Gaining Fundie cred through *this* guy?

To gain Fundie cred, John McCain (who called Falwell and Robertson "agents of intolerance") has latched on to pastor John Hagee. The Washington Spectator (alas, you must be a subscriber to see the online version) reports he is a lot more scary than anything Jeremiah Wright ever subjected Barack Obama to. Some things Hagee has preached or written about:

Hagee preaches a Prosperity Gospel: the more you give to the church (meaning Hagee) the more God will make you prosper. This is a perversion of the love of God, which is not conditional. That many of Hagee's church members are not prospering doesn't get talked about. Lenny Bruce says it well "Show me a preacher who has two suits where there is another man who has none, and I'll show you a fraud." Hagee's compensation package in 2003 (last time it was publicly available) was $1.25 million.

Hagee wrote about Armageddon. It is all in his book Jerusalem Countdown; A Prelude to War (several Hagee books are listed on Amazon). The ideas are based on Dispensationalism, a sect less than 200 years old. This is a twist on the prophecies of the book of Revelations, which talks about how Christ will defeat the Anti-Christ and usher in a new era of peace. Jesus clearly says no one knows when this will happen. But in the Hagee version it will come after certain events happen: Israel takes over all of it Biblical territory, all Jews gather there, and the Temple of Jerusalem is rebuilt (a mosque has been on that site for centuries). Whether the Bible actually says this is open to debate. But Hagee takes it a step further -- by forcing these events to happen he will speed up the time when the battle between Christ and Anti-Christ will happen. That bit is not in the Bible and goes against a great deal of other Biblical teachings.

To carry out his plans for Israel, Hagee has formed Christians United for Israel (CUFI) to advocate foreign policy. The particular foreign policies being advocated is to thwart the creation of a Palestinian state, push Palestinians out of the West Bank and Gaza, and to push for a joint Israel-American pre-emptive military strike on Iran. He hopes that strike will happen under Bush in case Clinton or Obama win the White House.

This is who McCain is cozying up to. Lots of other Republicans are lining up to do the same. Is this who we want with a hotline to the presidency? Is Hagee someone we want badgering the president when he is ignored?

McCain, Clinton, and Obama may woo independents with words about security and the economy and not say much about their associations. Voters may not worry about those associations. But they can severely impact life here in America (the Supremes) and around the world (the influence of Hagee).