but considering Hagee claims to have had siginficant contact with Catholics (such as his wife and her family), and the fact that he is "in the religion business for a living", I'm not sure how much more could have been done for him personally.
Generally speaking, of course, I do agree with you.
Paul is absolutely right. What does it tell us about a guy who would seek after, embrace and accept the endorsement of a guy as distasteful as Pastor Hagee. It seems McCain will do, say anything or stand with anyone (including a clear bigot) go get votes. It's times for Catholics to put the hard questions to McCain if he still wants out votes. It's not too late to influence his positions on matters.
I'll agree that politicians have better things to do than to accept or decline endorsements, but McCain did take the trouble to respond to Catholics' objections. He bothered to respond, but didn't bother to reject the endorsement altogether.
Yes, most Protestants (particularly Evangelicals) feel the way Hagee does,and yes it's offensive, and yes it wouldn't be tolerated regarding any other religious group.
That said, we need to ask ourselves what this kind of anti-Catholicism means in practical (rather than theological) terms. Are we going to see Evangelicals lynching Catholics? Are we going to have our churches shut down by zealous government enforcers? Or are they just preaching what they believe without any intention of harming any of us in any material way?
Even if McCain does share Hagee's views, he may still be the best candidate. We don't have to like a candidate personally or even agree with his beliefs to recognize that his platform is the best available at this point.
Sleeping Beastly, I don't know if we'll see lynchings by Evangelicals in the future. The best thing to do is pray for them. The AntiChrist will be followed no doubt by conservative Jews and misguided Evangelical Christians. Now I'm not suggesting anything. But when a candidate endorses the views an anti-Catholic preacher who blames the Catholic Church for the holocaust I'm usually very cautious. Great care we must take.
John McCain didn't endose Hagee. Hagee endorsed McCain, though McCain should not have accepted Hagee's support.
He should've said something like: "While I welcome the support of my fellow Americans, I neither accept Mr. Hagee's support, nor do I believe his views are to be welcomed by rational, free people.
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