McCain's Pastor Problem Tries to Fix the Situation

Pastor John Hagee, who is considered by the left to be John McCain's equivilent of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, is trying to mitigate the damage he's doing to the McCain campaign with his statements about Katrina being a judgment from God because there was a gay parade planned in New Orleans:

Pastor John Hagee has revised his view of God's wrath, and chances are John McCain couldn't be happier.

Without fanfare, in an e-mail sent the latter part of Friday, Hagee backed off his assertion that Hurricane Katrina was the Almighty's punishment of New Orleans because it had planned to host a gay pride parade.

Hagee's history of anti-Catholic statements already has made his high-profile endorsement of McCain a mixed blessing. And much to the McCain camp's chagrin, Hagee earlier this week reiterated his opinion that God targeted New Orleans -- remarks coming as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee geared up for a campaign stop in the still-recovering city.

A McCain spokesman quickly stressed that the candidate rejected such statements. And then Hagee, in the e-mail billed as an "official statement" from the influential televangelist, did so, as well. He wrote:

"As a believing Christian, I see the hand of God in everything that happens here on earth, both the blessings and the curses. But ultimately neither I nor any other person can know the mind of God concerning Hurricane Katrina. I should not have suggested otherwise. No matter what the cause of the storm, my heart goes out to all who suffered in this terrible tragedy. There but for the grace of God go any one of us."

That's quite a different opinion thhan he publicly expressed in September, 2006. During an interview with NPR, he said the devastating storm "was, in fact, the judgment of God against ... New Orleans." The city, he continued, "had a level of sin that was offensive to God" because "there was to be a homosexual parade there on the Monday that the Katrina came."

On Tuesday, Hagee refused to disavow those comments. He told talk radio show host Dennis Prager, "What happened in New Orleans looked like the curse of God... . It was a city that was planning a sinful conduct.''

People who believe that Katrina was God's wrath on New Orleans or that AIDS was God's wrath on homosexuals have to believe in a God that's pretty ham-handed and apparently can't throw one down the middle of the plate. In both cases millions of innocent people were affected by these events who had nothing to do with either the debauchery in New Orleans or the debauchery in the gay community. I just don't think God is that careless a smiter.

In Biblical days God seemed pretty capable of directing his smiting exactly where he wanted it. Have the years taken the edge off his control? I doubt it.

Pronouncements like what Pastor Hagee said about New Orleans do nothing to further the cause of Christ, and certainly don't make his kind of religion more attractive. They haven't helped McCain much either.