Presumptive Republican nominee John McCain just rejected Pastor John Hagee’s earlier endorsement.
The controversial Texas pastor has made several anti-Catholic remarks in his sermons. Hagee also withdrew his endorsement. The Huffington Post is reporting that in a late 1990s sermon, Hagee said that “the Nazis had operated on God’s behalf to chase the Jews from Europe and shepherd them to Palestine.”
“Obviously, I find these remarks and others deeply offensive and indefensible, and I repudiate them. I did not know of them before Reverend Hagee’s endorsement, and I feel I must reject his endorsement as well,” McCain said in a statement Thursday.
In his statement today, McCain added that his relationship with Hagee did not compare with Obama’s relationship with Rev. Jeremiah Wright. “I have said I do not believe Senator Obama shares Reverend Wright’s extreme views. But let me also be clear, Reverend Hagee was not and is not my pastor or spiritual advisor, and I did not attend his church for twenty years. I have denounced statements he made immediately upon learning of them, as I do again today,” McCain said.
McCain also rejected and repudiated Columbus pastor Rod Parsley, who has also made controversial statements and endorsed McCain. McCain had called Parsley a spiritual adviser earlier this year.
Hagee and Parsley withdrew their endorsements.
