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McCain's Spiritual Guide and Personal Pastor: Destroy Islam
MUST SEE VIDEO!!!
YouTube - McCain's Spiritual Guide
Televangelist Rod Parsley, a key McCain ally in Ohio, has called for
eradicating the "false religion." Will the GOP presidential candidate
renounce him?"
Senator John McCain hailed as a spiritual adviser an Ohio megachurch
pastor who has called upon Christians to wage a "war" against
the "false religion" of Islam with the aim of destroying it.
On February 26, McCain appeared at a campaign rally in Cincinnati
with the Reverend Rod Parsley of the World Harvest Church of
Columbus, a supersize Pentecostal institution that features a 5,200-
seat sanctuary, a television studio (where Parsley tapes a weekly
show), and a 122,000-square-foot Ministry Activity Center. That day,
a week before the Ohio primary, Parsley praised the Republican
presidential front-runner as a "strong, true, consistent
conservative." The endorsement was important for McCain, who at the
time was trying to put an end to the lingering challenge from former
Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, a favorite among Christian
evangelicals. A politically influential figure in Ohio, Parsley could
also play a key role in McCain's effort to win this bellwether state
in the general election. McCain, with Parsley by his side at the
Cincinnati rally, called the evangelical minister a "spiritual
guide."
The leader of a 12,000-member congregation, Parsley has written
several books outlining his fundamentalist religious outlook,
including the 2005 Silent No More. In this work, Parsley decries
the "spiritual desperation" of the United States, and he blasts away
at the usual suspects: activist judges, civil libertarians who
advocate the separation of church and state, the homosexual "culture"
("homosexuals are anything but happy and carefree"), the "abortion
industry," and the crass and profane entertainment industry. And
Parsley targets another profound threat to the United States: the
religion of Islam.
In a chapter titled "Islam: The Deception of Allah," Parsley warns
there is a "war between Islam and Christian civilization." He
continues:
I cannot tell you how important it is 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.
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: "We find now we have
no choice. The time has come." And he has bad news: "We may already
be losing the battle. As I scan the world, I find that Islam is
responsible for more pain, more bloodshed, and more devastation than
nearly any other force on earth at this moment."
Parsley claims that Islam is an "anti-Christ religion" predicated
on "deception." The Muslim prophet Muhammad, he writes, "received
revelations from demons and not from the true God." And he emphasizes
this point: "Allah was a demon spirit." Parsley does not
differentiate between violent Islamic extremists and other followers
of the religion:
There are some, of course, who will say that the violence I cite is
the exception and not the rule. I beg to differ. I will counter,
respectfully, that what some call "extremists" are instead mainstream
believers who are drawing from the well at the very heart of Islam.
The spirit of Islam, he maintains, is one of hostility. He asserts
that the religion "inspired" the 9/11 attacks. He bemoans the fact
that in the years after 9/11, 34,000 Americans "have become Muslim"
and that there are "some 1,209 mosques" in America. Islam, he
declares, is a "faith that fully intends to conquer the world"
through violence. The United States, he insists, "has historically
understood herself as a bastion against Islam," but "history is
crashing in upon us."
At the end of his chapter on Islam, Parsley asks, "Are we a Christian
nation? I say yes." Without specifying what actions should be taken
to eradicate the religion, he essentially calls for a new crusade.
Parsley, who refers to himself as a "Christocrat," is no stranger to
controversy. In 2007, the grassroots organization he founded, the
Center for Moral Clarity, called for prosecuting people who commit
adultery. In January, he compared Planned Parenthood to Nazis. In the
past Parsley's church has been accused of engaging in pro-Republican
partisan activities in violation of its tax-exempt status.
Why would McCain court Parsley? He has long had trouble figuring out
how to deal with Christian fundamentalists, an important bloc for the
Republican Party. During his 2000 presidential bid, he referred to
Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell as "agents of intolerance." But six
years later, as he readied himself for another White House run,
McCain repudiated that remark. More recently, his campaign hit a
rough patch when he accepted the endorsement of the Reverend John
Hagee, a Texas televangelist who has called the Catholic Church "the
great *****" and a "false cult system." After the Catholic League
protested and called on McCain to renounce Hagee's support, the
presumptive Republican presidential nominee praised Hagee's spiritual
leadership and support of Israel and said that "when [Hagee] endorses
me, it does not mean that I embrace everything that he stands for or
believes in." After being further criticized for his Hagee
connection, McCain backed off slightly, saying, "I repudiate any
comments that are made, including Pastor Hagee's, if they are anti-
Catholic or offensive to Catholics." But McCain did not renounce
Hagee's endorsement.
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. Considering that the Ohio Republican
Party has been decimated by various political scandals and that a
popular Democrat, Ted Strickland, 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?
The McCain campaign did not respond to a request for comment
regarding Parsley and his anti-Islam writings. Parsley did not return
a call seeking comment.
"The last thing I want to be is another screaming voice moving people
to extremes and provoking them to folly in the name of patriotism,"
Parsley writes in Silent No More. Provoking people to holy war is
another matter. About that, McCain so far is silent.
David Corn is Mother Jones' Washington, D.C. bureau chief.