Ha, Ha. Hagee hocus-pocus

The poor not-so-reverend Hagee has had to eat his words, sort of. Finally. More or less. He must have been a growing embarrassment to the Repugnican nominee. So he said "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."

Ho, hum. Notice he doesn't say that he was wrong. He's just a little sorry if some tight-assed Catholics got upset.

Hagee wouldn't know the "common good" from the Boston Commons.


It is interesting that one area in which I sorta, kinda agreed with Hagee was some of what he said about the Roman Church. He suggested that the Crusades were evidence of anti-Semitism and they were certainly that and much worse. They evidenced one very nasty expression of anti-Semitism -- the slaughter of Jews.

Hagee also suggested that Catholic anti-Semitism influenced Hitler's anti-Jewish feelings and that, too, is very true. We've discussed previously the utter failure on the part of the Vatican to take any action against the Nazi regime's treatment of the Jews. We've noted that while Hitler remained a Catholic in good standing until the end, and that many of his top military and civilian aides were Catholics, the Vatican did not see fit to excommunicate any but one: Joseph Goebbels was given the boot because he married a Protestant, not because he was instrumental in the murder of thousands upon thousands of Jews.

Hagee, in all candor, was telling the truth, although he might have berated the Lutheran's for their revered Dr. Luther who provided Hitler with an outline for the Holocaust.

The not-so-reverend Hagee blew it, though, when he used phrases from the book of Revelation to describe the Roman Church. He said it was "the apostate church," and the "great whore." He now "understands" better that the author of Revelation (unknown) used those terms as "a rhetorical device long employed in anti-Catholic literature and commentary."

What a crock! There is absolutely nothing in the book of Revelation that has anything whatsoever to do with the Roman Church or any other currently existing institution. Hagee's problem is that he is no scholar. He's a fundamentalist. He does not read the publications of real biblical scholars because if he did he would know they believe that terminology refers not to the Catholic church but to Rome and the Roman empire.

William Donohue, the right-wing president of the right-leaning Catholic League for Civil and Religious Rights, thinks that Hagee is pretty wonderful for apologizing. Donohue accepted the apology and said, "I got what I wanted. He's seen the light, as they like to say. So for me it's over."

Donohue also said that "What Hagee has done takes courage and quite frankly I never expected him to demonstrate such sensitivity to our concerns."

Oh, Bill, you're such a fool! Hagee hasn't seen the light. It doesn't take courage to apologize. He's not demonstrating sensitivity to your concerns!

This is all politics, of course. Hagee was beginning (finally) to get pounded in the press for being a world-class jackass. He was becoming a detriment, not a help, to Mr. McCain. So, he issued an apology, which, as we noted, doesn't come close to admitting he was wrong.

Hagee hasn't seen the light, he's simply kicking the political football up the field. His little apology takes no courage whatsoever as it relieves him of some of the political pressure he's been feeling.

So far as "seeing the light," I'll guarantee that if you get Hagee alone in a room with a bunch of Texas "good old boys" you'll soon learn what he really thinks about the Catholic Church!

But, it all makes for a good story, and now people are less likely to point to the McCain-Hagee relationship with disdain. People might even begin to think that Hagee's a pretty good guy after all. So what if he believes with approval that God destroyed New Orleans because of an impending gay pride parade. So what if he wants the U.S. to start a nuclear war with Iran so the end times will begin and Jesus will come back and all good Christians like Hagee will be raptured to heaven which the rest of us and all Jews (except "messianic" Jews) will burn forever in hell.