CONTRIBUTED BY MR. EUGENE DEBS
.....A minor presidential-race controversy that has been making the rounds lately is McCain's endorsement by John Hagee, a megachurch pastor out of San Antonio, Texas. This has struck a dusty chord with me; once upon a time, I used to watch televangelists compulsively, and remember the man well—if not fondly—from almost ten years ago, well before his current mainstream-media notoriety.
.....Hagee's recent fame has been headlined by the foreign-policy implication of his theology; briefly, he believes that only Jesus can make peace in the Mideast. Therefore, believers are obliged to actively strive for the opposite (i.e. war without end). Also, unlike most evangelicals, he opposes efforts to proselytize Jews, as their persistence in their current hellbound state is a necessary component in the convoluted structure of his eschatology (basically, you can't convert and save the Jews and have yourself your Apocalypse, any more than you can have your cake and eat it too).
.....Oddly enough, this somewhat Ahmadinejadian "throw the Jews under the bus so the rest of us can groove with J.C." viewpoint passes for a pro-Israeli position these days, but I digress. The enduring memory I have of the man is not of poisonous policy stances, but something very different, and quite less grand and geopolitical in nature; a single moment in a single sermon. The American Prospect quotes a snippet from that very sermon (here), but it does not do justice to the scene—I remember that particular broadcast very well, and a simple transcript loses virtually all the atmosphere:
.....A short, rotund, porcine man (still, though he has lost much weight), with a head like an underinflated basketball and little sunken pig eyes, Hagee speaks in the cadences of a carnival barker; key words are punctuated with a wild increase in shrillness and volume; every "payoff" sentence ends with a segue into an ascending-register, jowl-shaking shriek. The subject that day was human freedom; Hagee was agin' it. His decoy was a line from 19th century poet William Ernest Henley, which he misattributed (twice, to "Secular Humanism" and to Walt Whitman), mincing in an effete, nasal, whiny falsetto: "'I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.'" Pausing a moment for a derisive snort, he drew himself up, and in his own voice sneered contemptuously, "Secular humanism says man is the master of his fate. What nonsense that is. You can't guarantee your next breath. Only God can give you life." Hagee drew in a deep breath, a stubby finger stuck out and sweeping the auditorium triumphantly as he thundered: "You are the master of nothing! There is one master, and he is King Jay-sus! And there is no other!"
.....And the audience rose to their feet and applauded. Laughing. Uproariously. As though the thought vastly delighted them. The camera panned the pews; there were old couples, families, children in their Sunday best, all grinning widely, enormously pleased at the master-stroke their pastor had laid upon the wicked humanists. And I—who had in the past been often left angry or repelled or even dismayed by the sort of things I heard from these quarters—I found myself surprised to be simply ...sad.
.....It's hard to isolate the precise utterly demoralizing quality about the utter, vacant happiness, the casual self-debasement of the human spirit on display; but it struck a deep well of melancholy within me. Even the Communists—or the Nazis, if you will forgive me for Godwinizing myself—never quite managed, in seven decades of repressive conformism and gunpoint-enforced groupthink, to pull off the trick of telling people that they were nothing more than chattel and have them actually laugh and applaud them for it!
The SOUTH ORANGE COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT — "[The] blog he developed was something that made the district better." - Tim Jemal, SOCCCD BoT President, 7/24/23
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18 comments:
Hagee sounds just like the kind of fellow your Bored needs to give invocations at Bored meetings. Somebody give Dave a call!
BTW, my boss at my college is a classic hypocritical "Christian". He likes to tell us that there's nothing we can do about anything too. He's an ass embly of god type. Quite revolting and obviously in the employ of his lord and master Satan. There's no reasoning with these folks...they remind me of heroin addicts.
I like how Mr. Debs focusses on the chilling and, yes, sad moment - "You are the master of nothing" - and the applause that follows.
Keep up the election coverage please.
Hagee: "If you listen closely, you can hear the hoofbeats of the four horsemen of the apocalypse, racing toward the battle of Armageddon."
whoa, Nellie!
No on will call these people on this shit either - not even McCain - who, as the Prospect points, out, doesn't belive this line but is willing to use it.
Wow - Eugene Debs! Impressive.
9:03 - What's McCain supposed to do?
Tell these people (these potential voters) that they are delusional?
Yes, McCain should do that, leaders should show judgment and guts. And McCain shouldn't court such a knucklehead - it's dangerous.
It's Tuesday - do you know where your flags are?
Has Glenn said anything?
I guess he can't now.
Glenn is sort of like the student who never talks and sits in the back...even when he has a question or an answer, the weight of his semester-long silence has grown so much that nothing can be said.
Nice writing, Mr. Debs, especially given your current state.
But seriously, nice. Do you really have so good a memory? Working from notes?
And what are we to make of the fact that a crowd would gather and cheer their own non-agency?
A side issue, and an ad hominem too, but Hagee has made multi millions in his devious manipulation of the brainless sheep who follow him.
As has been said before, if Jesus came back and saw what's being done in his name, he'd never stop throwing up.
Thanks for the righteous, er, Hagee-ography Mr. Debs. We sec-humes cannot get enough of this stuff. For even more, enjoy a short You Tube documentary on Zionist (if anti-Semitic) Christians at the Christians United for Israel Summit (July 2007).
inhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UoHfCUBiEM
Kinda boring stuff lately, Chunk. Not a lot happening at IVC or does everyone have Spring fever?
Boring - what ARE you talking about?
This blog is cutting edge!
For the feeble minded, perhaps. Where's the beef?
These two are vegetarians, don't you know that? Sheesh.
Update us on WASC.
Accreditation? special super-secret meetings. No can say.
The district is trying to take charge. We'll see how it goes. Nothing settled just yet.
May I feel to puke now? LOL Nothing better than the sanctimoneous Jesus Nazis out there to tell us what we should believe. All I can say is that God (no pun intended) that Huckabee is out of the race. However, what McCain fails to realize is that I'm sure if we listen to any of Hagee's sermons we will hear about how everyone who hasn't "accepted Jeeeezzzus" as our Lord & Savior, INCLUDING CATHOLICS, like McCain are all going to "the eternal fires of damnation."
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