Religious Right Warmonger Claims to Speak for Most Evangelicals

Posted by Sarah Posner at 4:23 PM on August 2, 2007.

This post was written by Sarah Posner

Liberal and moderate evangelicals are standing up to the fundamentalist rhetoric of Christians United for Israel and its leader, John Hagee. After thousands of CUFI supporters descended on Washington last month, with the message to their members of Congress that Israel should never be pressured to give up land to the Palestinians, Evangelicals for Social Action wrote a letter to President Bush, countering Hagee's claim to represent the majority of American evangelicals. The majority of American evangelicals, says the group's leader, Rev. Ronald Sider, favor a two-state solution.

Today the BBC/Public Radio program "The World" took a look at the issue - as well as a look at whether the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's embrace of Hagee represents the view of most American Jews. I participated in the discussion, and you can listen to it here.

Not surprisingly, Hagee disingenuously maintained that the end of days scenario has nothing to do with his support of Israel, and (apparently with a complete absence of self-awareness) accused Jewish critics of "fear-mongering." He also claimed to not rule out support for a two-state solution, but of course that, along with his insistence that Armageddon is of no relevance to his policy position, is flatly contradicted by his prolific writings, sermons preached to his congregation, and the entire tenor of the CUFI summit.

Whether Sider or Hagee is right in their claim to speak for the majority of American evangelicals, one thing is clear. Hagee has an extremely effective media and public relations operation which was in place long before he launched CUFI. Along with CUFI's board, Hagee has a well-coordinated network of televangelists and mega-church pastors by his side. Every one of them has regular access to television, radio, and print media audiences. Hagee's followers, and those of his allies, are fervent in their beliefs and extremely motivated to become politically active. Whether he represents the majority of American evangelicals or not, he does have the ability to mobilize a large number of fundamentalists who are loudly on-message. As the Christian Right has proved time and time again, often that is sufficient to get the attention of the media - and elected officials.

Sarah Posner has covered the religious right for the American Prospect, The Gadflyer and AlterNet. Her book God's Profits: Faith, Fraud, and the Republican Crusade for Values Voters will be published by PoliPoint Press next year.