McCain ‘Embraces a Bigot,’ Catholic League Says

Carolyn Hileman - The Voice* | March 4, 2008

By Josiah Ryan
CNSNews.com Staff Writer
March 04, 2008

(CNSNews.com) - Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, has embraced a religious bigot, according to the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, which issued a statement Thursday denouncing McCain for accepting the endorsement of evangelical Minister John Hagee.

And McCain’s refusal to publicly reject Hagee’s controversial comments about Catholicism indicates he is “really stupid” and making a “monumental” blunder with Catholic voters, Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, told Cybercast News Service.

“For the past few decades,” Hagee “has waged an unrelenting war against the Catholic Church,” reads the Catholic League statement. “For example, he likes calling it ‘The Great Whore,’ an ‘apostate church,’ the ‘anti-Christ,’ and a ‘false cult system.’

“In Hagee’s latest book, ‘Jerusalem Countdown, he calls Hitler a Catholic who murdered Jews while the Catholic Church did nothing. ‘The sell-out of Catholicism to Hitler began not with the people but with the Vatican itself,’ he writes,” the statement added.

“I’m very honored by Pastor John Hagee’s endorsement today,” said McCain on Feb. 26, while at a podium with Hagee and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) on the campus of USAA in San Antonio.