Some Nutty Preachers Are More Equal Than Others

In their relentless quest to make Barack Obama into someone whom all Americans should hate and fear, the right-wing media (Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, etc, etc) have pumped up one fake "scandal" after another. There was his supposed Muslim upbringing and his association with a former member of the Weather Underground (who, by the way, was never convicted of anything), but through it all has been Jeremiah Wright, Obama's former pastor from Chicago.

This issue is apparently so important they have pushed aside such trivialities as the Iraq War and the economic slump to indulge in more endless chatter about Wright's latest pronouncements and how Obama is really a white-hating weirdo. God forbid anyone should miss even a moment of All Wright, All the Time.

Now, no one should mistake Wright for a deep political thinker. In his various sermons and statements, he says that AIDS was created as a biological weapon and that the government secretly provides drugs to black Americans. In a April 28 speech at the National Press Club, Wright publicly supported Louis Farrakhan, stood by his "God damn America" statement, and said that any criticism of him was criticism of the black church system and all blacks in general.

This was too much for Obama, who publicly denounced his former pastor yesterday, saying Wright's comments were "a show of disrespect to me" and saying it "directly contradicts everything that I've done during my life." Of course, the conservative media is still harping on it with no signs of slowing down - after all, why let a good wedge issue die out?

Contrast this 24/7 hoopla with the almost-complete silence which has greeted John Hagee, the San Antonio-based megachurch pastor whose endorsement was actively sought by John McCain. Like Wright, Hagee has some rather unorthodox views:

• On Hurricane Katrina: "All hurricanes are acts of God because God controls the heavens. I believe that New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God and they were recipients of the judgment of God for that."
• On blacks: Announcing in his church bulletin a "slave sale" to raise funds for high school seniors, Hagee wrote that "slavery in America is returning to Cornerstone," and asked his followers to "make plans to come and go home with a slave."
• On women: "Do you know the difference between a woman with PMS and a snarling Doberman pinscher? The answer is lipstick. Do you know the difference between a terrorist and a woman with PMS? You can negotiate with a terrorist."
• On Muslims: "Islam in general, those who live by the Koran have a scriptural mandate to kill Christians and Jews."
  
• On Catholics: The Catholic Church is "the Great Whore," an "apostate church," the "anti-Christ," and a "false cult system."
• On Jews: "How utterly repulsive, insulting, and heartbreaking to God for His chosen people to credit idols with bringing blessings He had showered upon the chosen people. Their own rebellion had birthed the seed of anti-Semitism that would arise and bring destruction to them for centuries to come...it rises from the judgment of God upon his rebellious chosen people."
  

And so on. Hagee clearly loathes blacks, women, Jews, Catholics, Muslims and pretty much everyone else who isn't white, male and Protestant, and makes no bones about it.

McCain must have known about Hagee's views back when he actively sought his endorsement. If he didn't then, he sure does now, but has made no move to back away aside from an occasional cluck of disapproval. One would think that associating with this man would be a political kiss of death, but the media hasn't made much of a fuss over it. Certainly not as big a fuss as they have made over Wright.

Of course, Hagee is associated with a Republican candidate and Wright is associated (or at least he wants to be) with a Democratic one. And since the right-wing media sees all Democrats as America-hating traitors/subversives/perverts/etc, that means Hagee and McCain get a pass while Wright and Obama get the rack.

Not fair, I know. But who ever said Fox and company were fair?