John McCain

Originally posted at Talk to Action.

Bruce Wilson and Ruth have reported here at Talk to Action about Alaskan Governor and GOP Vice-Presidential nominee Sarah Palin's ties to the Wasila Assemblies of God Church, a congregation involved with the Latter Rain (aka the New Apostolic Reformation) - an international network that views Catholicism as one of several "corrupt religious systems."

The Presidential and Vice Presidential debates have always been the most entertaining part of the election season for me. From the past debates that I’m seen, they’ve usually been less about the issues and more about creating an impression to the American people about the personality and character of the particular candidates. My first Presidential debate that I remember is the Reagan/Carter debate in 1980, and I just remember Reagan saying “there you go again” whenever Carter criticized Reagan. Though a lot of the debates seem canned, they do offer a chance to see the candidates perform alone without the handlers and p.r. people, and it gives us a chance to see how the candidates think on their feet. I found on the internet a site that Jim Lehrer hosted for PBS called Debating Our Destiny (http://www.pbs.org/newshour/debatingourdestiny/index.html) that looked back on the televised Presidential and Vice debates and interviewed the candidates to see their thoughts on the Presidential and Vice Presidential debates. As we listen to the Presidential and Vice Presidential debates in these next few weeks, I’ve found this site to be illuminating and it gives me some perspective on the goals and approaches that John McCain, Barack Obama, Sarah Palin, and Joe Biden may take.

Originally posted at Talk to Action.

The Catholic Right, Part Sixty-eight

Is Governor Sarah Palin really "a natural choice" for Catholics as Fidelis's Brian Burch suggests? The answer is obviously, "No."

As I discussed in my last post in this series, the Catholic Right is doing everything it can to disparage Democratic Vice-Presidential nominee Joe Biden - a Catholic who attends Mass regularly - by painting him as a someone out of sync on social issues important to his co-religionists. Now, these same folks are attempting to portray Palin, the self-styled pit-bull/hockey mom, evangelical/former Catholic, as a better Catholic than Biden.

Let the scrutiny begin!

One of the foremost issues where Senator McCain's running mate and the Vatican parts ways is the Iraq war.  Not so long ago Palin told a group of ministry students that our invasion of Iraq is "a task from God," but Pope Benedict believes that "nothing positive comes from Iraq."

It stands to reason to say of course he is, he was a victim of it himself. Sadly that is not entirely true. John McCain has appeared to lead the charge to end the use of torture unequivocally, but his legislative compromises have allowed the practice to continue and have even provided immunity from prosecution for its perpetrators.

Now, TrueMajority is working with Catholics United and School of the Americas Watch to bring you the voices of torture survivors and military interrogators who are asking Sen. McCain to regain his moral footing and ban torture.

Please see below a video from Joshua Casteel, a former interrogator at Abu Ghraib, turned conscientious objector, asking John McCain to ban ALL TORTURE

Watch the video and sign their petition demanding an end to torture:

More on John McCain’s position on torture below the fold

Originally posted at Talk to Action.

The Catholic Right, Part Sixty-five

What does McCain's use of Catholic Right icon Deal Hudson as a campaign advisor and surrogate tell us about the presumptive GOP nominee's view of American Catholics?  Simple: just like President George W. Bush, his Catholic constituency is not the rank and file faithful, but a small reactionary faction in the hierarchy here and in the Vatican.

This is significant for many reasons, not the least is that it signals a disregard for one of American Catholicism's most recent painful episodes.

Originally posted at Talk to Action.

The Catholic Right, Part Sixty-four

On July 16, 2008 Catholics United sent the McCain campaign a a letter calling on the Arizona senator to remove the controversial Catholic Right mover and shaker Deal Hudson from the Catholics for McCain National Steering Committee. Hudson, a Catholic Right activist who was forced to resign from a similar position in President Bush's 2004 presidential campaign when The National Catholic Reporter broke a story about sexual harassment on Hudson's part while teaching at Fordham University.

So, who would be brazen enough to defend such a man from a similar firing?  The Catholic League's Bill Donohue, of course.

Bill Donohue has described Deal Hudson as "the ultimate networker," adding: "If you wanted to get something to the top inner circles of the [Bush] White House from a Catholic perspective, you could contact Deal Hudson and it was delivered."

This originally was posted at Talk to Action.

A few posts ago I said of the Catholic League's Bill Donohue:

As the saying goes, even a broken watch is correct twice a day. Well, with the Catholic League's Bill Donohue's condemnation of Senator John McCain endorsement by Evangelical John Hagee, ole Bill is at least half right.

Well folks, I take back my conditional praise of Bloviating Bill: The hands have now completely come off the tempestuous Timex.

In light of Bruce Wilson's exposé on Pastor Hagee's outrageous comments about the Holocaust, comes a press release from the Catholic League's Bill Donohue that incredibly praises Hagee as "sincere" as well as describing him as "a genuine friend to Jews."

This was originally was posted at Talk to Action.

The Catholic Right, a Series

As the saying goes, even a broken watch is correct twice a day. Well, with the Catholic League's Bill Donohue's condemnation of Senator John McCain endorsement by Evangelical John Hagee, ole Bill is at least half right.

Yet though this watch may seem broken, it is still wound up to start ticking again in 2012.

In that regard it is worth reminding ourselves about Donohue's thinly-veiled anti-Semitism, his defense of the Inquisition, and most relevant to this post, his past soft-peddling of John Hagee and his very real anti-Catholicism.