These rapture evangelists have been ingrained in U.S. society for over two centuries. My great-grandfather's older brother was a Methodist Episcopal minister with a D.D. who wrote seven books, one being an onward christian soldiers-type appeal to young people to use warfare as an overall metaphor for life itself. This was back in the 1880s. Wage war against Satan by providing unquestioning support to your wise political leaders who were put in positions of authority by God. (i.e. Romans 13:1-3)

Hagee has not advocated anyone fly a plane into buildings, burn school girls alive because they did not have burkas, advocate rape and murder due to skin color or religious belief.
He simply speaks.
What if he converted to Islam and then said the same things? The author and everyone else on this sight would shout for joy!!!

These men do not speak for God or Jesus Christ in any way shape or form. Christ was not a bigot, a woman-hater and didn't despise anyone. I doubt the Christianity of these people and their follower and so should you.

Thank you Siouxrose for you wisdom.
I would respectfully add.
Having been raised in the Missionary setting---Christians doing their best to send those Native People to heaven-----"or at least make sure they go there killing them off".

My many questions were never answered and much friction was experienced when as a Child I asked--the question--Why does God need so much help from Humans?
The answer: Religion; and Human beings invent Religion and Religion would not exist without a "God" invented for the Religion. And the only reason to teach Religion is to make slaves of the believers. Believers of all Religions give money to their God, "the first fruit", the "tithe", the "offering" etc.
Unfortunately this line of questioning did not reach my relatives ---and they are still slaves.

Much suffering has been inflicted upon all living things on this planet, from the smallest creatures to the "Human Masters, BY the Human Master on their slaves"----in the name of one God or another---that always seem to need help from Humans------or slaves.
"Megachurches" are built, Great Cathedrals, erected in the name of a "God", while many live in poverty, often within sight of the "temple of propitiation of the slaves, built by the slaves, with their own labor and or money"
What is a slave but one who works for a master, in order for the "Master", to live off of the slave's labor.
Until Humankind relieves itself of the need for "God", progress will be stifled, and as with the lessons of history, often oppressed.
Until recently however, the means to destroy all life, within the definitions now accepted as "life forms", was outside of Human control, and limited to small areas, places, etc. The "Slaves" ability to wreak destruction upon the "non-slave" was limited.
The teachings of the Christians, i.e. if you do not believe as we do you will not go to heaven, was taken from the Jews (by theft)and later adopted by the Muslims--all are "Slaves". Totally brainwashed (or they would not be "believers") and ready to die----and go to heaven----and it does not bother them at all to speed things up with a good "Holy War", "Holocaust", or "Armageddon".

The USA dominated by Christians, and Israel a "Jewish state", now have the weapons to settle the question, that they alone present-----"will YOU go to heaven"

A good start might be, to take the BILLIONS given to Israel by the USA, and use it to "Re-Educate" people, who were taught as children all about that mean, vindictive, jealous God that needs help from Humans ("slaves"). Free them from true slavery----"work hard for the 'master' you slave"-----"send God some money".
Then the "Slave Masters", Preachers, Rabbis, Mullahs, etc----AND Parents that teach this to innocent children, will be required to find gainful employment elsewhere.

And some prison space might be made available for those who teach children about such a foolish notion, (after some serious laws passed to prohibit that act). This would not be a violation of the 1st Amendment, making it a violation of law to teach a child religion. Children are not allowed to vote, serve in the military, or even work in a factory (that is not family owned)----It is a violation of law to have sex with a child, it is a violation of law to sell a child, and killing one, gives a person a special place in prison, most often for life. Children could be taught the "law"---don't steal, don't lie etc-----but to teach a child religion---makes them a slave often for life.

Sadly, slaves who free them selves of that slavery, are often persecuted by others. Their own families, most often, then other sections of society. But if this is the price for being free of the slavery of religion, then it is better to live alone, in a cave, than as a slave.

Humankind, and all of nature, would be so much better off without Religion----and the slavery it requires would end .

When the founding fathers set up the rules for this country, they should have banned public expression of god belief. We would have been a lot better off.

There should be examples of Wilson's allegations. This is 3rd hand nothing. I think Hagee is a warmongering , fearmongering fool but there is no new information here and I like substance to a critique. Also I don't really see hatred of Jews here. Opportunism yes. It is his vision of God that is sick . And it is not a new vision . Several OT prophets , unable to theologically explain how Israel was being overrun by one imperial army after another, argued that these empires were empowered by God to purify and judge his people(Jeremiah, Joel, Daniel...) The logical conclusion of this thinking is that God used all the great mass murderers of history to accomplish his "mysterious" will, from Ghengis Khan to Napoleon, to the Conquistadors, to George Bush , LBJ and Hitler.

This doctrine combined with Zoroastrian apocalypticism caught on in Israel around the end of the Babylonian captivity. The ideas were associated especially with the Pharisees and helped shape the future of Christianity through the Pharisee Paul. Here they are again in full violent regalia in Hagee's ideas. But I think it only honest to acknowledge an element of this madness in Likkud style Zionism, and American imperialism. Hagee is not alone.

Tech2 in no way agrees with Hagee? It is wrong to quote Hagee without getting his excuses for having spewed his anti jew hatred and his false religion? There is a difference between slander and debate and Hagee slanders. Quit protecting him by parsing words and pretending you could get an honest answer out of a fear-mongering racist like Hagee.

Hagee is one of the most dangerous men in America. Let me say that right up front.

His interest in Israel extends no further than his interpretation of the Book of Revelations which, he says, states that when the end comes, Jews will have a choice: convert or be damned. There's is simply a role that must be played.

He has a line into the White House and has had an impact on policy. Google it. It's there.

He, and his followers, are actively trying to bring about the end of the worldthrough war with Iran and Russia. Don't takemy word for it. Google it. It's there.

Personally, I thank McCain for bringing Hagee's name into mainstream consciousness. he'sone of those creatures of darkness that whithers in direct sunlight.

The Jewish lobby will rue the day they made common cause with Rapture nuts like Hagee in a short term alliance of convenience. The Hagee's of the world long term goals bode ill for the Jewish people if one bothers to fully read their literature or listen to their sermons, as their feelings about Israel are based in emotional liturgy. Right now, these nuts love Israel, but Jews would be well advised to remember Machiavelli's warning about being loved by a populace, as love is an emotion that can easily turn to hate very quickly.

Can't recall reading of Hitler studying for the priesthood.Joe Stalin certaintly did in between robbing banks and other nasty little criminal activities.

You have to wonder what high rank Leiberman,Hagee,et all,would have reached in the nazi heirachy! The insane assylums were too full of the sane for them to go there and the previous inmates were outside running the country.

I would agree with Siouxrose, I would also say that everything she said would apply equally to the Koran.

J A REILLY: Interesting post. Anyone who takes the Bible as direct word of God, even though it's been edited & revised all through the centuries to SUIT the ruling elites, cannot possibly be open-minded or progressive. The best interpretations use the Bible for metaphorical purposes. What's chilling and approaches the status of anti-Christ is anyone using the name of Jesus (purported Christians) to stage a war against others. ANYONE using GOD's NAME in ANY form to KILL another obviously has missed the point about what God/religion is intended for: UPLIFT, spiritual realization of the fundamental ONENESS of humanity, a TREE with many INTENDED branches (i.e. races/ethnicities). THAT war is being furthered with religious applause & cheerleading shows that for too many spiritual evolution has never progressed one iota over the long & bloody centuries. THIS is the great tragedy of our times, and its martyrs are those laid to waste in Iraq and its neighboring nations.

Again, I have bad news - at least for believers... What Hagee said about Hitler and the Jews is entirely consistant with the Bible.

Christianity is part of the problem, my friends! If we are ever to move forward, it must be smashed and buried forever, and replaced with secular humanism. Jesus (if even a real person) was a fraud, and the Bible is LOADED with falsehoods that any idiot can find, if really seeking truth. Almost worse than the falsehoods are the vagueries that allow the most evil people on the planet to claim Christianity as their own.

Your god is only a perverse fantasy. What will it take to convince you? How about this: if the Christian god exists, may he strike me down now, so that I don't infect his sheep. I'm waiting... Still waiting... Oops - I'm still here!

This whole media-manufactured outrage over Hagee's stupid beliefs only reveals the media's greater bias.

It took a statement about Jews to get them to stand on their hind legs. Nope, even the anti-Catholic bullshit didn't do it.

Fact is, Hagee has been preaching the annihilation of Arabs and Muslims for years. He preaches that Israel should drive the Palestinians out, by whatever means necessary. He preaches bombing Iran with nuclear weapons. He preaches the slaughter of 100's of millions of people. He has done this for years. He sees all Arabs and Muslims as only subhumans to be butchered for Israel. The media played deaf.

But when he says something about Jews, he's called to account.

Tells you something.

Let me see, Rev. Wright says GD America, as I myself have at least 100, give or take a few, times a day for 7 12 years, yet a white, is he an Evangelical, what the hell is he, any way Hagee and his followers awaiting the Rapture, lovin' him some Hitler is supported by Zionests and LIE-berman the worst of the worst, and McInsane just says, "Later, Pastor Freak" and all is wine and roses, angels descend and sing to whomever on high and all is well with the right wing Xtian lunatics??? Regardless of how much you hate Obama everyone knows exactly what the fuck is up!~

The head of Reform Judaism actually had the balls to ask his fellow Jews to avoid Hagee. Can't see into his future but there is that saying, "No good deed goes unpunished."

"Hitler being sent by God to force the Jews to pack their bags for Israel"

The thing is, the ruling elites religion is one where they are God. Look at who financed Hitler in the run-up to the war.

There is more truth to this statement than not. Religous Jews were human sacrifices made for the secular Jewish state to be. The purpose of Israel was to establish a pro-Western state in the oil rich Middle East to destabilize it, and in the end expand it's borders much like Americas 13 colonies expanded, by ethnic cleansing and genocide of the native populations. The same people that created America created Israel. We all live to serve the Queen. The British Empire lives, Israel and America just do their dirty work. They have simply outsourced their Empire building.

Zionism was able to succeed only with secular British Christian elites support, the likes of Cecil Rhodes and their racist plans for Globalization. It was just one of their tools used to facilitate Globalization.

Religous Christians (eastern) were genocided in WW I and it's aftermath, religous Jews in WW II (as well as some more Christians), Muslims in GWOT-some call it WW III (new weapons that can create Tsunamis and Floods are also used). It's time for them to deal with the religous Christians in the west, primarily Catholics and other "religous" Christians. Hagee calls the Catholic Church the Great Whore that the revelations predicts will be destroyed This is all part of the NWO plot to eliminate religion.

The fact that Tony Blair has converted to Catholicism, as has Jeb Bush, and rumours are that George Bush is considering the same is ominous, given that their man "OBL" has threatened the Vatican. I am not religous but it seems clear that religion is a target of the Globalists, who really are nothing more than Marxists gone fascist.

Where does one find this so-called "Second Book of Joel"? I know of only one Book of Joel, of whose second chapter it might indeed reasonably (if profoundly unpoetically) be said that it "concerns prophecy forecasting the invasion and 'desolation' of Israel".

frank, frank, frank. Why go for the rap vote? Come November, their IDs won't be accepted as valid; they won't be allowed to vote . . . and if they are, their provisional ballots won't be counted.

The "mega-preacher" has a brainwashed flock of 20,000 - not even enough to fill the Staples Center for a Laker's loss. Why is anyone even paying attention to this nut-job? There's, like, 299,980,000 Americans who've never even heard of him, and could give a flying rat's ass.

And where's all this "magnitude of the anti-Jewish hatred that has been stoked from American pulpits and American televangelist broadcast networks"? Is it manifesting in a rise in anti-Semitic crimes? Are Jews being refused jobs or housing? Are Jews being incarcerated at criminally disproportionate rates like, say, blacks and Latinos? Again, we're talking about the fringe "haters" who also hate blacks, foreigners, liberals, women, and whatever other target for their anger some fellow insane traveler points to.

Hagee's cult barely tops 20G - P. Diddy, however, has over 1,000,000 "friends" on MySpace. My advice to the candidates - forget the nut vote. Go for the rap vote.

So atheist you don't like freedom of speech or thought? You want to force everyone to limit themselves to your idea of appropriate speech. Atheist versions of thought control were tried in China, Russia, and Cambodia. It was just as bad as Theological mass murder.

" The San Antonio, Texas-based mega-preacher with the multi-million-dollar empire..."

Perhaps my memory isn't what it used to be, but didn't Jesus espouse the virtues of poverty? Or perhaps that no longer applies.

Bill Donohue may have "gone ballistic" over the Great Whore crap, but he certainly accepted Hagee's "sincere apology" in record time. Why?

Bill Donohue should have told Hagee to take his apology and go pound salt. But perhaps the Catholic Church is such an easy target these days due to their complicity with evangelicals.

The Catholic Worker Movement is all that substantially remains of the Catholic Church's original mission.

Disenfranchised Catholics should make your opinions about Hagee and the pointless, powerless evangelicals known to the Catholic League (www.catholicleague.org).

Ken Nuti
Medford, MA

thanks jareilly for clearing up a misconception I had.

Your statement that Hagee is incapable of reasoned arguement, clears up some of questions I had on this article.

If you and the author believe that someone is inacapable of coherent debate, then, all you have left is to look up the public record on what they say. that seems a rather one sided approach, moreover, it allows you to interpret without any rebuttle. What ever turns you on.

Again, I am in no way defending Hagee's statements, or am I in agreement with him.

My comments are directed towards the difference between slander, and debate.

In the strange world according to Hagee, since God sent Hitler to move the Jews to Jerusalem, Hilter is therfore an "Ish Elochim", "a man of God, and, like Moses, he was the leader of a mighty multitude."

Of course, he sent millions of them to Jerusalem by way of the ovens, but that is just a detail....

also, someone remind that fat fuck Hagee that Gluttony is a SIN!!

Looks like The Great Whore mounted on a Savage Beast described in the Book of Revelation does not symbolize only the Catholic Church,as asserted by Evangelicals, like "Porks Chops" Hagee, but, ALL religions that have prostituted themselves to governments for political favor....including the Evangelicals themselves. Any day now the Savage Beast or worldy governments that the Harlot is "riding" will turn against Her, according to the Book.

There is no argument as to whether "End Times" theology is racist and anti-semitic. It is patently both for many reasons, including the idea (from Revelations, I think) that the Jews will have to convert to Christianity during the End Times or spend eternity in hell. Hagee covets his Washington DC connections so in recent years he has downplayed all that but it's a core "teaching" among believers. But let's get right to Hagee's Hitler comment. He said God sent Hitler to push the Jews "back" to Israel. All political speech is coded and this particular line of code is not at all difficult to decipher. Hagee is saying that the Jews are to blame for the Holocaust (He is also saying that God is to blame for the Holocaust which is more than bizarre and barbaric coming from a Christian preacher, but that's kind of a different issue). Hitler, according to Hagee was doing the Jews a favor, teaching them a spiritual lesson. How is it not racist to blame Europe's Jews for the Holocaust? And how is it not delusional to assert such a thing? Who wants to call Hagee's church for clarification? Who believes that Hagee and his church are capable of any sort of clarity on any issue, let alone Hagee's previous statements.

Hagee is appalling, of course, but what is far worse is the crowd of often nominally liberal or centrist Israel supporters like Joe Lieberman cozying up to a Hagee and his large crew of militant religious absolutists. Lieberman is endorsing a cartoon "Classics Illustrated" Christian (and Jewish) theology, a poisonous doctrine at the center of which there is no real spiritual or ethical core, only bleak, illiterate, pre-civilized superstitions, gut-fears and infantile magic thinking. This kind of "christianity" is a cult of death. Joe Lieberman actually cast a lot of fairly liberal votes up until about 10 years ago. Now he's kissing the ring of a rank apocalyptic ranter and totalitarian. If this is what it means to "love Israel" I'd hate to see what it looks like to hate it.

So this type of behavior of a Pastor is acceptable for the majority. But if your black and a Pastor and say something crazy or different then you are thrown under a bus for it.

This country makes me laugh more and more every day.

Damn religious nut jobs every where. It's so frustrating.

We are all the people with common sense?

I am in no way a supporter of all of Hagee's views.

But this article, and the mindset of the author is dangerous in my opinion.]
Labeling is a cheap politcal trick, whereas debate about ideas and principles is real politics.

Just looking around for some soundbite to build into a mountain is not politics.

Here is an idea: If you want to know what John Hagee thinks about Jews,

1) phone him up and ask him

2) send his ministry an e-mail and ask him

3) study his sermons, or whatever he says and then compile a complete view.

No these are too simple for the author. True debate about prinicples and issues is too far beyond the mindset that this author represents.

This article is gossip, not journalism.

Berserk zionists like Lieberman, Pipes, Horowitz and their ilk have a cozy relationship with christian nut jobs like Hagee because they have a common interest - money and power. Religion is merely the convenient means to that end. That and the demonization of some "other" be it Arabs or Jews or gays. None of them really care who that "other" is just that there is an "other". People will never learn no matter how obvious the snake oil they are imbibing.

Hitler studied for the priesthood but this...
...this is just mental self abuse and Big Time Fraud.

Now we can add religious whore to the already existing whores who sell their stuff in D.C. The media whores and the political whores will face stiff competition. But the bottom line will always be that the corporate whores will set the price and conditions for all transactions.
Hoa binh

Fanatic Christians, neo cons, zionists, thieves, liars, murderers, politicians. Show me the difference.

Wasnt Hitler sent by God?
If God controls everything then Hitler was created by God.
Hitler had a purpose.
Hagee was just speaking the truth.