This is the completion of a series of articles that began June 1st with an article entitled “Separation of Religion and Politics“. The first part of this article appeared yesterday. This is the continuation of ministers and personalities causing problems for John McCain and the Republicans.
John McCain’s Problem Ministers (Pastor John Hagee and Pastor Rod Parsley):
While not being in the spiritual tradition of Pastor Hagee, I agree with his commentary on Hitler being sent by God to harm the Jews. According to my beliefs, this God that everyone talks so much about is actually the Devil sent to say he’s God, distract people, and cause us no end of harm. So, in my theological world view, it wasn’t God who did this, it was the Devil who has been influencing Hitler and many others of his ilk throughout history. Unfortunately, this isn’t what Hagee meant. Hagee believes in a God that is all-powerful, yet allows evil, in order to achieve his goals. That’s a tough one for me to get my head around, which is why I do not believe in the line of Christian thinking that people like Hagee and Parsley follow. It is comforting to know that Hagee acknowledges evil, but is disheartening that he condones it and advises others under his spiritual care to do so as well.
While I agree in a technical sense with Pastor Hagee’s acceptance of the existence of evil, I can’t agree with Pastor Parsley’s views that America’s purpose is to destroy Islam or that Islam is an inherently evil religion. I am of the mind that America, or as Pastor Parsley probably means, the American government should be on good terms with all nations. The American people have no inbred enmity with any nation. On Parsley’s second count, I have also found that the delineating of good and evil within Judaism, Christianity, or Islam (or within the shared traditions of “The People of the Book”) is silliness. There have always been those within each of those faiths who have advocated and endorsed the use of force and murder against others for the accomplishment of religious, social, and political ends. That is my definition of evil. So while there are those elements in Islam that endorse such actions and phrase it into a religious context, there are similar elements embracing evil who claim to be members of the Jewish and Christian faiths. Kind of like Pastor Parsley, right?
Not only does John McCain have his own problem ministers, but the Republican Presidential nomination also had a former minister seeking its nomination. Since Mike Huckabee has most recently been active as a politician, not a minister, he deserves a special honorable mention. And for this, I consider him somewhat of an apostate. No longer does he advocate “teach a man to fish” or “he who lives by the sword dies by the sword”. His goal is to get votes and contributions for political campaigns. If he can use the language of religion to do so, then he feels fine. Of course, having become a politician, he probably now feels he has the freedom to lie and twist the truth. While trying to out-conservative his primary opponents, he tried to convince Republican voters that he was the most fiscally conservative of the bunch. But in last week’s article in the Huffington Post shows, he has abandoned that tactic now that he needs to only impress John McCain enough to get the VP nod. Interestingly, he claims he’s attacking libertarianism, but only attacks the fiscal conservatism aspect, NOT the socially liberal aspect. Shame on you, Politician Mike Huckabee!
In concluding this series, while I tend to agree more with Obama’s problem ministers, what does this say about my view of the candidate? I’m definitely disappointed, since I had spent a great deal of time talking up Obama as one of the better Democratic contenders this election cycle (after Kucinich, Gravel, Dodd, and Biden were eliminated, of course). Unless there was some collusion between Rev. Wright and Barack Obama to distance each other, I cannot have faith in a man who would turn away from a mentor so easily in order to secure political power. Fortunately I’ve not impressed anyone enough to have become their person’s spiritual adviser. That sort of shit would be a chilipunk.
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