From Frank Rich in Sunday's New York Times:
Bored by those endless replays of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright? If so, go directly to YouTube, search for “John Hagee Roman Church Hitler,” and be recharged by a fresh jolt of clerical jive.
What you’ll find is a white televangelist, the Rev. John Hagee, lecturing in front of an enormous diorama. Wielding a pointer, he pokes at the image of a woman with Pamela Anderson-sized breasts, her hand raising a golden chalice.
The woman is “the Great Whore,” Mr. Hagee explains, and she is drinking “the blood of the Jewish people.” That’s because the Great Whore represents “the Roman Church,” which, in his view, has thirsted for Jewish blood throughout history, from the Crusades to the Holocaust.
Mr. Hagee is not a fringe kook but the pastor of a Texas megachurch. On Feb. 27, he stood with John McCain and endorsed him over the religious conservatives’ favorite, Mike Huckabee, who was then still in the race.
Are we really to believe that neither Mr. McCain nor his camp knew anything then about Mr. Hagee’s views? This particular YouTube video — far from the only one — was posted on Jan. 1, nearly two months before the Hagee-McCain press conference. Mr. Hagee appears on multiple religious networks, including twice daily on the largest, Trinity Broadcasting, which reaches 75 million homes. Any 12-year-old with a laptop could have vetted this preacher in 30 seconds, tops.
Since then, Mr. McCain has been shocked to learn that his clerical ally has made many other outrageous statements. Mr. Hagee, it’s true, did not blame the American government for concocting AIDS. But he did say that God created Hurricane Katrina to punish New Orleans for its sins, particularly a scheduled “homosexual parade there on the Monday that Katrina came.”
Mr. Hagee didn’t make that claim in obscure circumstances, either. He broadcast it on one of America’s most widely heard radio programs, “Fresh Air” on NPR, back in September 2006. He reaffirmed it in a radio interview less than two weeks ago. Only after a reporter asked Mr. McCain about this Katrina homily on April 24 did the candidate brand it as “nonsense” and the preacher retract it.
(The entire column is here):
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/04/opinion/04rich.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&ref=opinion&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin
Damn! Those TV preachers!
When is this country going to finally embrace the constitutional promise of the wall between church and state?
O.K.; dumb question.
Still...
Many of us reject the notion of a "god" entirely, though that is assuredly a minority viewpoint. But that separation is (was?) a solemn pact.
I am not a believer; I've also never claimed to be right. But I know that the believers are no more right than me. Nobody knows and nobody has ever known.
But I do know we've had the Moral Majority and the Christian Coalition--ostensibly TV preachers--pulling the Republican Party by the nose for a generation, much like drunken priests have been pulling small boys by their vestments since there were priests or vestments.
A politician's personal (and private) connection with his or her preacher, priest, or rabbi is understandable; I am not a radical atheist. But when those relationships cross over into their governing roles---whether via their own use and abuse of those bonds or the media's manipulation of them---a too-blurry line is crossed.
I'm howling at the wind here, I know. There is as much of a chance of a politics devoid of religion as one devoid of dollars.
They're much the same now, anyway.
But, again, I ask: whatever happened to the wall between church and state?
(That wasn't the one they tore down, was it?)
I'm just asking.
Hell, go ahead; judge this aimless treatise on my never-ending quest for a life lived in pursuit of (secular) blind faith.
In secularism.
So please; leave the preachers in their churches, with their parishners, exactly where they belong.
And give politics back to the dirty, godless, bourbon-besotted heathens in smoke-filled rooms, and pray that they can finally get it right.
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