Religious Right Warmonger Claims to Speak for Most Evangelicals

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.