I am wondering how people think that this will play out. McCain actively sought the support of John Hagee and Rod Parsley, his spiritual advisor. He has now renounced both of their endorsements.

Will those who follow these preachers take offense and see it as rejection of their doctrine? Or will they just see it as persecution and accept McCain as one of them?

I don't think there are many Christians who are too upset about it. John Hagee and Rod Parsley do not necessarily reflect how I think as a Christian and I think I can safely assume I 'm not alone. I think McCain overestimated their pull. I think THEY overestimated their pull! lol I feel like there is a change going on in the Christian right. My personal feeling is that we need to stop trying to change things politically, it's not working. While we need to be politically active, marriage amendments just aren't gettin' it.


Melissa

Were either of those men actually 'spiritual advisers' to McCain? My understanding - and I admit that I have not followed this closely - was that they were considered influential, but didn't rise to the level of 'spiritual adviser' for him at all. It's not as though either of them minister at a church where he attends. O's tie with Wright was much, much tighter.

I assume that but for the Wright issue, we would never have heard about McCain's two religious endorsers. He was put in a position of needing to denounce their endorsements because they were getting - or were about to get - the microscope treatment. I assume without the flashlight being shown on them, he'd have been glad to just brush them off as a couple of kooks but be happy to quietly accept whatever votes they helped bring in because nobody else would even know or care who they were. The negative publicity that resulted from Obama's situation with Wright, however, left McCain with no choice but a public denouncement.

McCain has referred to Parseley as his spiritual advisor.

My guess is that was a statement born more of politics than reality. I think it 'sounds good' for candidates to have a spiritual adviser, no matter how distant that person is. There are too many religious Americans for any political candidate to want to lose out on the perks of votes by seeming to be religious.

I may be wrong - like I said, I haven't followed this one that closesly - but those two ministers and McCain don't even live in the same location and never have, correct? That's much different from Obama's week-after-week sermons from Wright, quiet visits with Wright, shared Chicago history with Wright, marriages and baptisms performed by Wright, etc.

I'd say if someone wanted to make an argument about McCain, they could challenge the depth and truth of his statement about Parseley being his spiritual adviser, because from what I heard.... their relationship just didn't run all that deep.

I am of the opinion that McCain meant it when he referred to Robertson and Falwell as "agents of intolerance" and that he has not changed his position.

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And actively sought out his endorsement.