Last week when John W. McCain accepted an endorsement from John "End Times" Hagee, McCain said:
All I can tell you is I'm very proud to have pastor Hagee's support.
But with questions being raised about anti-Catholic statements made by him, Hagee has been forced to issue a statement expressing shock and sadness that his words have been "mischaracterized":
I have always had great love for Catholic people and great respect for the Catholic Church. My wife comes from a Catholic family and millions of my viewers are Catholics. I am shocked and saddened to learn of the mischaracterization of my views on Catholics that has spread while I spent the weekend celebrating the 50th anniversary of my entry into the ministry with family and friends. [...]
To call me 'anti-Catholic' makes about as much sense as calling me 'anti-Protestant.' I am, most assuredly, neither.
Well there you have it; he is, most assuredly, not anti-Catholic. We can forget that he called the Catholic Church "the great whore," and "a false cult system." That was said with love and respect. And when he said that there is a "clear record of history linking Adolf Hitler and the Roman Catholic Church in a conspiracy to exterminate the Jews," he didn't really mean that the Church conspired with Hitler to exterminate Jewish people. Of course he didn't. In fact, we should call him the Straight Talking Pastor.
John Hagee is a lover, not a hater. And now that he's cleared up all of those misconceptions, perhaps our intrepid press corps could get a clarification from Senator Straight Talk, because after questions were raised about Hagee, McCain said:
...that does not mean that I endorse everything that he stands for and believes in.
So please, let's find out exactly which beliefs McCain doesn't endorse. Is it Hagee's past statements about Catholics? Because if that's the case, doesn't that mean that McCain is denouncing and rejecting the statement from Hagee saying he has great respect for the Catholic Church? And wouldn't that be calling the man whose endorsement McCain "proudly" accepted a liar? Or does McCain believe that saying the Catholic Church is the great whore who conspired with Hitler can be explained away?
And when the press clears that up, maybe they could ask McCain if he agrees that the victims of Hurricane Katrina were the "recipients of the judgement of God" for their sins. Hagee was pretty adamant about that one.