John Hagee, a televangelist sought out by John McCain for political support, has repeatedly gone after the Roman Catholic Church, calling it, among other things, “the great whore” and “a false cult system.”<\/p>\n
As of today, Hagee feels bad about it<\/a>.<\/p>\n John Hagee, the controversial Evangelical pastor who endorsed John McCain, will issue a letter of apology to Catholics today for inflammatory remarks he has made, including accusing the Roman Catholic Church of supporting Adolf Hitler and calling it “The Great Whore.”<\/p>\n “Out of a desire to advance greater unity among Catholics and Evangelicals in promoting the common good, I want to express my deep regret for any comments that Catholics have found hurtful,” Hagee wrote, according to an advanced copy of the letter reviewed by Washington Wire. “After engaging in constructive dialogue with Catholic friends and leaders, I now have an improved understanding of the Catholic Church, its relation to the Jewish faith, and the history of anti-Catholicism.” <\/p>\n In the letter, addressed to Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League and one of Hagee’s biggest critics, Hagee pledges “a greater level of compassion and respect for my Catholic brothers and sisters in Christ.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Hagee also acknowledged that the slurs he’s used to denigrate Catholics are “rhetorical device[s] long employed in anti-Catholic literature and commentary,” should not be “synonymous with the Catholic Church.”<\/p>\n Bill Donohue will reportedly accept Hagee’s apology.<\/p>\n Will this end the controversy? It really shouldn’t. And therein lies the point. If Hagee is prepared to start apologizing to those he’s denigrated, he has quite a few letters to write. Hagee has argued that Hurricane Katrina “was, in fact, the judgment of God against the city of New Orleans” for hosting a gay-pride parade. Hagee has smeared Jews (he thinks they’re responsible for their own oppression), Muslims (he thinks they’re all inherently dangerous), women, “Harry Potter” novels, and pretty much anyone who doesn’t look and think like exactly like he does.<\/p>\n Even his anti-Catholic animus is hard to dismiss with one letter of regret. After years<\/i> of bashing the church, Hagee suddenly realized Catholics might find his hateful diatribes “hurtful”? I obviously can’t speak to Hagee’s personal perspective, but as election-year conversions go, this one does seem rather convenient.<\/p>\n I’d just add this — the McCain campaign has said it wasn’t involved in Hagee’s new-found tolerance, but I would all but guarantee the next time someone presses McCain on his association, he’ll say, “Yes, but at least Hagee apologized for his comments about Catholicism. Jeremiah Wright hasn’t apologized at all.”<\/p>\n It’ll be foolish and hollow, but that’s what we’ll hear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" John Hagee, a televangelist sought out by John McCain for political support, has repeatedly gone after the Roman Catholic Church, calling it, among other things, “the great whore” and “a false cult system.” As of today, Hagee feels bad about it. John Hagee, the controversial Evangelical pastor who endorsed John McCain, will issue a letter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15525\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nJosh Marshall asked<\/a>, “Can we now get him to explain the part about God using Muslim terrorists to create bloodbaths in our streets because the US supports a two-state solution in Israel-Palestine?” (It’s true; Hagee really did say that<\/a>.)<\/p>\n