Obama repudiated Wright's statements, why can't McCain repudiate Parsley's?
Submitted by DonL on May 9, 2008 - 8:32pm.
Civil Liberties
"John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has been called upon to renounce a church leader he considers his spiritual guide for urging a Christian war to destroy the “false religion” of Islam.
A number of prominent US weblogs demanded he reject the support of Reverend Rod Parsley, of the World Harvest Church of Columbus, an influential televangelist and political figure who campaigned alongside him in the run up to the Ohio primary.
On February 26, a week before the Ohio vote, Mr McCain appeared at a campaign rally in Cincinnati with the evangelical pastor, who praised the candidate as a “strong, true, consistent conservative”. With Mike Huckabee, a Baptist preacher, then continuing to snap at his heels, Mr Parsley’s endorsement was a boon to Mr McCain’s efforts to knock out his last remaining challenger and win over social conservatives. Standing side-by-side with the minister, Mr McCain hailed him as a “spiritual guide”.
Since then, the writings of Mr Parsley have attracted attention from political commentators. Several have noted that Mr McCain's Democratic rival, Barack Obama, was forced to publicly denounce and reject the support of Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam, after he received unsolicited praise from the controversial figure."
Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article3548250.ece
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No law regarding the establishment of religion, no war outside the law.
Thanks for reading,
Donald C. Lindsay
Obama, 08
I would reserve the word 'conservative' from a description of Rev. Parsley's followers. It demeans the word.
They can call themselves conservatives, just like some socialists call themselves liberals.
But it don't make it so.
We all know the evangelicals have been trying to recruit jailbirds for the last 6-8 years and have had to be barred from prisons by the Supreme Courts of severals states from establishing some kind of power backup consisting of hardened criminal believer muscle.
There isn't much about Parsley and the like that are conservative. They are rather extremist radicals, actually. Quite dangerous as well.
These churches hire their own thugs and perform searches of people that enter their buildings and when challenged about it on the grounds of liberty and illegal searches they answer that theirs is 'private property' and 'there's alot of anti-Christian sentiment'. Not very self-consistent these folks; it's not their property, it's God's, and there isn't alot of anti-Christian sentiment, there is alot of anti-extremist-evangelical-theocrat sentiment, and rightly so. You don't win by making more enemies than freinds, and the lives of alot of our Muslim friends hang on what the United States does.
To continue, it's also well know that Blackwater is run by a prominent evangelical, a guy named 'Prince'.
The Bush Administration has given some of these militant and violent groups a virtual free pass in alot of ways because they pay him a tribute.
McCain is surely seeking that same tribute that Bush has recieved from them.
It's not an indictment of Christianity, although many of these characters frame it as such when they are prosecuted for breaking the law. The first thing they scream is, 'WE'RE NOT THE TERRORISTS!'
In the extreme, they go the way of Rev. Parsley, who doesn't really care anymore if Americans start looking at him as a threat to national security, as long as he can find a few martyrs that will support him, he'll continue to weaken the United States.
And for what? To keep the terror going just a little bit more. And for what? So scared teenage girls will do what he wants.
I'm a Democrat, think I ain't ready to fight terrorism? It's long past time that we shoulda turned this ship into the wind. Let's get this primary business done with ASAP and get back to what we're good at.
The Templars were eventually disowned by the churches and branded as traitors, a fate not unlike it waits for many of the likes of one Rev. Parsley.
And of course the media DOES try to take the far right to task over these preachers. I won't hold my breath waiting for Rev. Parsley's trial.
The media is giving him a free ride on it while hammering Obama with wall to wall coverage of Rev. Wright, courtsey of Rupert Murdoch *aka darth vader in a suit*
Obviously McCain thinks he can get some political milage out of Rev. Parsley, maybe he even agrees with his views on Islam, it is hard to say with John *100 years in Iraq* McCain.
However, I think McCain should remember George Allen's Macaca moment, sometimes bigotry can be a death blow to a campaign. Rev. Parsley and Rev. Hagee will be made an issue should McCain, Faux or any of the 527s start hitting Obama on Wright or Farrakhan, both of whom Obama has already rejected and denounced.
However, it is very telling what a vote for John McCain is endorsing if he does not reject and denounce Parsley and Hagee, the last crusade, a crusade predicated on religious zealotry, but in truth waged to slake America's ever growing thirst for oil...
I hope it did, but the media tends to seize upon one incident and claim it was the whole cause of a downfall--like Howard Dean's "scream". Weren't there other reasons to assume that Dean wouldn't make it? And why hasn't BO's numerous clueless statements done him in? A large number of voters are not anywhere as PC as the media. Their sensitivity lies in matters like respect for the flag and the troops. Jim Webb had a good base there, didn't he?
Macaca was a turning point, before his Macaca moment, Allen led by massive double digits and looked unbeatable, after Macaca the tide turned in our favor.
It highlighted Allen for what he was, and made people more open to Webb. Webb was always Webb, Allen's Macaca moment didn't change that, but voters gave him a fresh look and liked what they saw more than Allen's bigotry and cowboy dress up games. Also it did wonders for Webb's cash flow.
There's oil in other places.
There's oil in Alaska, Angola, Sudan, and off of our shores.
If it was really that much about oil, we'd be going to those places in a bigger way, no matter how loud the EPA screamed, it would be a matter of survival.
Oil is part of it, yes. A big part, perhaps the biggest, but belief is part of it as well. A big part.
It would be difficult to underestimate what the Bush Administration has done to encourage extremists like Rev. Parsley with things that have been done under the aegis of Faith Based Initiatives.
These churches have been led to believe they are a critical part of the defense establishment, both by Rumsfeld's 'Total War' doctrine, which tapped into private businesses owned and operated by evangelicals like Prince and offered Federal dollars to do things in Iraq, ala Haliburton, and domestically by Faith Based Initiative dollars which went to churches to provide social services that actively discriminated against non-evangelical or liberal organizations.
The Hurricane Katrina disaster is an example of that. Federal dollars authorized by Congress to help the poorest in that area are withheld long enough for wealthy evangelical Republicans to buy land that the poor are unable to improve or rebuild houses on. The city and state governments disposess these poor people of their land and award building contracts to developers that gentrify neighborhood beyond the ability of the pre-Katrina residents to afford, all sanctioned by 35 year old Republican governer Jindal's administration.
These things have little to do with oil. They have alot to do with religious bigotry, which defends the interests of it's political alliances with neocons like Jindal.
I wrote a blog previously about Jindal and what I saw while I was volunteering in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans last summer. He's a puppet of rural religious landowners who don't feel they can afford any heat from Federal investigators because of all the slime they've allowed themselves to get involved with under Bush.
The same is going on in alot of places. In Oregon, a large number of local politicians have quit their jobs because of a new law requiring them to disclose some basic information about themselves so that the public interest can be protected.
Dark things have grown under the shelter of Bush and Co. 'Slimeballs', I think was the word the Bush Sr. used to describe them. Unfortunately for many, Bush Jr and his Attorney Generals have put in a pathetic performance in fighting crime committed under the guise of religion during the last 8 years.
All the while headlines scream about Catholic sex scandles, protestant evangelical leaders get a free ride, except for the most egregarious cases.
That's changing, though, and the Rev. Parsleys of this country are desperate to put someone in the White House who will continue to protect their little fiefdoms of scared teenage girls.
Too bad for them this isn't the Vietnam War. Heh heh.
Rev. Parsley that Islam is indeed a false religion and would even back warring against Moslem countries. McCain is after the religious right vote.