Normally, America's religious conservatives and evangelicals are most pleased when their gatherings attract media attention. But this time it was all different for one group. The US election campaign is to blame. Here now looms the search for 'craziest pastor'."
The annual congress of a church group that is usually good for headlines, this time went quite differently. Now, when the leadership and numerous supporters of the group Christians United for Israel met in Washington, reporters were excluded. A spokeswoman for the organization said there were no interviews, no permission to film – "nothing". The reason for the sudden shying away from the light of publicity is certainly not so much due to the agenda of this grouping of conservative Christians. Support for Israel – surely the majority of American Christians would agree with that. Rather, they and their chairman, Reverend John Hagee, seem to be striving for – temporary – invisibility so as not to harm a good friend: Republican presidential candidate John McCain. With him, Hagee was – and perhaps still is – closely associated, which admittedly is not likely to win the senator any sympathy points with moderate voters. Hagee has repeatedly caused a stir in the past with his views expressed in books, sermons and on TV stations such as The Inspiration Network and Trinity Broadcasting Network. His remark that the Holocaust was God's will, so that the Jews would return to Israel, caused outrage. He called the Catholic Church a "great whore," a statement that Hagee later described as misunderstood or misinterpreted – like many of his other theses.
"I'm very proud to have Pastor Hagee's support." In his book "Jerusalem Countdown," Hagee interpreted the Bible to mean that Russia and the Islamic states would attack Israel and be destroyed by God for doing so. The destruction of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina was, in his estimation, punishment for homosexuality in the city. Global warming does not exist for the Reverend and his followers; he sees the Kyoto Protocol to limit greenhouse gas emissions as a conspiracy against the U.S. McCain was forced to put distance between himself and the reverend, after saying early in the campaign, "I'm very proud to have Pastor Hagee's endorsement."Following the outrage over the latter's thinking, which gradually gained national attention as well, McCain later hastened to point out that he was not a member of the Texas pastor's church, and that he found his remarks inexcusable.
Who gets a better handle on his pastor? Hagee himself apologized to Catholic League President William Donohue in early May, saying that faithful Catholics could have found his remarks "painful". US media like the "Washington Post" were already mocking that the upcoming election campaign would probably boil down to which of the two candidates would get a better grip on his "crazy pastors": McCain the Reverend Hagee or Obama his Reverend Jeremiah Wright, who is prone to hate preaching. McCain's new fear of being associated with Hagee is apparently not shared by one of his closest political confidants: independent Sen. Joe Lieberman, a failed 2000 vice presidential candidate alongside Al Gore, recently announced plans to address Hagee's congregation.