What Is This World Coming To?

Austin-based televangelist John Hagee sent a letter to William Donohue, president of the Catholic League of America, apologizing for having “emphasized the darkest chapters in the history of Catholic and Protestant relations with the Jews.” In his letter, Hagee wrote:

“Out of a desire to advance a 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’s apology was a political response to the liberal effort to draw a moral equivalency between Hagee’s endorsement of John McCain and Barack Obama’s twenty-year relationship with his pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright.

Wright revealed himself to be a divisive racist whose views on white America rival those of the KKK in reverse. According to Wright, white America developed AIDS as a means of genocide against black Americans, imports drugs specifically to ‘hook’ black Americans and therefore was entirely deserving of the attacks on New York and Washington on September 11, 2001.

If one reads through the various blogs and liberal media assessments of Hagee’s endorsement of McCain, one finds headlines such as “The All-White Elephant In the Room” by the NYTimes’ Frank Rich.

Are we really to believe that neither Mr. McCain nor his camp knew anything then about Mr. Hagee’s views? This particular YouTube video — far from the only one — was posted on Jan. 1, nearly two months before the Hagee-McCain press conference. Mr. Hagee appears on multiple religious networks, including twice daily on the largest, Trinity Broadcasting, which reaches 75 million homes. Any 12-year-old with a laptop could have vetted this preacher in 30 seconds, tops.”

According to Rich, there is zero difference between McCain’s acceptance of an endorsement from John Hagee and the 20 years that Obama was a member of Wright’s church.

“Mr. McCain says he does not endorse any of Mr. Hagee’s calumnies, any more than Barack Obama endorses Mr. Wright’s. But those who try to give Mr. McCain a pass for his embrace of a problematic preacher have a thin case. It boils down to this: Mr. McCain was not a parishioner for 20 years at Mr. Hagee’s church. That defense implies, incorrectly, that Mr. McCain was a passive recipient of this bigot’s endorsement.”

Rich reserves the word ‘bigot’ for Hagee — Wright earns no such epithet. Hagee is a ‘bigot’ for relating what was, regardless of one’s views, an accurate version of medieval Vatican history. (Just look at that bigot — standing in front of the Star of David!!)

Wright’s views are historically groundless and, despite the fact they lump the entire white race together as one large, evil family, are at worst, worthy of candid discussion. Says Rich:

“Yet if there’s any coherent message to be gleaned from the hypocrisy whipped up by Hurricane Jeremiah, it’s that this nation’s perennially promised candid conversation on race has yet to begin.”

Yet to begin? Is Rich kidding? If anything, it is liberals like Rich that are stifling the closest thing to a fair debate on race in America since the 1950’s. Wright blames whites for attempted genocide and Rich calls the negative reaction ‘hypocrisy’ — Hagee relates the accurate history of the medieval Vatican and gets tagged a “bigot“.

The facts are these. Barack Obama attended Wright’s church for 20 years. Obama used on of Wright’s sermons as a title for his book. Wright married the Obamas. Wright baptized Obama’s kids. Obama credits Wright with ‘leading him to Jesus’ — a claim that, if true, would render Wright the most important advisor in Obama’s life. And Obama defended Wright and his comments, extolling the good that Wright has accomplished and likening him to a “crazy uncle.”

Hagee endorsed John McCain’s politics. There’s no relationship between Hagee and McCain. McCain doesn’t go to Hagee’s church. He doesn’t seek his political advice. He never called Hagee is ‘mentor’.

To my knowledge, McCain offered no excuses whatever for Hagee’s comments or defended him for all the ‘good’ that he has done as pastor of one of the largest mega churches in Texas. No wonder there isn’t any debate on race in America.

All whites are bigots while black racism is justifiable — because all whites are bigots. It’s simple. Isn’t it?

It is, if you are a liberal moron. For the rest of us, it just got much more complicated.