Sam Stein, HuffPost
John Hagee, the controversial evangelical leader and endorser of Sen. John
McCain, argued in a late 1990s sermon that the Nazis had operated on God's
behalf to chase the Jews from Europe and shepherd them to Palestine. According to the Reverend, Adolph
Hitler was a "hunter," sent by God, who was tasked with expediting
God's will of having the Jews re-establish a state of Israel.
Going in and out of biblical verse, Hagee preached: "'And they the
hunters should hunt them,' that will be the Jews. 'From every mountain
and from every hill and from out of the holes of the rocks.' If that
doesn't describe what Hitler did in the holocaust you can't see that."
He goes on: "Theodore Hertzel is the father of Zionism. He was a Jew
who at the turn of the 19th century said, this land is our land, God wants us
to live there. So he went to the Jews of Europe and said 'I want you to come
and join me in the land
of Israel.' So few went
that Hertzel went into depression. Those who came founded Israel; those
who did not went through the hell of the holocaust.
"Then god sent a hunter. A hunter is someone with a gun and he forces
you. Hitler was a hunter. And the Bible says -- Jeremiah writing -- 'They
shall hunt them from every mountain and from every hill and from the holes of
the rocks,' meaning there's no place to hide. And that might be offensive
to some people but don't let your heart be offended. I didn't write it,
Jeremiah wrote it. It was the truth and it is the truth. How did it happen?
Because God allowed it to happen. Why did it happen? Because God said my top
priority for the Jewish people is to get them to come back to the land of Israel." (Listen to the audio
below.)
The sermon, which was first posted by
Bruce Wilson on his site, Talk To Action, adds another element to Hagee's
controversial stance on the state and history of Israel. It also may provide a new
round of political headaches for McCain who has admitted that seeking out
Hagee's endorsement was a mistake, but still declared himself "glad to
have" it.
A spokesman for Hagee confirmed the authenticity of the remark, which can be
found at around the 1:08 mark of his sermon "Battle For Jerusalem."
Since McCain secured the endorsement, both his campaign and Hagee have been
pressed to explain a series of derogatory remarks the Reverend made about the
Catholic Church, including his reference to the institution as "the Great
Whore."
Hagee has since apologized for those remarks. But his interpretation of the
role of the Nazis could be harder to dismiss, in part because McCain and Sen.
Barack Obama are expected to compete heavily over the Jewish vote come the
general election, in part because McCain has said he admires Hagee's commitment
to Israel, but mainly because similar theories have found their way into much
of the Reverend's writings.
As Wilson notes, in his 2006 book "Jerusalem Countdown", Hagee
proposed the theory that "anti-Semitism, and thus the Holocaust, was the
fault of Jews themselves -- the result of an age old divine curse incurred by
the ancient Hebrews through worshiping idols and passed, down the ages, to all
Jews now alive." He also wrote that "Most readers will be shocked by
the clear record of history linking Adolf Hitler and the Roman Catholic Church
in a conspiracy to exterminate the Jews."
Hagee is considered, in many political circles, to be one of the most
passionate and strident supporters of Israel. He has spoken at AIPAC
conferences and leads the evangelical group Christians United for Israel. But his
views of the country, while possibly shared by others in the evangelical
community, can be, at times, startling. Holding to the belief that Armageddon
will come to earth following the reestablishment of the Kingdom
of Israel, Hagee has advocated an
aggressive war against Iran
and has opposed any Israeli military withdrawal from the West
Bank.
McCain, at least in the public record, has sought to thread the needle with the
Hagee association: distancing himself from the controversial comment while
reaping the political benefits of the Reverend's endorsement. Appearing on ABC's
"'This Week" in late April 2008, McCain criticized Hagee's past
remarks on the Catholic Church, but said that, "I admire and appreciate
his advocacy for the state of Israel, the independence of the state of
Israel."