On March 16, 2003, on the eve of the United States' invasion of Iraq, Pastor John Hagee took to the pulpit to warn of the coming Antichrist. In his sermon, "The Final Dictator," Hagee described the Antichrist as a seductive figure with "fierce features." He will be "a blasphemer and a homosexual," the pastor announced. Then, Hagee boomed, "There's a phrase in Scripture used solely to identify the Jewish people. It suggests that this man [the Antichrist] is at least going to be partially Jewish, as was Adolph Hitler, as was Karl Marx."

This "fierce" gay Jew, according to Hagee, would "slaughter one-third of the Earth's population" and "make Adolph Hitler look like a choirboy."

Hear Pastor Hagee's latest Judeophobic, anti-gay rant in this video, created by Bruce Wilson of Talk2Action.org

Exposed here for the first time, Hagee's comments identifying the Antichrist as a partly Jewish homosexual arrive in the wake of a furor the pastor provoked by describing the Holocaust as an act of God. Hagee's chilling sermon about the Holocaust prompted Sen. John McCain to reject the preacher's support, an unexpected turnabout after McCain spent over a year soliciting his endorsement.

Days after McCain's rejection, I reported that a key McCain ally, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, planned to deliver the keynote speech at Hagee's upcoming Christians United For Israel (CUFI) summit. As the story exploded into the mainstream press, pressure mounted on Lieberman to withdraw.

But Lieberman stayed the course, declaring in a prepared statement, "Pastor Hagee has devoted much of his life to fighting anti-Semitism and building bridges between Christians and Jews... I will go to the CUFI Summit in July and speak to the people who have come to Washington from all over our country to express their support of America and Israel, based on our shared eternal values and our shared contemporary challenges in the war against terrorism."

Lieberman will be joined at CUFI's conference by Rep. Elliot Engel, a Democratic congressman from New York with a fairly progressive voting record. On Thursday, May 29, I asked Engel's press secretary, Joseph O'Brien, if Engel still planned to attend Hagee's gathering in light of his remarks about the Holocaust. O'Brien told me Engel would respond shortly. So far, Engel has said nothing.

Engel is slated to speak on CUFI's "Middle East Briefing" panel this July. He will be joined on the panel by Republican Rep. Mike Pence, Weekly Standard editor and New York Times columnist Bill Kristol, and Christian right activist Gary Bauer.

Perhaps these Hagee allies could not fathom that a zealous "supporter" of Israel like Hagee could also be an anti-Semite. They may have believed, as conservative Jewish columnist Jeff Jacoby apparently did, that Hagee's remarks on the Holocaust, as jarring as they were, were theologically correct, and therefore excusable. "As anyone even fleetingly familiar with the Hebrew Bible knows," Jacoby wrote, "it is not 'crazy,' let alone anti-Semitic, to believe that Jewish suffering can be a punishment from God."

But now...

But now that Hagee's political allies have listened to the preacher's sermon identifying the Antichrist as a homosexual Jew, how can they still share a stage with him? Is attributing Jewish ancestry to the Man of Sin not anti-Semitism in its most classical form? Are the conspiratorial screeds of Nesta Webster,Henry Ford, and David Duke not replete with passages disturbingly similar to this most recently revealed jeremiad of Hagee and to many of his past sermons?

Hagee's allies must ask themselves what price they are willing to pay for the backing of his political empire. All of them diminish themselves by standing by side. But those who are Jewish like Lieberman, and who have highlighted their faith to enhance their moral authority, must know now that the price of entering Hagee's kingdom is their soul.

No more excuses. All elected officials must withdraw from Hagee's upcoming summit.

Comments (58)

1. "No more excuses. All elected officials must withdraw from Hagee's upcoming summit."

   No. Let them show up. Let them show themselves, for the record, for exactly what they are. Most definitely including the senator from Likud, Liberman the panderer extraordinaire.

   Posted by sloper at 06/02/2008 @ 06:59am

2. Mr Blumenthal, what you've got to realize is...

   Joe the Schmoe needs all the friends he can get, even the Dominionalist Dumpling.

   If sucking up to the Lil' Rapture Rascals is what's needed, he'll do it.

   Posted by Mask at 06/02/2008 @ 08:33am

3. Man, the truth is stranger than fiction.

   Posted by skeletonman at 06/02/2008 @ 08:48am

4. Posted by marybretbrad at 06/2/2008

   Dude, what's worse -

   The ability to sift the words of a man that you have known for 20 years

   Or the undiscriminating search for someone - anyone - who fits a particular demographic, just to have that checkbox filled?

   Posted by skeletonman at 06/02/2008 @ 08:51am

5. A 'fierce' homosexual... is the Anti-Christ Christian Siriano? Wait no.. he's not Jewish.. I know! It's Marc Jacobs! He hasn't slaughtered anyone yet.. maybe we can interpret it loosely to mean that everyone will be wearing mouse-flats, printed silk smocks, date a retired porn star and have Smurf blue hair? You never know. Religion is confusing. Damn (see, I am blaspheming already). That is going to be a hot tranny mess. Thank you for warning us, Pastor Hagee.

   Posted by ftk at 06/02/2008 @ 10:03am

6. The book of Revelations clearly identifies the anti christ as a Roman named Nero,but,like most Christians,Hagee knows little about the religion and prefers to make things up rather than put a little effort into studying.Besides,it's more fun to point the finger at gay Jews rather than study.Revelations does not pass the prophet test that is in the book of Dt,but one would have to study the Bible to know that and it's easier to make things up rather than to actually read the book.The claim made by Hagee and his brand of Christianity is that the Bible is literally true and in the first sentence of Revelations it says that this will happen shortly.As lvliberty has pointed out the word for "shortly"can,also,mean "suddenly", which is true,but irrelevant if your claim is that the Bible is literally true because then you have to go by what it says and not by what it,also,could say.By the way,the subject is Hagee and what he says and not Wright and what he says.

   Posted by i'm nobody at 06/02/2008 @ 10:18am

7. Wait for LV to come on and justify this to all of us in his twisted mind. Well this passage here says "Jesus liked bunnies, so that means all gays are bad and to prevent the Anti-Christ we should burn all the fags at the stake!"

   Seriously this is ridiculous. This is textbook demonization of an entire group. You make people believe that amongst the group there is an inherent evil, I would say the anti-Christ qualifies, and therefore it must be cleansed. Life will be better when we are no longer in election time and this idiot can go back to pandering to the lunatics who actually listen to this crap.

   Posted by Cccomfo1 at 06/02/2008 @ 10:31am

8. Darin, what did McCain call Rod Parsley?

   (I await your dodge with baited breath....heheh)

   Posted by Mask at 06/02/2008 @ 10:35am

9. And to Mary and those of you who believe this will not hurt McCain. If you say something enough people WILL believe it and will associate it. The Right and Hillary said that Obama was a Muslim because there is a picture of him wearing a madrassa from his childhood. They repeated it enough and now people believe it without ever stopping to ask well then why was he in a Christian church for 20 years?

   This relationship is no more volatile than Obama's relationship with Bill Ayers. He served on a board with him a few times, accepted donations. McCain courted Hagee for a n endorsement. Made damn good comments about him. You guys opened the floodgates for this stuff by doing guilt by association. Now accept what you have started because this kind of stuff is not going to go away. However I wonder how many more people in Obama's past can be found? Now I wonder how many people in McCain's past can be found? Maybe a CofCC member he tried to help into office? Or his friend who said David Duke should have run in politics?

   You reap what you sow Mary. You guys wanted to play guilt by association and now you are getting the fruits of your labor.

   Posted by Cccomfo1 at 06/02/2008 @ 10:38am

10. Darin, what did McCain call Rod Parsley?

    (I await your dodge with baited breath....heheh)

    Posted by Mask at 06/2/2008

    I'm guessing something a long the lines of "a spiritual guide is not the same as a spiritual advisor."

    Posted by Cccomfo1 at 06/02/2008 @ 10:39am

11. Jesus gay and half jewish?

    an outrage he was a full jew.

    Posted by emile duBois at 06/02/2008 @ 10:44am

12. For a second I thought Hagee was referring to my pal Isaac, but he's half gay and jewish.

    His twin's also half gay. Hey, maybe the two of them together...?

    Posted by winyahn at 06/02/2008 @ 10:53am

13. I think there's some confusion as to what this is and what it isn't. I think it's undeniable, for reasons including those explicated by earlier posters, that Hagee's rant should not be taken for serious theology by any means. Hagee is crazy, no doubt about that.

    That being said, though, suppose Hagee made the following statement:

    The Antichrist will be a white male.

    Would anyone conclude from that that Hagee is attempting to demonize all white males? Or even that we should be suspicious of all white males? I don't think we would, because Hagee's statement doesn't imply any generalizations about the groups to which the Antichrist is supposedly going to belong, any more than the statement "Adolf Hitler was a German" implies anything positive or negative about Germans as a whole.

    Now, I think the problem tends to come with the fact that one of the groups mentioned IS one that Hagee consistently demonizes, and so one might wonder what it means for Hagee's view of Jews. Therefore, though I think there is at least some reason to be suspicious, and certainly plenty of reason to condemn Hagee's remarks, I don't know that they bear the kind of obvious antisemitism that many here attribute to them.

    Posted by Thrawn at 06/02/2008 @ 10:59am

14. Gays. Jews. None of this matters. Hagee wants to bomb Iran and that's good enough for Joe Lieberman:

    http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?articleId=11541

    Make no mistake about it, Joe Lieberman is a man of principle -- exposing the weakness of the Democratic Party in his effort to end the partisanship in Washington, and the only true Democrat (of the Connecticut For Lieberman party) with the bipartisanship guts to campaign for John McCain (despite their "party" differences). Joe Lieberman is the only "real" Democrat willing to acknowledge that Hagee is "like Moses" and should be embraced regardless of his views.

    Posted by eric72 at 06/02/2008 @ 11:10am

15. Thrawn, good points.

    I would add that part of the structural sting is: dominant group member (white and male) accusation that oppressed / maligned groups (gay, Jewish) are associated with evil.

    This situates the comment in a long, nasty historical context. Potentially pushing it into coded bigotry / discrimination.

    Posted by winyahn at 06/02/2008 @ 11:16am

16. (I await your dodge with baited breath....heheh)

    that should be 'bated' breath, as a shortening of 'abated'.

    Signed, A. Pendant

    Posted by jaymo at 06/02/2008 @ 11:18am

17. baited breath is when you eat your minnows in desperation after not catching any fish.

    Posted by emile duBois at 06/02/2008 @ 11:30am

18. Posted by HAPPY3 at 06/2/2008

    Then Happy will go on and on about Reverend Wright. Didn't McCain call Parsley his spiritual advisor?

    Posted by Cccomfo1 at 06/02/2008 @ 11:43am

19. Posted by HAPPY3 at 06/2/2008

    Hmm handyman advisor and spiritual advisor are a little different Happy. You're so old you have apparently lost sight of reality. A handyman advisor who helps out when you need something done is not even close to the same thing as calling someone your spiritual advisor. Keep spinning HAPPY. Maybe some of your compatriots here actually believe you.

    Posted by Cccomfo1 at 06/02/2008 @ 11:56am

20. HAPPY Translator Program operational....incoming message decoded....translated message as follows:

    "It doesn't count if it's a Republican!"

    ...translation complete.

    heheh

    Posted by Mask at 06/02/2008 @ 12:14pm

21. There is an awful lot of misconception by political junkies that what some pastor says is truly news or op-ed worthy...

    Posted by HAPPY3 at 06/2/2008

    So why does your kind of troll get its knickers bunched up about Rev. Wright?

    Posted by skeletonman at 06/02/2008 @ 12:38pm

22. I am ready for a debate between McCain and Obama. Their views are the ONLY ones I care about at this point. Their pastor's/ spiritual advisor's views mean shit to me.

    Posted by k330k at 06/02/2008 @ 12:58pm

23. Hagee: The Antichrist Is Gay,

    hagee watches south park?

    Posted by frosty zoom at 06/02/2008 @ 1:03pm

24. Posted by frosty zoom at 06/2/2008

    LOL!

    Posted by k330k at 06/02/2008 @ 1:05pm

25. "The book of Revelations clearly identifies the anti christ as a Roman named Nero.."

    Posted by i'm nobody at 06/2/2008

    IM, in what chapter in Revelations did you interpret that from? The last book makes no mention of Nero.

    Posted by ACook at 06/02/2008 @ 1:09pm

26. leonard bernstein

    antichrist...

    <i>I feel pretty,

    Oh, so pretty,

    I feel pretty and witty and bright!

    And I pity

    Any girl who isn't me tonight. </i>

    Posted by frosty zoom at 06/02/2008 @ 1:12pm

27. Happy***it really doesn't much matter how many (flawed) RR pastors `endorse' McCain

    Ah, so it really doesn't matter if Hamas endorses Obama. Thanks for clearing that up.

    Posted by Balrog at 06/02/2008 @ 1:19pm

28. hagee watches south park?

    Posted by frosty zoom at 06/2/2008

    No, no, no. The Antichrist in South Park is a demonic spawn of a porcupine!

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodland_Critter_Christmas

    Posted by Mask at 06/02/2008 @ 1:25pm

29. ACook-Ancient languages,like Greek and Hebrew, had it so that numbers represent letters and 666 comes out to Nero.Nero was the anti christ that the author was referring to.

    Posted by i'm nobody at 06/02/2008 @ 1:28pm

30. I am all for a debate between Wright and Hagee...and then arrest the winner and prosecute the loser.

    Posted by JOMAMMA at 06/2/2008

    I would love to see that. I could imagine them being the best of friends actually.

    Posted by Cccomfo1 at 06/02/2008 @ 1:36pm

31. Posted by JOMAMMA at 06/2/2008

    They would find some kooky common ground.

    Posted by Cccomfo1 at 06/02/2008 @ 1:37pm

32. An interesting fact about the book of Revelations is that it is not original,but,like other parts of Christianity,it is based on a story from Greek mythology which the people at the time would have known about.

    Posted by i'm nobody at 06/02/2008 @ 1:40pm

33. "Happy***it really doesn't much matter how many (flawed) RR pastors `endorse' McCain"

    You mean how many pastors McCain asks for endorsements from. Let's be clear here. He went to them they didn't just endorse him out of the blue. But then you will go on and on about how Hamas "endorses" Obama. Guess the hypocrisy never stops.

    Posted by Cccomfo1 at 06/02/2008 @ 1:40pm

34. how did Obama win the Hamas endorsement? he went to Mecca, walked around the Q'uaba on his knees three times, and kissed the ring of the muslim pope.

    Posted by emile duBois at 06/02/2008 @ 1:43pm

35. An interesting fact about the book of Revelations is that it is not original,but,like other parts of Christianity,it is based on a story from Greek mythology which the people at the time would have known about.

    Posted by i'm nobody at 06/2/2008

    Kind of like how it is contended that the story of Christ is based on Osiris-Dionysus. There's too much proof against it but there are definitely elements in the story of Jesus that I think were taken out of other stories. Of course LV will come on to denounce me with some Bible verse but there are things in the story of Jesus that prove to be too close to the elements of other stories.

    I guess water to wine was a pretty common trick in those days. Do you think all of them were like magicians stealing each others tricks? Or did they just all want to be invited to the best weddings? How about the resurrection trick? Or bread to feed the masses? Raising the dead? I guess they were all common fair back then according to these stories.

    Posted by Cccomfo1 at 06/02/2008 @ 1:49pm

36. Cccomfo1-Hercules was the son of a human maiden and god and the critter satan is the Greek god Hades with a name change.We even use the word hades to mean hell.The fact that most of the people that Paul converted to Christianity were Greek might explain why some of their mythology ended up as part of the religion.

    Posted by i'm nobody at 06/02/2008 @ 1:56pm

37. This Pastorgate tit-for-tat has got to stop.

    Please.

    Posted by Hman23 at 06/02/2008 @ 2:09pm

38. ***The MSM wrote once or twice

    Damn that "liberal" media...

    Posted by Balrog at 06/02/2008 @ 2:45pm

39. And if you believe the NYT, Obama WAS a Muslim and then converted to Christianity. That makes him an apostate, which in islamic countries, is worse than a muderer or rapist.

    Posted by marybretbrad at 06/2/2008

    Hmm wonder why Hamas is endorsing him then? Oh well. I can't seem to find the New York Times article you speak of. I see one article mentioning Obama's faith which doesn't say he was a Muslim. There are other articles saying he attended a secular school with Muslim students in Indonesia but does not contest he was Muslim himself. Nor was the school a madrassa as be people like Libz try to contend.

    ""My whole family was Muslim, and most of the people I knew were Muslim," said Maya Soetoro-Ng, Mr. Obama's younger half sister. But Mr. Obama attended a Catholic school and then a Muslim public school where the religious education was cursory. When he was 10, he returned to his birthplace of Hawaii to live with his grandparents and attended a preparatory school with a Christian affiliation but little religious instruction."

    That's a quote from his half-sister out of a New York Times article. Looks like her was never Muslim. If he was Muslim because he attended a secular school then I guess he was Catholic at the same time.

    Posted by Cccomfo1 at 06/02/2008 @ 2:51pm

40. hajji obama?

    Posted by frosty zoom at 06/02/2008 @ 3:14pm

41. When Stan is watching TV, The Jeffersons theme song is playing.

    Posted by frosty zoom at 06/02/2008 @ 3:16pm

42. Please, people, the last book of the Bible is Revelation. NO PLURALIZING, please. Arrrgggh.

    Posted by santropez11 at 06/02/2008 @ 3:39pm

43. This Pastorgate tit-for-tat has got to stop.

    Please.

    Posted by Hman23

    let 'em jell-o wrestle!

    Posted by frosty zoom at 06/02/2008 @ 4:13pm

44. Hagee, Wright, the Catholic priest, who the hell cares. The one and only unique provision in our Constitution was the absolute separation of church and state.

    Let them rant, rave, declaim, disseminate their religion based opinions, it has nothing to do with our politics.

    John Kennedy ran for the presidency. John Kennedy was a Catholic. When he assured us that not only would he not leave the church, the church would not take precedence over his decisions or responsibilities as president the matter was dropped.

    As long as we give credence and status to religion in our politics, it will gain credence and status. And we and our democracy will suffer in the end.

    Posted by felicity at 06/02/2008 @ 4:23pm

45. Sunday's NY Times Week on Review has an article by the ombudsman on the topic of Obama's supposed apostasy.

    what goes unsaid in this argument is: what if he were muslim? what's the problem with that? I would be happy if a muslim were elected president. anything else is unworthy of Americans.

    Posted by emile duBois at 06/02/2008 @ 4:26pm

46. There is no religious test for federal public office as per the Constitution. Obama is not a Muslim but even if he were SO WHAT? Of course the Reps need to have their enemy to keep people scared and Arabs/Muslims are the new Soviets/Communists. It's a tactic for fear for the undereducated to be exploited to take their minds off the true problems in this country. But hey, they got Grandpa so they gotta do SOMETHING.

    Posted by yutsano at 06/02/2008 @ 4:37pm

47. Posted by HAPPY3 at 06/2/2008

    Yeah problem is happy the people who actually "care" about the pastor stuff are hard right anyway. Polls show most of America doesn't give a damn about Wright last I heard. Which means that 30% who still think GW is doing a bang up job are the ones who are perturbed by it and frankly who cares about their opinion since they are voting right no matter what? In my opinion when you vote along party lines only you lose credibility because you aren't looking for REAL issues and you don't care about the issues themselves you only care about he drama. The fact that Hagee's followers will defend Hagee while condemning Wright is proof of their hypocrisy.

    Posted by Cccomfo1 at 06/02/2008 @ 5:00pm

48. "ACook-Ancient languages,like Greek and Hebrew, had it so that numbers represent letters and 666 comes out to Nero. Nero was the anti christ that the author was referring to."

    Posted by i'm nobody at 06/2/2008

    I disagree. Don't know where you got that from, but Nero was not the anti-christ and Rome didn't fall directly after his death either.

    The anti-christ scripture mentions is in reference to a particular entity that has control of the masses that cause many to turn away from their faith and God.

    Posted by ACook at 06/02/2008 @ 5:04pm

49. Posted by marybretbrad at 06/2/2008

    Ahh I see. I understand the confusion then. Even still. Being born a Muslim is like being a born a Christian in the end it means nothing in the persons path if they choose to reject it. I was born a Christian, I am now without a religion of my own. The first article in my opinion makes no difference to the debate just because he didn't have a choice in what he was born. The way the swift-boaters have made it sound is that every night he goes home and reads the Koran, which has and I think you would agree, been proven wrong.

    Posted by Cccomfo1 at 06/02/2008 @ 5:06pm

50. Posted by ACook at 06/2/2008

    Well remember. The Nero thing doesn't only apply to Nero it was him and his 5 successors that were considered to be the anti-Christ as a whole.

    Posted by Cccomfo1 at 06/02/2008 @ 5:08pm

51. "I was born a Christian,"

    no you are not born a christian, you must be baptized to be a christian.

    there was a special place, not heaven, for those children that died before they were baptized.

    my mother had an infant who died and the catholic church refused to bury the dead baby in the town cemetery. so it was in Austria in the 1940s

    Posted by emile duBois at 06/02/2008 @ 5:13pm

52. Posted by emile duBois at 06/2/2008

    Sorry. I was born and baptized before I had a choice.

    Posted by Cccomfo1 at 06/02/2008 @ 5:21pm

53. The Antichrist will be a white male. ? Hagee is a white man...he is the Antichrist!

    Posted by Nickletoes at 06/02/2008 @ 5:23pm

54. when it looked like I was going to die as an infant, I had what was termed a Nottaufe, a quick bedside emergency baptism.

    later when I joined the catholic church as a teenager, my baptism was termed: if you have not been baptized before, I hereby baptize you...

    Posted by emile duBois at 06/02/2008 @ 5:25pm

55. Pastor Hagee's Pure D

    A new kind of diuretic that will scare the shit out of you- If you're so inclined - Copyright End Times, Inc.

    Posted by Sorelish at 06/02/2008 @ 5:34pm

56. ACook-As Cccomfo pointed out it includes more than just Nero,but Nero did begin the persecution of Christians and Revelation is about that persecution ending.

    Posted by i'm nobody at 06/02/2008 @ 6:57pm

57. So the current president is a "jew", a blasphemer and a homosexual," ?

    Knew about the blasphemer part. Suspected the homosexual but really Mr. Hagee has got it wrong. The antichrist will be a "reformed" christian and meaning reformed, one that is truly anti-Christ, anti-Christian and is a practicing fascist christian.

    Posted by MCINTCLM at 06/03/2008 @ 10:49am

58. the anti christ will be one who claims Jesus favored the death penalty and endless war.

    Posted by emile duBois at 06/03/2008 @ 2:07pm