Still Running Off at the Keyboard

HUCKABEE AT CORNERSTONE

Separation of church and state is the political mandate if Catholic bishops dare to send out some guidelines to Catholiic voters, but apparently Presidential candidate John Huckabee doesn't believe in equal playing fields, since he is speaking at Rev. John Hagee's Cornerstone Church this coming Sunday. Interesting venue.

According to Catholic News Agency Hagee sees the Catholic Church as linked with Hitler, and that's just the beginning of his rhetoric of anti-Catholicism. Bill Donohue at Catholic League elaborates:

John Hagee is the senior pastor of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas. Best known for his End-Time writing, Hagee is committed to bringing evangelical Protestants and Jews together. He is also committed to slandering the Catholic Church.

Hagee is no stranger to the Catholic League—we've been tracking his bigotry for some time. But in his latest book, which is a revised and updated account, Jerusalem Countdown, he goes on the attack once again. Though most of his rantings in this book are directed at Muslims, he just can't help but take another shot at Catholicism. In one chapter, "Centuries of Mistreatment," he misrepresents the history of the Catholic Church so badly that it would be hard for any anti-Catholic bigot to beat.

Here's a sample of Hagee's idea of history:

· “Anti-Semitism in Christianity began with the statements of the early church fathers, including Eusebius, Cyril, Chrysostom, Augustine, Origen, Justin, and Jerome .... This poisonous stream of venom came from the mouths of spiritual leaders to virtually illiterate congregants, sitting benignly in their pews, listening to their pastors. They labeled the Jews as 'the Christ killers, plague carriers, demons, children of the devil, bloodthirsty pagans who look for an innocent child during the Easter week to drink his blood, money hungry Shylocks, who are deceitful as Judas was relentless.'"

· "The Roman Catholic Church, which was supposed to carry the light of the gospel, plunged the world into the Dark Ages.... The Crusaders were a motley mob of thieves, rapists, robbers, and murderers whose sins had been forgiven by the pope in advance of the Crusade ....The brutal truth is that the Crusades were military campaigns of the Roman Catholic Church to gain control of Jerusalem from the Muslims and to punish the Jews as the alleged Christ killers on the road to and from Jerusalem."

There's more in this vein over at the Catholic League website if you need more convincing. Needless to say Huckabee won't be getting my vote!

Thanks to a reader for the heads up.