Max Blumenthal had a much-discussed report yesterday in which he noted that Joe Lieberman “is scheduled to headline Pastor John Hagee’s 2008 Christians United For Israel Washington-Israel Summit this July 22. In accepting Hagee’s invitation, Lieberman became the most senior elected representative confirmed to appear at the annual gala.”
I was actually curious to see how Lieberman would respond to this. After all, Lieberman probably accepted Hagee’s invitation to headline the event before the political controversy over Hagee’s radical worldview, and before John McCain decided Hagee is a little too nutty to be associated with.
With McCain backing away, Lieberman had an easy to excuse to get out of his speaking engagement. Would he, for a change, do the right thing? Apparently not.
Sen. Joe Lieberman says he’ll speak at a July conference hosted by Rev. John Hagee, whose endorsement was recently rejected by Republican John McCain because of Hagee’s controversial remarks about religion.
Lieberman, one of presumed GOP presidential nominee McCain’s strongest supporters, said Wednesday while Hagee’s comments were unacceptable and hurtful, he will judge him on his life work fighting anti-Semitism and building bridges between Christians and Jews.
Lieberman, I-Conn., will speak at Hagee’s “Christians United for Israel” summit in Washington.
McCain last week repudiated the months-old endorsement by the preacher after an audio recording surfaced in which Hagee said God sent Adolf Hitler to help Jews reach the promised land.
Yep, the radical right-wing evangelical preacher is a little too hot to handle for the Republican presidential nominee, but for Joe Lieberman, he’s just fine.
I argued yesterday that Lieberman either a) has no idea what Hagee believes, but stands by him anyway; or b) knows what Hagee believes, but doesn’t care. Given the response today, it’s the latter.
Keep in mind, Lieberman thinks liberal bloggers are foul-mouthed, and political leaders shouldn’t be associated with groups like MoveOn.org, but John Hagee is respectable because of his life work fighting anti-Semitism and building bridges between Christians and Jews.
I see. So, Lieberman is fine with the fact that Hagee’s support for Israel is “rooted in the belief that the Jewish state will — soon — be the site of Armageddon,” and his “brand of Christian Zionism closely links support for Israel to the end of the world and the conversion of the Jews to Christianity.”
Hagee’s predictions are very clear. Armageddon, the final battle, could begin, he wrote in his 2007 book “Jerusalem Countdown,” “before this book gets published.”
The Antichrist “will be the head of the European Union,” he writes.
Using geographical calculations based on the Book of Revelation, he writes that Israel will be covered in “a sea of human blood” in the final battle.
The Jews, however, will survive the battle, Hagee says, long enough to have “the opportunity to receive Messiah, who is a rabbi known to the world as Jesus of Nazareth.”
And Lieberman is fine with the fact that Hagee believes Jews have been persecuted over the centuries, but it’s their own fault.
“It was the disobedience and rebellion of the Jews, God’s chosen people, to their covenantal responsibility to serve only the one true God, Jehovah, that gave rise to the opposition and persecution that they experienced beginning in Canaan and continuing to this very day.”
And Lieberman is fine with the fact that Hagee’s “support” for Israel is rooted in the notion that Hagee welcomes Israel’s destruction.
[Hagee] argues that a strike against Iran will cause Arab nations to unite under Russia’s leadership, as outlined in chapters 38 and 39 of the Book of Ezekiel, leading to an “inferno [that] will explode across the Middle East, plunging the world toward Armageddon.” During his appearance on Hinn’s program at the end of last March, for example, the host enthused, “We are living in the last days. These are the most exciting days in church history,” but then went on to add, “We are facing now [the] most dangerous moment for America.” At one point, Hinn clapped his hands in delight and shouted, “Yes! Glory!” and then urged his viewers to donate money faster because he is running out of time to preach the gospel.
So, it’s not that Hagee loves Israel, so much as he foresees a blood-soaked war in the Middle East that leads to Jesus’ return, at which point the Jews who survive will become Christians.
The mind reels.