Conservative star Glenn Beck’s recent “Restoring Honor” event was attended by perhaps hundreds of thousands and covered by major media. Mega-pastor John Hagee was among the religious leaders who spoke; he led a closing prayer to the “God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” and asked forgiveness of America’s sins. “Through moral and spiritual compromise,” the Zionist leader prayed, “we have allowed our nation to conform to the ways of the world by rejecting the Word of God.” Yet few evangelical pastors have more grossly betrayed the Bible than John Hagee.
Hagee has “made it a practice for 25 years not to target Jews for conversion.”At his Christians United for Israel rallies, he forbids mention of the name of Jesus, in praise or prayer. And although betraying this central tenet of Christianity, the heretical pastor remains popular. Although so controversial that John McCain distanced himself from Hagee’s endorsement in 2008, Hagee appears influential among Tea Partiers. In 2006, Barna polls reported Hagee was regarded by Pentecostals as one the top ten spokesmen for Christianity. Glenn Beck, who is riding a wave of tremendous popularity, has promoted Hagee’s book Can America Survive? 10 Prophetic Signs That We Are the Terminal Generation. This month the book is number seven on the New York Times political bestsellers list. Hagee can be seen on YouTube listing all ten of the signs in conversation with Beck.
It is not surprising that Beck provides a platform to the arch Christian Zionist, as he himself panders to the Anti-Defamation League. Earlier this month Beck related the Biblical fact that Jews were responsible for Jesus’ death. Jumped on by ADL for what it regards as “anti-Semitism,” Beck backtracked. “ I strongly believe that it is a historical fact that the Romans, not the Jews, put Jesus to death…” Beck says he wants to dialogue with ADL so that he can better understand the “injustices” (online hate speech, Christian “homophobia,” criticism of Israel?) that “ADL is fighting.”
Because Hagee’s theology lines up with the most zealous, anti-peace right-wingers in Israel, it is no surprise that rabidly anti-Gentile, anti-Palestinian settlers and rabbis receive tremendous financial support from his coffers. Christian Zionists yearly funnel more than a million dollars into their coffers. In fact, they directly contribute to the persecution of the approximately 15,000 Messianic Jewish Christians who live in Israel today. They live “under the perpetual wrath of the haredim, who for the most part alienate and discriminate against them…”
