McCain Rejects Another Controversial Pastor’s Endorsement
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in 2008 Election, McCain, Religion
First the lobbyists and now the preachers.
This time it’s Rod Parsley, who has basically said America was founded to destroy Islam and has characterized Allah as a “demon spirit.”
Sen. John McCain rejected the endorsement of a second controversial pastor Thursday, saying there is no place for the Rev. Rod Parsley’s comments about Islam.“I believe there is no place for that kind of dialogue in America, and I believe that even though he endorsed me, and I didn’t endorse him, the fact is that I repudiate such talk, and I reject his endorsement,” McCain said in a statement. [...]
ABC News’s Brian Ross reported Thursday on "Good Morning America" that Parsley has called Islam “the mouthpiece of a conspiracy of spiritual evil,” and that Islam is an “anti-Christ religion that intends through violence to conquer the world.”
Why McCain sought Parsley’s endorsement in the first place, when all of this has been WIDELY known (the “destroy Islam” link in this story is from March), is still not clear.
This entry was posted on Friday, May 23rd, 2008 and is filed under 2008 Election, McCain, Religion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:13 am
And, of course, this has McCain playing the “at least I didn’t have a 20-year relationship with a religious whackadoo” game. I’m not so sure that’s a better position to be in, being The Maverick and all.
Off topic P.S.: Is it possible you guys could cut down on the widgets and doodads? I understand wanting to monetize this place, but you’ve created a slow loading monster with wonky page refreshes and a bunch of useless stuff that gets in the way of the good stuff.
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:17 am
Why McCain sought Parsley’s endorsement in the first place, when all of this has been WIDELY known … is still not clear.
For the same reason that all politicians take dodgy endorsements: They expect that the people who listen to the particular endorser will treat it as an important plus, while the people who don’t listen to him will never hear about it. It’s a fundamental part of pre-blogosphere campaigning.
What’s happening now is that public scrutiny is getting into the endorsement racket and the politicians haven’t yet changed their game in response. We can expect more and more of these for the foreseeable future until politicians get wise and start vetting endorsers a bit.
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:57 am
I can no more blame McCain for seeking the endorsements of Hagee and Parsley then I blame Obama fr his accepting the endorsement of Wright.
I will even consider there is a difference between sitting in a pew for 20 years and actively seeking an endorsement of a religious figure (though I think this difference is overstated by the right).
Endorsement or support of anyone should never translate as 100 percent agreement–somewhere along the way, people have forgotten that.
My own pastor has said things that I find unacceptable and I can guarantee that I believe things that he would look down on.
I can come up with valid reasons for rejecting a candidate–guilt by association is not one of them.
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:53 am
I can come up with valid reasons for rejecting a candidate–guilt by association is not one of them.
QFT
May 23rd, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Let’s not forget that McCain actively sought the endorsements of these two nut cases. “let’s get the endorsements and worry about what they stand for later”. We need this guy to be commander in chief - yeah.