[progchat_action] Is Media Giving John McCain a free pass on John Hagee?
 
Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2008 09:55:46 -0500 (CDT)


(This is a lengthy report, with some real eye openers.  Note the section on
John Hagee. Go to the source for similar matter for Rod Parsley. SR)

Media continue to ignore McCain endorsers' controversial comments

Media Matters
 March 25, 2008

On the March 18 edition of MSNBC's Race for the White House, Air America
host Rachel Maddow commented on the disparity in media attention to the
controversial comments made by supporters of Sen. Barack Obama and those
made by supporters of Sen. John McCain, and asserted: "That double standard
can't be sustained." According to Maddow:

MADDOW: [T]here is a double standard here in terms of the Republican Party's
full-on embrace of the religious right in this country and all of the
controversial things that come with it. We've almost accepted that as the
politics as usual. Therefore, when we start seeing religious controversy,
religious-oriented controversy in the Democratic side, it's a huge story.

But immediately we're confronted with these bad parallels. It can't be that
Jeremiah Wright is a huge controversy, a potential career-ending stumble for
the Obama campaign, where Rod Parsley, who says that, you know, that the
purpose of the United States of America's existence is to destroy the faith
of Islam, and John McCain describes him as a spiritual guide, that can go
with just a peep in the liberal media and it never even makes it on to
television. That double standard can't be sustained.

As Media Matters for America has documented, the media have devoted
extensive coverage to Obama's supporters, but have failed to report the
controversial comments of supporters of McCain. While there have been media
reports on controversial televangelist John Hagee's endorsement of McCain
and McCain's repudiation of Hagee's anti-Catholic comments, many media
outlets have ignored altogether remarks Hagee has made about Hurricane
Katrina, Islam, women, and homosexuality. Further, most of those same
publications have yet to report on the comments of another McCain supporter,
 World Harvest Church senior pastor Rod Parsley, who has written of Islam:
"The fact is that America was founded, in part, with the intention of seeing
this false religion destroyed."

According to a March 25 search* of the Nexis database, while they have
included references to Hagee's anti-Catholic comments, the Los Angeles
Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, NBC, and ABC have not reported on
Hagee's comments about Hurricane Katrina, Islam, women, and homosexuality
since Hagee endorsed McCain on February 27. According to Factiva, The Wall
Street Journal also has only mentioned Hagee's "anti-Catholic remarks" and
"divisive statements."

Additionally, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Washington
Post, NBC, ABC,** and The Wall Street Journal have not reported on
Parsley*** or noted his comments in the context of McCain's campaign. A
March 17 USA Today article reported only that Parsley was "accused of urging
war on Muslims."

John Hagee

After Hagee, founder of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, endorsed McCain
for president on February 27, McCain said, "All I can tell you is I'm very
proud to have pastor Hagee's support." McCain asserted just days later that
his acceptance of Hagee's endorsement did not signal that he "agree[s] with
all of Pastor Hagee's views" and stated on March 7, "I repudiate any
comments that are made, including Pastor Hagee's, if they are anti-Catholic
or offensive to Catholics." McCain further stated on March 11, "I repudiate
any, any comments that are anti-Semitic, anti-Catholic, racist, any other.
And I condemn them and I condemn those words that Pastor Hagee apparently
.. that Pastor Hagee wrote."

Below is a sampling of the controversial statements Hagee has made about
Hurricane Katrina, Islam, women, and homosexuality.

As Media Matters has noted, on the September 18, 2006, edition of National
Public Radio's Fresh Air, host Terry Gross said to Hagee, "You said after
Hurricane Katrina that it was an act of God, and you said 'when you violate
God's will long enough, the judgment of God comes to you. Katrina is an act
of God for a society that is becoming Sodom and Gomorrah reborn.' " She then
asked, "Do you still think that Katrina is punishment from God for a society
that's becoming like Sodom and Gomorrah?" Hagee responded:

HAGEE: All hurricanes are acts of God, because God controls the heavens. I
believe that New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God, and
they are -- were recipients of the judgment of God for that. The newspaper
carried the story in our local area that was not carried nationally that
there was to be a homosexual parade there on the Monday that the Katrina
came. And the promise of that parade was that it was going to reach a level
of sexuality never demonstrated before in any of the other Gay Pride
parades. So I believe that the judgment of God is a very real thing. I know
that there are people who demur from that, but I believe that the Bible
teaches that when you violate the law of God, that God brings punishment
sometimes before the day of judgment. And I believe that the Hurricane
Katrina was, in fact, the judgment of God against the city of New Orleans.

Earlier in the program, Gross had asked Hagee if he believed that "all
Muslims have a mandate to kill Christians and Jews." Hagee replied: "Well,
the Quran teaches that. Yes, it teaches that very clearly."

A March 7, 1996, article (accessed via the Nexis database) in the San
Antonio Express-News reported that Hagee was going to "meet with black
religious leaders privately at an unspecified future date to discuss
comments he made in his newsletter about a 'slave sale,' an East Side
minister said Wednesday." The Express-News further reported: Hagee, pastor
of the 16,000-member Cornerstone Church, last week had announced a "slave
sale" to raise funds for high school seniors in his church bulletin, "The
Cluster."

The item was introduced with the sentence "Slavery in America is returning
to Cornerstone" and ended with "Make plans to come and go home with a slave.
"

The Wall Street Journal also noted the "slave sale" incident in a July 27,
2006, article: To help students seeking odd jobs, his church newsletter, The
Cluster, advertised a "slave" sale. "Slavery in America is returning to
Cornerstone," it said. "Make plans to come and go home with a slave." Mr.
Hagee apologized but, in a radio interview, protested about pressure to be
"politically correct" and joked that perhaps his pet dog should be called a
"canine American."

Journalist Sarah Posner noted in God's Profits: Faith, Fraud and the
Republican Crusade for Values Voters (PoliPointPress, January 2008) that in
his book, What Every Man Wants in a Woman (Charisma House, 2005), Hagee
wrote, "Do you know the difference between a woman with PMS and a snarling
Doberman pinscher? The answer is lipstick. Do you know the difference
between a terrorist and a woman with PMS? You can negotiate with a
terrorist" (Page 14).

Posner also noted that, in another Hagee text, "Bible Positions on Political
Issues" (John Hagee Ministries, 1992), he wrote, "[T]he feminist movement
today is throwing off authority in rebellion against God's pattern for the
family."

Posner further reported that Hagee "complains that the military is
downsized -- not that it matters since he predicts there will be a nuclear
war to bring about Armageddon -- and blames it on Bill Clinton for making
'the military the habitat of homosexuals by executive order. ... The
military will have difficultly recruiting healthy and strong heterosexuals
for combat purposes. Why? Fighting in combat with a man in your fox hole
that has AIDS or is HIV positive is double jeopardy' " (Page 83).

In What Every Man Wants in a Woman, Hagee wrote: "As I write this book, the
issue of same-sex marriage rages on the front pages of America's newspapers
and is seen on national telecasts each evening," and noted that
"Massachusetts has just agreed to recognize same-sex marriages." Hagee
added: "For a fact, Sodom and Gomorrah are being reborn in America." Several
paragraphs later, he asserted that if the United States Congress failed to
pass an amendment "recognizing only the marriage between a man and a woman,"
then "the gates of hell will be opened." He continued: "It will open the
door to incest, to polygamy, and every conceivable marriage arrangement
demented minds can possibly conceive. If God does not then punish America,
He will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah." He also wrote: "It is
impossible to call yourself a Christian and defend homosexuality. There is
no justification or acceptance of homosexuality," and "Homosexuality means
the death of society because homosexuals can recruit, but they cannot
reproduce" (Pages 68-69).

Full at  http://mediamatters.org/items/200803250012?f=h_latest

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