In their desperation to divert attention from their candidate’s serious flaws, the Barack Obama camp has been stalking the stages at news talk shows this week, trying to play up Sen. John McCain’s “pastor problem.”
This goes back, of course, to Obama’s 20-year friendship with the anti-American, racist, hate-mongering Jeremiah Wright, pastor of Obama’s church, who presided at the candidate’s wedding, baptized his children and inspired an entire book written by Mr. Obama.
Now Obama’s cronies are pointing at any pastor they can find who supports McCain and who may have said something that someone, somewhere may find offensive.
Mostly, they’ve focused on John Hagee, who called the Catholic Church “the great whore,” but has since apologized; and Rod Parsley, who has referred to Islam as a “false religion,” which is an utterly shocking thing that a Christian would never say, according to Obamites, whose role model for Christianity is known for cursing from the pulpit.
When these sordid details didn’t get near the traction that Jeremiah Wright did, Obama supporters resorted to their candidate’s most powerful weapon: whining. “McCain got a bit of a pass on that,” Democratic strategist Bob Beckel moaned on Fox News.
Of course, anyone with two functioning brain cells can spot the difference between getting the campaign support of some random pastor who rubs liberals the wrong way, and having a close, personal 20-year relationship with a raving lunatic who shouts things like “God d— America” from the pulpit, then pretending you had no idea that was going on in your own church.
McCain — who was raised Episcopalian, but whose home church is North Phoenix Baptist Church, pastored by the Rev. Daniel J. Yeary — has been pretty clear about his feelings toward ultraconservative Christianity’s excesses, calling Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson “agents of intolerance” and snubbing James Dobson. In fact, if I recall correctly, the McCain camp was eager to shore up its conservative credentials because of the egg on its face after the Dobson smackdown with McCain. It’s just the senator’s bad luck Hagee broke the media surface first.
Speaking as a Catholic, Hagee’s anti-Catholicism is just what I’ve come to expect from certain sects of Protestantism, some of which still apparently teach children that Catholic churches don’t even use the Bible. McCain has no relationship with this guy — I think it would be reasonable to demand McCain repudiate Hagee on the same day Obama ‘fesses up and repudiates Louis Farrakhan. Nothing Hagee has said comes even close in my estimate to the stuff Jeremiah Wright was selling on DVD out of the church gift shop.
Then there’s Parsley, who we’re supposed to condemn because he condemns Islam as a false religion. Here’s a news flash: We’re at war with radical Islam because some of their representatives murdered 3,000 people for no reason. Does anybody in this country still remember that?
There are plenty of people for whom all religions are equivalent, and they may find it shocking that a pastor may deem Islam “false,” but Parsley is not the first person to realize there is a world of difference between Islam, which was founded by a warlord, and other religions, and he won’t be the last. Just like the supposed Christians who burned witches in Salem, Muslims who use their religion as their excuse to terrorize, maim and kill are “false,” and the roots of this problem can be found in the Quran.
To quote President John Quincy Adams, “… he [Muhammad] declared undistinguishing and exterminating war, as a part of his religion, against all the rest of mankind. … The precept of the Koran is, perpetual war against all who deny, that Mahomet is the prophet of God.”
So on that point, at least, Parsley’s got it right, and I suspect even Moonbase McCain knows it.
Naturally, the left, oblivious to rational distinctions, is trying to turn this into a campaign “issue” to counteract Obama’s character flaws. All I can say is good luck with that, guys. You’ll need it.