McCain Finally Rejects Pastors' Endorsement

John McCain Rejects Hagee's Endorsement

One McCain endorser says Hitler was doing "God's work" while another gains reputation for wanting to destroy Islam

Presidential candidate John McCain has been embarrassed in the past few weeks by the statements of right-wing Pastor John Hagee, whose endorsement he actively sought and still said he was glad to have.

But on Thursday he finally rejected the pastor's endorsement, CNN reports.

Hagee has called the Catholic Church "the great whore" and has said that Hurricane Katrina was sent by God to punish New Orleans for an intended gay pride parade. Now newly revealed audio tapes of sermons from the 1990's show Hagee claiming that Hitler was doing "God's work" by forcing the Jews to return to Israel. Hagee has denied that his remarks constitute approval of Hitler any any way and claims he is being mischaracterized.

"I obviously find the remarks and others deeply offensive and indefensible and a repudiate them," McCain said in a statement released late Thursday afternoon.

McCain's statement continues, "I did not know of them before Reverend Hagee's endorsement. I feel I must reject his endorsement as well. I've said I do not believe Senator Obama shares Reverend Wright's extreme views but let me also be clear Reverend Hagee was not and is not my pastor or spiritual advisor and I do not attend his church. I did not attend his church for 20 years. I have denounced statement he made immediately upon learning of them and I do again today."


McCain actively SOUGHT John Hagee's endorsement, and even said he was glad to have his endorsement AFTER learning that Hagee called Catholicism the Great Whore, and AFTER hearing him say that hurrican Katrina was God's judgment on New Orleans for tolerating gay people. That was not enough for McCain to reject his endorsement, but praising Hitler for doing God's will by driving Jews to return to Israel finally did it.

UPDATE: McCain has also rejected the endorsement of his "spiritual advisor" Rod Parsley who claims that the U.S. was founded to "destroy Islam."