John Hagee

John Hagee is a the president and senior pastor of the evangelical Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, the founder of the Evangelism Television (GETV) corporation, and the founder CEO of the Christian-Zionist lobbying organization Christians United for Israel. Often referred to as a "mega-church," Cornerstone is often marketed as having 19,000 members. Hagee is considered the most prominent living figure of the religious Right in the US and gained widespread attention when he supported John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign. CUFI executive director David Brog admits that Hagee brought CUFI into existence with "[Jerry] Fallwell's active assistance."

Views

Iran

Hagee uses CUFI to lobby congress towards pressuring Iran to halt its nuclear power programme, which it claims is a threat to Israel. However, many analysts argue that based on Hagee's actual arguments in his books and sermons, he and other Christian Zionists hope for a military confrontation with Iran:

While Hagee has long prophesized about the end times, he ratcheted up his rhetoric this year with the publication of his book, "Jerusalem Countdown," in which he argues that a confrontation with Iran is a necessary precondition for Armageddon and the Second Coming of Christ. In the best-selling book, Hagee insists that the United States must join Israel in a preemptive military strike against Iran to fulfill God's plan for both Israel and the West.

Hagee devotes many of his sermons to characterizing Iran as a great threat to Israel and the US, but concludes that it is Iran (and Russia) that will be "destroyed" after a military confrontation which will lead to Armageddon:

According to the prophet ezekiel, russia and iran will form a coalition in the last days in an attempt to conquer israel. Please listen to what I just said. It will be an attempt that fails because I'm going to tell you the end of the story before I start the story because the media always gets this wrong. And many christians get it wrong. Iran and russia are going to be wiped out. It's not israel that gets destroyed. It's the enemies of israel that get destroyed.

Support for Israel

CUFI argues for Christian support of Israel for biblical reasons, but they have been criticized for supporting the Jewish people in Israel only to the extent that it will serve their end purpose of being allowed into heaven after the battle of Armageddon:

But CUFI has an ulterior agenda: its support for Israel derives from the belief of Hagee and his flock that Jesus will return to Jerusalem after the battle of Armageddon and cleanse the earth of evil. In the end, all the non-believers - Jews, Muslims, Hindus, mainline Christians, etc. - must convert or suffer the torture of eternal damnation. Over a dozen CUFI members eagerly revealed to me their excitement at the prospect of Armageddon occurring tomorrow. Among the rapture ready was Republican Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. None of this seemed to matter to Lieberman, who delivered a long sermon hailing Hagee as nothing less than a modern-day Moses. Lieberman went on to describe Hagee's flock as "even greater than the multitude Moses commanded."

Other analysts have argued that whatever their reasoning may be, the pro-Israel lobby can use groups like CUFI to push a pro-Israel agenda in the US, regardless of its effects on US foreign policy:

This situation is this, AIPAC sort of found a fortuitous relationship with people like Pastor John Hagee whose Church I spent a lot of time with over the course of the research for this book. People like Hagee are what you call Christian Zionists and they believe that in order to properly prepare for the upcoming end of the world, America needs to align itself strongly with Israel in order to prepare for the final Armageddon in which the forces of good, which is basically Israel are going to fighting against the forces of evil, which they imagine is going to be some combination of probably Russia and Iran. So you have this theology that allows American evangelical Christians to support Israel politically. And obviously this is a good thing for the Israeli state -- it sort of solves the age-old problem of how do you get American Christians to support Israeli foreign policy. Because you know, for a long time, we had Republican politicians who wanted to have a strong alliance with Israel and pursue a very aggressive foreign policy in the Middle East, based around that relationship, but it was a tough sell to their natural constituents, the Christian Fundamentalists, because obviously Israel is a Jewish State. And because of the "End Time" theology, they've solved that problem by cloaking support of Israel under the auspices of this end time theology. It's not something I think they thought up deliberately, but you do have a number of these new evangelical figures like Hagee and there are a number of authors who are writing Left Behind type books, encouraging Americans to support Israel.

The Holocaust

<youtube size="tiny" align="right" caption="Hagee's views on the Holocaust">3EFVNrjOpJA</youtube> In 2008 John McCain rejected Hagee's endorsement for his presidential candidacy after initially accepting it when it was discovered that in 1999 Hagee had publicly interpreted a biblical passage as evidence that Hitler's Holocaust was justified because it was part of God's plan to encourage world Jewry to settle in Israel.

"Then god sent a hunter. A hunter is someone with a gun and he forces you. Hitler was a hunter. And the Bible says -- Jeremiah writing -- 'They shall hunt them from every mountain and from every hill and from the holes of the rocks,' meaning there's no place to hide. And that might be offensive to some people but don't let your heart be offended. I didn't write it, Jeremiah wrote it. It was the truth and it is the truth. How did it happen? Because God allowed it to happen. Why did it happen? Because God said my top priority for the Jewish people is to get them to come back to the land of Israel.

After public scrutiny of his comments Hagee publicly apologized for the "pain" they had caused in a letter to the Anti-Defamation League, but never admitted that they were incorrect.

The Catholic Church

Hagee has also apologized for calling the Catholic Church a "great whore" but has never rejected the premise of his argument.

Wielding a pointer, he pokes at the image of a woman with Pamela Anderson-sized breasts, her hand raising a golden chalice. The woman is “the Great Whore,” Mr. Hagee explains, and she is drinking “the blood of the Jewish people.” That’s because the Great Whore represents “the Roman Church,” which, in his view, has thirsted for Jewish blood throughout history, from the Crusades to the Holocaust.

Hurricane Katrina

In 2008 Hagee claimed that the people of New Orleans were forced to endure Hurricane Katrina because God was punishing them for their sins. Hagee apologized for the comments but never retracted them:

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.

Israeli Settlement Expansion

Lobbying US congress to support Israeli settlement expansion particularly in Jerusalem is one of the key goals of CUFI. Christian Zionists believe that the Jewish people's return to the "holy land" is a prerequisite for the return of the Messiah. This belief is often criticized for what it entails -- after Armageddon hits earth God will accept all deserving Christians into heaven. Jews that have not converted to Christianity will then perish with all other non-Christians:

but the so-called “restorationist’’ Protestant concern for Jews was not truly friendly. Rather, the restored Jews were only to be instruments of the final triumph of Christianity. Jews again in Israel would be faced with the choice of conversion or damnation.

Hagee has a building named after him in the illegal Israeli settlement of Ariel, in the West Bank, and donates to pro-settler groups. According to Hagee:

“Israel exists because of a covenant God made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob 3,500 years ago — and that covenant still stands...World leaders do not have the authority to tell Israel and the Jewish people what they can and cannot do in the city of Jerusalem.

Books

• The Invasion of Demons (1973)
• Like a cleansing fire (1974)
• The Beginning of the End (1996)
• Day of Deception (1997)
• Final Dawn Over Jerusalem (1998)
• His Glory Revealed (1999)
• From Daniel to Doomsday: The Countdown Has Begun (1999)
• God's Two-Minute Warning (2000)
• The Revelation of Truth (2000)
• The Battle For Jerusalem (2001)
• Attack On America New York, Jerusalem, And The Role Of Terrorism In The Last Days (2001)
• Avenger of Blood (2002)
• The Life Plan Study Bible: God's Keys to Personal Success (2004) - Editor
• The Seven Secrets: Unlocking Genuine Greatness (2004)
• Life Lessons to Live By: 52 Weeks of God's Keys to Personal Success (2005)
• Jerusalem Countdown (2005)
• What Every Man Wants In a Woman/What Every Woman Wants In a Man (2005) - Co-authored with wife, Diana Hagee.
• In Defense of Israel (2007)
• Financial Armageddon (2008)

Affiliations

• Christians United for Israel
• Jerry Falwell