All Posts Tagged With: "lieberman"

Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) is scheduled to give the keynote address at Pastor John Hagee’s ‘Christians United for Israel’ Summit on July 22^nd. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Hagee, he is the founder and pastor of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas. Cornerstone is a non-denominational, charismatic church with 19,000 members. He is also CEO of his non-profit corporation, Global Evangelism Television (GETV) as well as President and CEO of John Hagee Ministries, which telecasts his national television and radio ministries on 160 TV stations, 50 radio stations and eight networks. On February 7, 2006, Hagee found Christians United for Israel, which calls itself “a national grassroots movement focused on the support of Israel.”

It was after McCain sought and received Hagee’s endorsement that the controversy began. Hagee’s radical view about Catholicism, Islam, the holocaust and the link between homosexuality and Hurricane Katrina came to the forefront. Then it was revealed Hagee preached to his throng that Hitler was doing God’s bidding as “the force and fear of Hitler’s Nazis drove the Jewish people back to the only home that God ever intended the Jews to have - Israel.” McCain had been steadfast in sticking with Hagee up until that point, and I assure you that McCain would not have renounced his association with Hagee had he not been pressured. On the contrary, Joseph Lieberman, himself a Jew married to the daughter of Holocaust survivors, must be in some type of fundamentalist trance.

Many progressive Jews, like Rabbi Jonathan Biatch of Temple Beth El in Madison, Wisconsin, believe that Hagee would like to exacerbate the tensions in the Middle East in order to bring about Armageddon. Peace is not in the best interest of the Rapture. At the 2006 CUFI event, Hagee stated that “The United States must join Israel in a pre-emptive military strike against Iran to fulfill God’s plan for both Israel and the West…a biblically prophesized, end-time confrontation with Iran, which will lead to the Rapture, Tribulation and the Second Coming of Christ.” Today we’re closer than we’ve ever been to that scenario and it’s frightening to those who can see Hagee’s ulterior motives. Joseph Lieberman can never be accused of having vision, even though he knew of Hagee’s controversial view on the holocaust before McCain renounced his endorsement.

To Hagee, the Jews are nothing more than a means to an end. He supports a pre-emptive military strike on Iran in order to create Armageddon. After the battle, Jesus will return to Jerusalem and cleanse the earth of evil. But here’s the catch that seems to be eluding Lieberman’s rumored supply of gray matter: The non-believers, which include none other than the Jews, along with Muslims, Hindus and mainline Christians, must convert in order to be spared eternal damnation. One would think Lieberman would get it, but he doesn’t. Here’s what he had to say at the 2007 CUFI event:

I begin by thanking your founder, Pastor John Hagee. I would describe Pastor Hagee with the words the Torah uses to describe Moses, he is an “Ish Elochim,” a man of God because those words fit him; and, like Moses he has become the leader of a mighty multitude in pursuit of and defense of Israel.”

Unlike Lieberman, others are separating themselves from Hagee. Democratic Congresswoman Betty McCollum (MN) declined to attend an April 29 ‘Night to Honor Israel’ scheduled for Brooklyn Park, a suburb of Minneapolis, citing “Hagee’s extremism, bigotry and intolerance.

“To get in bed with the hard Christian right on Israel is a dangerous path,” said Daniel Sokatch, executive director of the Los Angeles-based Progressive Jewish Alliance. “This is a hard-driving, extremely smart and successful movement to essentially recast the U.S. as a Christian nation, and if Jews don’t think that empowering that group in American foreign policy isn’t part and parcel of empowering that group on domestic policy, they’re wrong.”

As a progressive Democrat, I resent that the mainstream media labels Senator Joseph Lieberman an ‘independent democrat.’ He is nothing of the sort. His steadfast support of the offensive and bigoted Reverend John Hagee brings disgrace on the U.S. Senate. In spite of the furor as a result of Hagee’s outrageous comments, Senator Lieberman will indeed be the keynote speaker at Hagee’s Christians United for Israel (CUFI) summit this July. The fact that his colleagues allow him to continue his blind support without calling for him to reject Hagee only serves to deepen the disgrace. Hagee’s latest piece of poisonous propaganda would have us believe that he has a direct line to God (perish the thought), but it is only one more hateful verbal assault in a long line.

The latest furor comes over a sermon Hagee gave on the eve of the invasion of Iraq describing the coming anti-Christ as a “blasphemer and a homosexual.” In this insult from the pulpit, called “The Final Dictator,” Hagee goes on to tell 19,000 members of his Cornerstone Church that the anti-Christ will come out of Germany and that he will at least be “partially Jewish.” If Hagee has the Jews in his sights, they are not alone. He has already stated that Hurricane Katrina happened because New Orleans had schedule its Gay Pride Parade for the Monday Katrina came ashore. He also tells his followers that Muslims have a mandate to kill Christians and Jews because it is taught in the Quran.

Perhaps the most chilling belief harbored by Hagee was revealed in a 2006 address to CUFI that proposes the United States and Israel must collaborate on a military pre-emptive strike on Iran in order to fulfill God’s ultimate plan. According to Hagee, the plan is “a biblically prophesized end-time confrontation with Iran, which will lead to the Rapture, Tribulation, and Second Coming of Christ.” While many Americans shrug Hagee off as a “nut” that nobody listens to, think again. CUFI has rapidly grown into one of the most powerful and influential Christian grassroots organizations in America. Hagee clearly has the ear of those formulating government policy or long-time, influential public servants like Joseph Lieberman would not give him the time of day let alone agree to be a keynote speaker at one of his summits.

There’s plenty of disgrace to go around Washington over this, so let’s by all means share some with the House. Representatives Elliot Engel (D-NY) and Republican Mike Pence will also be joining Lieberman at the CUFI summit in July, speaking on the “Middle East Briefing” panel. Engel’s participation is surprising since he has amassed a pretty progressive voting record. Bill Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard and conservative New York Times columnist and right-wing Christian activist Gary Bauer will also participate.

That Kristol and Bauer are participating is not surprising. One only has to visit the CUFI site to get a feel for Hagee’s supporters. That Washington policy makers are participating is both disturbing and absolutely frightening. Senator Lieberman should reject Hagee’s venomous beliefs by backing out of the summit immediately. He should then call on his compatriots Engel and Pence to do the same. There is absolutely no place in our government for such an unholy alliance.