"Tell me what company thou keepst, and I'll tell thee what thou art."
- - Miguel de Cervantes (1547 - 1616) Spanish novelist.
In our friend’s case it’s Televangelist Rod Parsley whom we are talking about, who’s endorsement of the Republican Presidential front-runner is valuable to McCain who, it has to be said, is not that picky. The trouble is that our Televangelist is one of those with a particular axe to grind. It isn’t enough for Rod Parsley to proclaim, quite falsely, but who cares at this late stage in the proceedings, that we understand the true nature of Islam, that we see it for what it really is:
"In fact, I will tell you this: I do not believe our country can truly fulfill its divine purpose until we understand our historical conflict with Islam. I know that this statement sounds extreme, but I do not shrink from its implications. The fact is that America was founded, in part, with the intention of seeing this false religion destroyed, and I believe September 11, 2001, was a generational call to arms that we can no longer ignore."
Holy Mackerel! Say it like it is, Bob, But before that statement even has a hope of being asorbed by the surrounding audience it get’s worse. What? You think it can't get worse? Listen up!
Parsley is not shy about his desire to obliterate Islam. In Silent No More, he notes—approvingly—that Christopher Columbus shared the same goal: "It was to defeat Islam, among other dreams, that Christopher Columbus sailed to the New World in 1492…Columbus dreamed of defeating the armies of Islam with the armies of Europe made mighty by the wealth of the New World. It was this dream that, in part, began America." He urges his readers to realize that a confrontation between Christianity and Islam is unavoidable
Christopher Columbus set out to defeat Islam? Holy Smokes! That's revisionist history if ever I heard it. Last I read, Columbus wanted to find India. But at the end of his chapter on Islam in which he invokes its destruction, Parsley asks:
"Are we a Christian nation? I say yes." Without actually specifying how Islam should be eradicated, he effectively calls for a new crusade. Parsley was eventually made to shut up but not before he had thoroughly discredited every Muslim in the world as an enemy of the United States.
The core of the matter however is this:
McCain's relationship with Parsley is politically significant. In 2004, Parsley's church was credited with driving Christian fundamentalist voters to the polls for George W. Bush. With Ohio expected to again be a decisive state in the presidential contest, Parsley's World Harvest Church and an affiliated entity called Reformation Ohio, which registers voters, could be important players within this battleground state.
In view of the fact that the Ohio Republican Party has been reduced to shreds by the myriad of scandals that have befallen it and that Ted Strickland, a popular Democrat, is now the state's Governor, McCain and the Republicans will need all the help they can get in the Buckeye State this fall. It's a real question: Can McCain win the presidency without Parsley?
And who is he, that he has to rely on a nutter to do so?
http://www.motherjones.com/washington_dispatch/2008/03/john-mccain-rod-parsley-spiritual-guide.html
1 comment:
The GOP needs as many of the evangelical Christians as they can get, since Huckabee did a pretty good job creating disenchantment with the Party.
McCain's support is surprisingly weak; i.e. the majority of his supporters are not enthusiastic and are merely holding their noses. The GOP is much, much more vulnerable to disunity than the Democrats. With the Democrats, it's par for the course. But the primaries have left deeper scars than usual on the GOP, and McCain will have to suck up to all kinds of groups (such as Parsely's) to bring about some kind of unity.
And this is McCain's greatest weakness. If the Democrats can highlight the contradictions in McCain's base, large constituencies can be peeled off or be persuaded to sit out the election.
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