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McCain, Parsley, Hagee, and Apocalyptic Foreign Policy
The Question: John McCain's spiritual guide, televangelist Rod Parsley, calls Islam a "false religion" that should be "destroyed." Should McCain renounce Parsley? Will Islam be an issue in this year's U.S. presidential election?
Senator McCain should not have sought the endorsement of religious leaders like John Hagee and Rod Parsley, his “spiritual guide.” He should not only reject their extremist beliefs he should reject their endorsements. No candidate should seek, celebrate, or even accept endorsements from religious leaders.
For the sanctity of religion and the integrity of our democracy, religious leaders should avoid entangling houses of worship with partisan politics. Clergy must be free to speak about important issues of the day, and they should provide moral guidance to their congregations, but they lose credibility when they tie themselves to specific candidates.
The Framers of the Constitution had learned the hard way that establishing official religions in nations or colonies was bad for religion and bad for government. That’s why they established religious freedom and separation of religion and government as our First Freedom. Mixing religion and public policy is bad for both, particularly when it comes to foreign policy. If a “spiritual guide” or extremist religious organization influences a candidate’s foreign policy—or any public policy—that becomes the concern of citizens and the voters have a right to know that before voting.
In October 2002, five months before President George W. Bush chose to preemptively invade and occupy Iraq, I wrote to him with my concerns about the influence of Franklin Graham and Jerry Falwell on his foreign policy. In visits to the White House and elsewhere, both Graham and Falwell made disparaging, hateful remarks regarding the American Muslim community, the religion of Islam, and the Prophet Mohammed.
In my letter, I humbly made two requests of President Bush: “First, please divorce yourself from Muslim-bashing rhetoric and assure American devotees of Islam and other members of the interfaith community that you do not condone nor will you tolerate such hate-laced and erroneous speech.
“Second, please assure the American people that you are not developing foreign policy on the basis of a fundamentalist biblical theology that requires cataclysm in Israel in order to guarantee the return of Christ and the conversion of Jews. If you do not take the initiative in offering such assurance, a linkage between you and the kind of radical thought related to Islam, Israel, and a particular interpretation of Christian apocalyptic scriptures will continue at the expense of weakening the moral authority of the White House.”
The White House did not respond to my letter.
Because the extremist beliefs of Hagee and Parsley are in line with those of Graham and Falwell, it is imperative that Senator McCain reject their endorsements and reassure the American people that he would not allow them or anyone else to move him toward an apocalyptic foreign policy.
And no, Islam should not be an issue in this presidential campaign, nor should Christianity, Judaism, or any other religion.
By
Welton Gaddy
|
April 8, 2008; 5:38 AM ET
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Posted by: Kevin | May 8, 2008 8:21 PM
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This sort of information, I firmly believe needs to be circulated as widely as possible. I'm convinced that there are many people and families that do not have time or energy, after afull day's work and caring for kids and all the other things we have to do,to do more than watch the news. And we know that the mainstream media have not been keeping us informed as we need to be informed to preserve our democracy. Maybe too many of us have forgotten that a democracy depends on a well informed public. And maybe we've forgotten that in a democracy, the country gets the leaders it deserves. I do not believe that most of us deserve what's happening to us. This administration and some members of Congress (not all) are destroying not only our democracy, they are heading the whole country toward destruction.
So we need to get our own circles of information moving on these terribly important and very scary things. I'm grateful to Texas Freedom Network for forwarding this Interfaith info. to me.But you have to pay dues to get information from them and you have to pay dues to belong to the Interfaith Alliance. I received 21 requests for money from reputable NGO's the other day. Our problem is a big one since the mainstream media as well as our elected officials have betrayed us.
Posted by: Gerri Allen | April 10, 2008 8:38 PM
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Notice that O'Reilly and Hannity aren't howling about this on Faux news like they are still doing over Rev. Wright. "Fair and balanced" like my a**.
Posted by: Roy | April 8, 2008 10:52 PM
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Rev. Gaddy:
You ask politicians to rise to a standard that is beyond most of them. Religion sits there as an attractive nuisance to connect them to the values of voters they need. It is too easy for a politician to travel that road and too hard to abjure it when they fear that an opponent will seize it.
Senator Obama has offered in his campaign the stronger counter to a religious appeal. Instead of declaring separation of Church and State, he has preached the value of an America united across religious, ethnic, and gender divides. By recognizing our common needs and problems we can act together to address them. The message is positive rather than lecturing. In his hands it has gained a lot of traction.
Posted by: Robin Barr | April 8, 2008 9:23 PM
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You are sir aware that as originally established the pupose of that wall was to protect religion from the state mot vice versa.
Posted by: Garyd | April 8, 2008 6:05 PM
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Rev. Gaddy is right on target, especially regarding this country's founders' wisdom in providing for separation of church and state in our Constitution and Bill of Rights. Would that all politicians remember the wisdom of the Congress in 1952 that approved the constitution for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico with its ringing declaration that "There shall be complete separation of church and state."
Edd Doerr, President, Americans for Religious Liberty
Posted by: Edd Doerr | April 8, 2008 3:02 PM
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I don't agree with your saying that McCain should denounce Parsley or John Hagee. Different denouncements for different folks; that's what you're saying: how about Obama. Get Real; God's kingdom will come and His will be done...no matter what anyone believes or not believes...Ear tickling messages is all I hear and people pleasers instead of God pleasers...
Posted by: Angela | April 8, 2008 12:34 PM
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Хотел бы поделиться своим способом знакомства где я нашел 2 половинку, многие рассуждают что это не реально , но посудите сами вы просто физически можете не встретиться в этой жизни по ряду многих проблем, но вы даже не догодаетесь что есть челоек созданный для вас, я перепробовал много способом и скажу самый простой и не навязчивый способ это сайт http://www.1lovestory.ru/ желаю и вам счастья найти тут. По доброй души от всего сердца ваш доброжелатель) регистрируйтесь и начните жить)
Posted by: GoseEscom | April 7, 2008 7:34 PM
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thank goodness secular supporters/advisors are grounded in more "earthly" issues and unfettered by ideology. wouldn't want to bar them from the conversation...now would we? I'm not a religious person...but even I can see what a pathethic post Rev Wrong stab this post is.
Posted by: lmao | April 7, 2008 1:59 PM
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nonsense. Should Obama reject the tacit endorsement of the Daily Kos and the Huffington post?
Posted by: GAryd | April 7, 2008 12:57 PM
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Don't twist and manipulate words to your side. Don't make quotes that nobody said. McCain called Parsley A spiritual guide, not HIS spiritual guide. A and HIS have two distincly different meanings.