The John Hagee Imbroglio

News has reached us in Israel of an election-related fracas in the U.S. concerning the endorsement of John McCain by Pastor John Hagee, who allegedly insinuated that the Holocaust was part of God's plan to bring the Jewish people back to Israel.

Without messing in the current debate, I would like to say a few words about John Hagee, with whom I have worked several times over the past ten years and whom I know personally. Pastor Hagee is arguably the prototype of the classic evangelical preacher: he is charismatic, with an enormous booming voice tinged with a deep Texas twang. He has a huge church in San Antonio, reaches millions more people through his television ministry and he raises extraordinary sums of money.

A kind and gentle man, I admit that I was never especially concerned with the messages he preached to the hundreds of participants of his tours I have guided - usually, when the preacher starts preaching the guides go off for a cup of coffee (and anyway, that southern accent always makes me think of white hoods and Mississippi Burning). However, during his visit this past April Pastor Hagee held A Night To Honor Israel, a platform for Christian support for Israel he has developed. Numerous Israeli dignitaries and politicians were in attendance, including representatives of the many Jewish charitable organizations that received a total of more than six million dollars from John Hagee Ministries. Songs were sung and speeches were made, but Pastor Hagee's speech was the main attraction, and I must say that I was deeply moved to hear his message.

Friends and members of the tribe, this is a breed of gentile that is foreign to us. After three thousand years of persecution, even in the twenty first century we are still resigned to remain the object of hatred and scorn by Christians, whether overt or covert. Hence, I had to listen very carefully to John Hagee's speech because I had never heard statements like his from a Christian leader. "I love the Jewish people because they gave me everything that is precious to me: the Bible, the Ten Commandments, the prophets, Joseph , Mary and Jesus." He continued on to say very emphatically that he has no hidden agenda, and the following day at a memorial service at Yad Vashem he declared that "Christian anti-semitism is an oxymoron." And although his political positions on the Israeli issues are heavily right-wing, he has publically advocated for Israel's right to make it's own decisions.

Our Jewish knee-jerk reaction to a person like this is suspicion: what's the real motivation behind the words? Is this a ploy to get our guard down so he can convert us all to Christianity? Or perhaps it's a plot to hasten the war between Gog and Magog? Sorry, gang, none of the above. As outlandish as it sounds, John Hagee is a devoted Christian pastor who deeply loves and respects the Jewish people - that is my personal impression, based on his clearly articulated messages to the sixteen busloads of Christians he brought with him to Israel. This is not an enemy, but rather a close friend and advocate of the Jewish people and Israel who is attempting to rectify centuries of Christian animosity towards us. It is no small task, especially since, ironically, he encounters deep suspicion from many American Jews. Before you write him off as yet another fire-and-brimstone preaching, bible-thumping, anti-semitic southern evangelist get beyond the stereotype. Listen carefully to what he says: he may be our most devoted and powerful friend.