Washington area patriots descended on the civic auditorium on the afternoon of July 21 to pay their disrespects to one of the most dangerous frauds inAmerica today, John C. Hagee.
Hagee is a pitchman for Israel and makes a very good living at it. He owns a 7,500-acre ranch in Brackettville, Tex., complete with a large staff to feed him, his horses and other animals. He collects some $50 million yearly, which is tax-free plus whatever Israel pays him for his work.
What is his work? Well, he not only has a radio-TV program in which he extols the virtues ofAmerican taxpayers sending their money to Israel, he loudly sounds this theme in rallies and speeches across America.
Hagee’s money cow is called Christians United for Israel (CUFI). One of his major efforts is lobbying Congress formoremoney for Israel. Not content with the estimated $10 billion annually (including the interest American taxpayers pay on borrowed money) that U.S. taxpayers already give Israel, Hagee sends his obedient sheeple to Congress to lobby for ever more aid.
Hagee is an unregistered foreign agent for Israel, like AIPAC, the American Israel Political Action Committee. Both operate in blatant violation of the law, but the Justice Department (Eric Holder) overlooks the facts when Israel is involved.
Hagee follows the Israeli line all the way. He advocates a nuclear strike against Iran, oblivious to the Americans and Persians who would be killed and ignoring that Christianity is a religion of peace. Why? In Hagee’s eyes, Iran is a danger to Israel. Hagee hopes this will be the Battle of Armageddon and survivors will immediately go to heaven.
In other words, Hagee is not only an egregious fraud, he’s nuts. As we have said before, if America attacks Iran, it will turn out to be the greatest disaster for this country in its history.
By E. Stanley Rittenhouse Rev. John Hagee is having a banquet (7/20-23) to honor the state of Israel. Rev. Hagee is a Christian pastor who honors and worships Israel: an anti-Christ, anti-Christianity country.
However, Rev. Hagee cannot serve two masters, as the Bible tells us, and so one wonders which one he serves?
On his TV program of June 7, he was honoring, worshipping and promoting anti-Christ Israel with Ashkenazi (Polish) Jews David Brog and Michael Medved. The large table where Rev. Hagee and David Brog were sitting had the American and Israel flags draped in front of their table.
The flag of the United States should hold the position
of superior prominence!The protocol or etiquette of displaying
our flag (“our” being theAmerican) is to be displayed to the left of one’s view. All others are to be on the right of the U.S. flag.
Rev. Hagee, being the good Zionist that he is, had the Israeli flag where the American flag should be and the American flag to the right of the Israeli flag (an inferior position).
A nation’s flag represents the soul and symbol of the nation. But once again, we see evidence thatAmerica is a colony of anti-Christ Israel.
One wonders how Saint Peter is going to handle Rev. Hagee as Pastor Hagee serves one of Christ’s biggest enemies? One also gives thought to the idea that if the “Christian” reverend had demanded the proper display and thus the proper respect of our flag by putting America first, he would risk the accusation of being labeled an anti-Semite? But there is little fear that will ever be a problem for the Rev. John Hagee, a Zionist of the first order.
They told me in Sunday School that Jesus Christ was the “Prince of peace.” If my teachers were right, then people like Pat Robertson, John Hagee, Tim LaHaye and others of their stripe are criminals, not Christians. Robertson and Hagee are strong advocates of war. They want the U.S. to hit Iran with all we’ve got and kill as many innocent Persians as possible.
Why? Because, they claim, the Iranians want to bomb their favorite country—Israel, which they believe is where God lives.
According to them, God is unhappy with his peacenik Son but he likes these three slobs and their adoring camp followers.
Well, this is not the first time we have noted that Robertson is no friend of ours. He once excoriated The Spotlight—our predecessor—for catching on to the clear fact that Robertson is a profiteer of the most sleazy kind, a religious fraud who makes lots of money shaking down sincere Christians by convincing them he has a direct pipeline to God.
Few things in this world are as contemptible as fraudsters who claim to have direct communication to God and use this awful lie to pervert Christianity. Unfortunately, Robertson has made millions by panhandling with his slick Elmer Gantry line. Robertson has squeezed many millions of dollars from sincere Christians who would never believe that he is the fraud he is.
Hagee preaches that Israel is God’s chosen nation and does not have to conduct itself in a civilized manner as do other nations. Hagee says nothing about the Talmud—the Jewish holy book that requires Jews to hate and kill
Christians.
In 1982 Israel totally obliterated two Palestinian refugee camps, Sabra and Shatilla, killing 2,300 Palestinians, including children and pregnant women after driving some 660,000 into the desert. Today they live in tents and small houses they built for themselves. The U.S. demands that the UN pay for the meager living expenses of these refugees. Of course, most of the UN budget is paid for by U.S. taxpayers.
Hagee insanely wants the U.S.A. to nuclear bomb Iran and start another war. He believes this will start Armageddon and destroy the world, and he and his followers will be wafted up to heaven.
Hagee operates a number of independent businesses, of which his “religious” scam, Global Evangelism TV, is only one. His income is over $50 million per year and he pays little or no income tax. He has an airstrip, a jet plane and crew, given him by U.S.-supported Israel. He has a 7,600-acre ranch in Brackettville, Texas, a chef, waiters, servants and ranch hands to feed himand other animals. He operates a hotel there and charges $250 per night.
The Bible explicitly commands that the only way for Jews to attain salvation is through Christ. But Hagee preaches that Jews do not have to accept Christ to go to heaven. Galatians 1:9 says, “If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that you have received, let him be accursed.”
End of article.
The 'Rev' is obviously unaware of Matthew 19:24 - text pasted below for ready reference:
"Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God."
John Hagee: deviant theology, dangerous foreign policy By John Taylor
Pastor John Hagee gleefully anticipates the death of hundreds of millions of people in a series of wars preparing the world for the second coming of Christ: "The end of the world is rapidly approaching . . . Rejoice and be exceeding glad."
Worse, Hagee wants to jump start what he sees as the inevitable battle between Israel and the US and an alliance of the Islamic states and Russia: "The United States must join Israel in a preemptive military strike against Iran to fulfill God's plan for both Israel and the West." Hagee's bizarre interpretation of the Bible sees war with Iran as a "biblically prophesized End Time confrontation . . . which will lead to the Rapture, Tribulation and the Second Coming."
If Hagee were just another kook, walking around Times Square carrying a sign saying "The End is Near," there would be no need to worry. In fact, Hagee is senior pastor of the Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, with a congregation of 18,000, appears weekly on 150 TV stations around the world and is the head of Christians United For Israel (CUFI), a lobbying group founded to advance the interests of the State of Israel in the U.S.
Congress. Not only does Hagee advocate aggressive war against Iran, he is a strong supporter of our continuing misadventure in Iraq and he opposes any Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, arguing that God has given all of Palestine to the Israelis.
John Hagee's end time theology transmogrifies Christianity into little more than a death cult in which the State of Israel is worshipped like a latter day Golden Calf. Despite his weird views, Hagee has access to senior politicians in the US and Israel; he likes to brag that he has met every Israeli prime minister since Menachem Begin.
President Bush praised Hagee's CUFI for "spreading the hope of God's love and the universal gift of freedom." How to square "spreading . . . God's love" and the "gift of freedom" with bombing the Iranians is hard to fathom, but, in any event, evangelicals like Hagee have been among President Bush's strongest supporters and the president is not about to abandon them now.
Senator Joe Lieberman is also a Hagee fan and praised him at last year's CUFI meeting in Washington, likening him to Moses, "a man of God . . . leading a mighty multitude." If comparing Hagee to Moses seems over the top, remember Hagee and Lieberman have a lot in common. Both men were keen to see the US invade Iraq and both would like to have Uncle Sam attack Syria and Iran, a wish shared by many in Washington, especially arms makers, the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and neocons in the White House and the Pentagon.
John McCain recently thanked Pastor Hagee for endorsing his run for the presidency. Eight years ago, McCain made a point of denouncing Hagee's fellow evangelical Jerry Falwell as an "agent of intolerance" and an "evil influence on the Republican party." Clearly times have changed.
Hagee's distorted view of Christianity, his hatred of Islam (Hagee once said "those who live by the Koran have a scriptural mandate to kill Christians and Jews") and his toxic criticism of American Middle East policy have all become part of American political discourse. For example, Senator Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma believes "We are Israel's best friend . . . because of the character we have as a nation . . . This is not a political battle at all. It is a contest over whether or not the word of God is true." Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey opined, "I am content to have Israel grab the entire West Bank . . . I happen to believe the Palestinians should leave." And just a few months ago, presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, an ex-evangelical preacher himself, said he favored the establishment of a Palestinian state, but not in Palestine, rather in Egypt or Saudi Arabia.
Many people, some influential, some not, think religious belief should guide American Middle East policy. Others would say that that the Bible and foreign policy ought to remain entirely separate and that a discussion of Hagee's religious doctrine is about as meaningful as trying to decide how many angels can fit on the head of a pin. What individuals on both sides of this debate don't realize is that Hagee's highly selective reading and strange interpretation of the Bible put him well outside mainstream Christian belief.
Hagee regards God's covenant with Abraham in the book of Genesis as granting the Patriarch and his descendents unconditional title to the Holy Land. He concludes, therefore, that no territorial compromise with the Palestinians is desirable or necessary. Hagee preaches that those who bless Israel will themselves be blessed (Genesis 12:3) and that a close military and political alliance between the United States and Israel is mandated in scripture. Further, Hagee sees the 1948 emergence of an independent Israel as a sign of the second coming of Christ. Finally, and most controversial of all for an evangelical preacher, Hagee claims that God's covenant with the ancient Hebrews allows Jews to be saved without belief in Christ.
Did God grant Abraham and his offspring unconditional and eternal possession of the Holy Land? Many scholars would argue that remaining in the land required the Israelites to keep God's laws. Failure to do so would bring divine punishment. Moses warned in Deuteronomy 28, "If you are not careful to do all the words of this law . . . you shall be plucked off the land that you are entering to take possession of." The Hebrews' captivity in Babylon and the Roman conquest of Jerusalem in 70 AD demonstrate to many scholars that God's covenant with Abraham and his descendents was conditional and their right to the Holy Land by no means absolute.
When Hagee advocates unqualified American support for the State of Israel as a means of obtaining the Almighty's blessing, he assumes the modern State of Israel is a linear and worthy successor to Abraham. Does blessing Israel mean giving the government of the State of Israel unconditional political, financial and military support? One could argue that Israel's efforts to colonize the lands captured in 1967 and to dispossess the Palestinians violate the Old Testament commandments against theft and killing. Furthermore, Hagee's callous disregard for the suffering of indigenous Christians and Muslims is certainly contrary to the New Testament injunctions to "love thy neighbor as thy self" (Matt. 19:19) and to "do unto others as you would have others do unto you" (Matt. 7:12), to say nothing of "Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons of God" (Matt. 5:9). Hagee's bizarre theology has hijacked the messages of the Old and New Testaments to sanctify the injustices done in the Holy Land.
The second coming of Christ is a difficult issue because the Bible can be interpreted in many ways. In his book, Jerusalem Countdown, Hagee enumerates 10 "signs" which he claims "prove" that Christ's return to earth is imminent. But Luke's gospel (17: 20) gives a diametrically opposing view: "The Kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed." Furthermore, Pastor Hagee may say he knows when Christ is returning but his confidence is inconsistent with the parable of the bridegroom (Matt. 25): "you know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh."
Most people who have studied the Christian religion, believers or not, would assert that the New Testament requires belief in Christ for salvation: that is, after all, what makes Christians Christians and the New Testament new. Hagee's interpretation of scripture posits that salvation for Jews is also possible in Christianity because of God's covenant with Abraham. Pastor Hagee's view is obviously erroneous: the gospel of John states, "I (Christ) am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." (John 14:6)
It is easy to understand why Hagee preaches what he does. If you make the State of Israel an object of veneration and at the same time insist that its inhabitants convert to Christianity, you are not going to make many friends in Israel or among Israel's supporters in the US. And for similar reasons Hagee asserts the Bible favors the Israelis over the Palestinians: Pastor Hagee obviously enjoys meeting Israeli Prime Minister Olmert, speaking in front of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee and having Malcolm Hoenlein, the head of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, visit him in San Antonio. Hagee bartered his faith for power and fame, money and notoriety. An advocate of unjust war, Hagee has put down the Bible and taken up the sword. His kingdom is very much of this world.
The Founding Fathers were wise to forbid in the Constitution the establishment of a religion in the US. Although morality, often finding its roots in religion, will always influence government and election of public officials, the specifics of religious belief and practice have been kept, for the most part, in private life, to the nation's great benefit. Making decisions about war and peace based on strange interpretations of arcane End Time prophecy is dangerous and absurd. That Hagee is a serious political player in 21st Century America shows we have truly entered a post Enlightenment era.
John Taylor, a lifelong Republican, received an AB in Near Eastern Languages from The University of Chicago. He is a US Army veteran. As a young man he served in the Middle East as a civil servant, archaeologist and banker. Prior to retirement he worked in the energy business in Texas for 20 years.
For John Hagee, McCain's controversial 'spiritual guide,' dead children is the price one pays for rapture.
Robert Weitzel says that since the beginning of the second intifada in September 2000, over 1,000 Palestinian and Israeli children have been killed by bullets and bombs. According to Pastor John Hagee and his evangelical organization, Christians United For Israel, this is an acceptable -- if not desirable since a majority of the children were Muslim -- price to pay to bring about Armageddon and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Hagee endorsed McCain's presidential bid, and McCain "was very proud to have Pastor John Hagee's support."
Robert Weitzel
Safa Abu Saif, a 12-year-old Palestinian girl, was visiting a friend's apartment when the bullet fired from an Israeli rifle slammed into her chest, punching a gaping exit wound in her back. No ambulance could reach her because of the fighting. Safa died in her father's arms three hours after being shot.
Danielle Shafi, a 5-year-old Israeli girl, was killed by the bullet fired from a Palestinian rifle as her mother combed her hair in the child's upstairs bedroom. Drenched in the blood of her wound, Danielle slowly stopped breathing and died in her mother's arms minutes after being shot.
According to a United Nation's report, 971 Palestinian and Israeli children were killed between September 2000 -- the beginning of the second intifada -- and July 2007. Of those destroyed children, 854 were Palestinian. The intifada and the dying continue.
Safa and Danielle are two of the children whose lives the evangelical political action committee, Christians United for Israel, are willing to sacrifice on the alter of their fundamentalist eschatology in the hope of bringing about Armageddon and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
Pastor John Hagee, televangelist to 99 million viewers and pastor of the 18,000-member Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, established the CUFI in 2005 following the publication of his book, The Jerusalem Countdown: A Warning to the World. Hagee envisions CUFI as the Christian version the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the powerful pro-Israel lobby whose political clout has a significant influence on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.
The late Molly Ivins, a Texas political commentator and author, described Hagee as a "pre-millennial dispensationalist, whose theology focuses on selected apocalyptic passages of the Book of Revelation." In 1998, Hagee teamed up with Christian filmmakers to produce, Vanished in the Twinkling of an Eye, a docudrama about the tribulations following the Rapture.
Despite Pastor Hagee's obvious interest in eschatology, he insists that CUFI's support for Israel has nothing to do with end time prophecy. But in an unguarded moment in the intimate confines of his 50,000 sq. ft. multimedia chapel, Hagee set the truth free, "The judgment of the nations is going to happen as soon as Christ returns to earth. As soon as he sets up his throne on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, he's going to rule the world with a rod of iron. That means he's going to make the ACLU do what he wants them to ... We will live by the law of god, and no other law."
The problem with Hagee's version of the truth is the fact that the Temple Mount is Islam's third most sacred site, upon which sits the al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock, the oldest extant Islamic structure in the world.
According to Judaism, the Mount is where the final Third Temple will be rebuilt before the coming of the Jewish Messiah. Unfortunately for CUFI, the Second Coming of Jesus is on hold until the temple's completion, and that cannot happen until Islam is destroyed -- Hagee's holy grail.
Predictably then, the good pastor opposes any peace plan to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, supports Israel's persecution and "imprisonment" of 1.5 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and advocates pre-emptive nuclear strikes against Iran. John Hagee lives, and CUFI exists, to light the fires of the Apocalypse using Israel as the match.
To get a candid look at CUFI and its members, journalist Max Blumenthal took his cameras to the CUFI's Washington-Israel Summit held last July in the nation's capital.
His video, above "Rapture Ready: The Unauthorized Christians United for Israel Tour" I found it on The Disclosure here it opens with Blumenthal cornering disgraced former Republican House Majority Leader Tom Delay and asking him how important the Second Coming is in his support of Israel. The "Hammer" replied, "Obviously, it is what I live for. Really, I hope it comes tomorrow. Obviously, we need to be connected to Israel to enjoy the Second Coming of Christ."
Blumenthal mingled with the 4,500 CUFI rank and file attending the Summit and asked their opinion on Armageddon and the identity of the Antichrist:
Q. "Are you looking forward to Armageddon?"
A. "I'm looking forward to Armageddon and the cleansing of the earth."
Q. "Who is the Antichrist?"
A. "He will be a man of peace. So he will be one who has promoted peace for many years. The one who forces Israel into a peace treaty with the Arabs is the Beast."
A. "Another reason that we support Israel is that we have a common enemy, the Muslims. We are fighting what is behind the Muslim people, which is Satan. Satan is actually the one who is trying to destroy the human race."
After asking Pastor Hagee the "wrong" question during a Summit news conference, Blumenthal and his crew were escorted out of the building by off-duty police officers.
John Hagee is not without fawning friends in Washington. Presidential hopeful John McCain made a campaign stop at the Summit and admitted to the audience that, "It's very hard trying to do the Lord's work in the city of Satan ... " House Minority Whip Roy Blunt followed McCain to the podium and assured the faithful that "This is a mission, this is a vision that I believe is a vision for God's time." Senator Joe Lieberman was there and described Pastor Hagee as an "Ish Elokim," a man of God.
Never one to be left out of a well-attended Christian Right convocation, President Bush sent his best wishes, "I appreciate CUFI members ... for your passion and dedication to enhancing the relationship between the United States and Israel. Your efforts set a shining example for others ... "
Cultivating his friendship with the man who believes the U.S. will be in Iraq for the next one hundred years, Pastor Hagee endorsed -- and hugged -- John McCain for president at a news conference held at the Cornerstone Church. Senator McCain graciously accepted, saying, "I'm very honored by Pastor John Hagee's endorsement today," When asked about Hagee's extensive writings on Armageddon, McCain responded that "all I can tell you is that I am very proud to have Pastor John Hagee's support.''
Considering the above, the following should not need to be said. Pastor Hagee's right-wing Jewish allies will do well to consider that after Islam is destroyed and the Temple rebuilt and Jesus comes and raptures all "true believers," all non-believers -- including Jews -- will be hunted down and converted or destroyed ... that is, those few who survived the nuclear holocaust that was prayed for and schemed for by the "Ish Elokim" and the CUFI.
In the meanwhile, Palestinian and Israeli children will continue to die singularly or in small groups by the bullets and the bombs and the fire send their way on the wings of CUFI's prayerful machinations.
