{"id":167,"date":"2008-03-12T16:13:48","date_gmt":"2008-03-12T16:13:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/feilerfaster\/2008\/03\/mccain-and-the-deception-of-is.html"},"modified":"2008-03-12T16:13:48","modified_gmt":"2008-03-12T16:13:48","slug":"mccain-and-the-deception-of-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster\/2008\/03\/mccain-and-the-deception-of-is.html","title":{"rendered":"McCain and the “Deception of Islam”"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Corn points the spotlight<\/a> on John McCain’s newest spiritual adviser, who said America was founded to put a stop to Islam.<\/p>\n

Senator John McCain hailed as a spiritual adviser an Ohio megachurch pastor who has called upon Christians to wage a “war” against the “false religion” of Islam with the aim of destroying it.
\nOn February 26, McCain appeared at a campaign rally in Cincinnati with the Reverend Rod Parsley of the World Harvest Church of Columbus, a supersize Pentecostal institution that features a 5,200-seat sanctuary, a television studio (where Parsley tapes a weekly show), and a 122,000-square-foot Ministry Activity Center. That day, a week before the Ohio primary, Parsley praised the Republican presidential front-runner as a “strong, true, consistent conservative.” The endorsement was important for McCain, who at the time was trying to put an end to the lingering challenge from former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, a favorite among Christian evangelicals. A politically influential figure in Ohio, Parsley could also play a key role in McCain’s effort to win this bellwether state in the general election. McCain, with Parsley by his side at the Cincinnati rally, called the evangelical minister a “spiritual guide.”
\nThe leader of a 12,000-member congregation, Parsley has written several books outlining his fundamentalist religious outlook, including the 2005 Silent No More. In this work, Parsley decries the “spiritual desperation” of the United States, and he blasts away at the usual suspects: activist judges, civil libertarians who advocate the separation of church and state, the homosexual “culture” (“homosexuals are anything but happy and carefree”), the “abortion industry,” and the crass and profane entertainment industry. And Parsley targets another profound threat to the United States: the religion of Islam.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In Silent No More<\/em>, Parsley notes\u2014approvingly\u2014that Christopher Columbus shared the same goal: “It was to defeat Islam, among other dreams, that Christopher Columbus sailed to the New World in 1492\u2026Columbus dreamed of defeating the armies of Islam with the armies of Europe made mighty by the wealth of the New World. It was this dream that, in part, began America.”
\nConsidering that President Bush had to backpedal for a claim that the United States was on a “crusade” after 9-11, it appears that McCain faces another awkward test whether to reject and denounce the exact people he’s been cozying up to. He flunked the test with Catholic-bating evangelist John Hagee. Now what?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

David Corn points the spotlight on John McCain’s newest spiritual adviser, who said America was founded to put a stop to Islam. Senator John McCain hailed as a spiritual adviser an Ohio megachurch pastor who has called upon Christians to wage a “war” against the “false religion” of Islam with the aim of destroying it.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":352,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nMcCain and the "Deception of Islam" - Feiler Faster<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster\/2008\/03\/mccain-and-the-deception-of-is.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"McCain and the "Deception of Islam" - Feiler Faster\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"David Corn points the spotlight on John McCain’s newest spiritual adviser, who said America was founded to put a stop to Islam. Senator John McCain hailed as a spiritual adviser an Ohio megachurch pastor who has called upon Christians to wage a “war” against the “false religion” of Islam with the aim of destroying it.…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster\/2008\/03\/mccain-and-the-deception-of-is.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Feiler Faster\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-03-12T16:13:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"bfeiler\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"McCain and the \"Deception of Islam\" - Feiler Faster","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster\/2008\/03\/mccain-and-the-deception-of-is.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"McCain and the \"Deception of Islam\" - Feiler Faster","og_description":"David Corn points the spotlight on John McCain’s newest spiritual adviser, who said America was founded to put a stop to Islam. 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