As published on BuzzFlash this morning, http://www.buzzflash.com/...
Now that John McCain has tempered his lovefest with end-timer John Hagee by claiming distance from some of Hagee's words, he has hardly renounced either the big man or the powerful and cultic movement that hopes to see the world end. What is being overlooked is the big picture -- John McCain is playing ball with not only John Hagee, but also with several other big fundamentalist players. Are we to believe that Senator McCain thinks fundamentalism is good as long as it is homegrown? It's certainly looking that way.
Last Tuesday, there was outrage and apology from McCain for his slimy, smarmy warm-up act, right-wing radio shock jock Bill Cunningham. According to Cunningham, he was only doing what he'd been asked; providing red meat to ramp up excitement pre-McCain. And so he did, only to be soundly spanked by the good senator.
What the media did not notice, but the Christian Fundamentalist world surely did, was that Christian Right superstar Rod Parsley, had ridden into town Tuesday with John McCain on the "Straight Talk Express." This would be the same Rod Parsley who, in 2006, emphatically proclaimed to his Columbus, Ohio congregation at the World Harvest Church:
"Americans must be 'Christocrats' -- citizens of both their country and the Kingdom of God"; "And that is not a democracy; that is a theocracy"; "That means God is in control, and you are not."
Not only is Parsley one of the most successful televangelists and for-profit preachers in his own right, but also he aspires to be kingmaker. In 2006, he founded the Ohio Restoration Project, a scarcely veiled religious/ political organization that was the machine that went across the state of Ohio soliciting an "army of Patriot Pastors" to form a pyramid scheme among churches in support of Ken Blackwell for governor. In 2004, Blackwell was in the unique position to "manage" all 2004 Ohio election decisions and results, while simultaneously serving as Ohio's Secretary of State and head of the Re-Elect Bush Ohio Campaign. And manage them he did.
Rod Parsley, while hardly a household name, is as happy selling Crusader's Swords as he is "anointing" national leaders. Ragin' Rod, as he is often called, has tasted power and finds it savory, which is why he is so often at the crossroads where politics and religion meet, particularly, but by no means confined to Ohio.
Filmed in Cincinnati last Tuesday by CNN, FOX News et al, Parsley's presence at McCain's side telegraphed a deliberate, if coded, message: End Timers and biblical literalists, if it's more religion-based wars you want, John McCain's your man. To reinforce the "right" kind of Christian thinking, McCain repeated a "joke" he'd made at last summer's Annual CUFI Conference:
"Rob (Portman) and Mike (DeWine) will assure you it's very hard trying to do the Lord's work in the City of Satan." -- John McCain
On Thursday, John Hagee endorsed McCain. Hagee, the rotund, power-lusting, mega End Timer and Christian Zionist, is the founder of Christians United for Israel (CUFI). He is also a man who moves in the highest of political circles.
But so does Parsley, AND Parsley also happens to sit on Hagee's CUFI board. As does the dwarflike, Islam-hating Gary Bauer, who not coincidentally stood alongside McCain during the Hagee endorsement. Round and round the circle goes.
Last summer when Hagee wrote to his minions that what he and John McCain had discussed went to the "ends of the earth," more likely what he meant was that their conversation went to the END of the Earth, as is written on page 120 of his book, Jerusalem Countdown:
"Just before us is a nuclear countdown with Iran, followed by the final battle: the battle of Armageddon . . . . The end of the world as we know it is rapidly approaching. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad. The best is yet to be."
There's reason for further concern, as evidenced by McCain's blatant disregard for the Constitutional separation of church and state in his October interview with Beliefnet:
"I would probably have to say yes, that the Constitution established the United States of America as a Christian nation." -- John McCain
Such bald-faced pandering was instantly addressed by ADL:
"The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today urged Senator John McCain to reconsider and withdraw his statements describing the United States as a 'Christian nation' and a 'nation founded on Christian principles.' " A complete withdrawal has yet to come.
John Hagee, Rod Parsley, and Gary Bauer are actively promoting nuclear war with Iran both politically and through their enormously powerful television pulpits. Bauer works behind the scenes but not so Parsley and Hagee. Their false messages reach tens of millions of viewers every day. It is a message calling for no less than the war to end all wars. Tragically, it is a war we may well get should John McCain, firmly bedded down with the Apocalypse Gang, become our next president.
And the circle game goes on. J. Kenneth Blackwell had just come out firmly mounting the Straight Talker. After all, how could he face himself if he didn't do his part in the "war against Radical Islam." In defiance of a congressional subpoena for his role in undermining the 2004 election, he is unashamedly robo-calling the very Ohio voters he disenfranchised to remind them that John McCain is a man of integrity.
As the slime around John McCain thickens, as he dons the pandering, hypocritical mantle of his once and future enemy, George W., it is time to cease calling him a moderate or a maverick. If anything, he resembles more an aging prostitute willing to do whatever it takes, even a theocratic right turn, if it gets him to the White House.
This time, he's gone too far. Senator McCain, you cannot have it both ways. It's time to fish or cut bait. What's it to be? The end of the world, or the future of mankind?