Had Calvin or Luther lived in our time...

(Tim) Senator McCain asked for Pastor John Hagee's support in his presidential bid, and got it. Later, Roman Catholics sought to make Senator McCain's association with Pastor Hagee the same sort of liability Senator Obama had with Pastor Wright. Well, unlike Pastor Wright, Pastor Hagee knows how to backpedal.

Releasing this howler of an abject apology, the LA Times reported:

Pastor John Hagee, who heads the Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, said in a letter made public Tuesday that he now knew the terms he used to describe the church, such as "the great whore," were "rhetorical devices long employed in anti-Catholic literature."

I'm chuckling.

Comments

[Joel]

Judging from Hagee's interview with Deal Hudson, I don't think he was backpedaling so much as just clueless about the way his words sounded to Catholics. Papes and Prods sort of speak different languages sometimes, as I've learned in my few years of Catholicism.

You can read it at http://insidecatholic.com/Joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3243&Itemid=48

(I'm sorry if the link comes out weird; I've never figured out how to post them in your comboxes.)

I'm sure there's some soft soap involved in Hagee's apology, too, but it sounds like he was genuinely bewildered by the reaction. Honestly, I could see my Baptist mother saying similar things and not understanding why I cringe.

His actions toward the Ursuline Sisters go a long way to bear out a lack of malice.