THINGS AREN'T ALWAYS
WHAT THEY APPEAR TO BE *

INTRODUCTION

In May of last year (2007) I wrote:

"There are periods when time seems to go into slow motion; when great and contradictory forces that are battling against one another seem to abate - though not completely; just enough to give people a sense that time is on their side; that the emergency they had sensed was about to explode upon them has diminished to the extent that they can begin to relax a little.

"This is what happened in Germany between September 1930 - when the Nazis won a surprising victory in the elections of that year, a victory that seemed to presage their immediate ascent to power - and January 1933 when the Nazis finally seized power once and for all; an interval of about two and a half years; an interval that no one had expected.

"Four different governments and several elections were to take place in this short period of time, and each time the position the Nazis had achieved in the 1930 election was eroded. Indeed, one month before the final ascent of the Nazis to power, the Communists and their pseudo-allies, the Social Democrats, held more seats in the Reichstag (the German Parliament) than the Nazis did. IT SEEMED THAT THE NAZI PARTY WAS A SPENT FORCE." [Please see our article, "The New In-Between Time."]

SO ALSO TODAY …

So also today insofar as the Religious Right / Business Right alliance that has animated the Republican Party over the last several decades is concerned. The very real fact of the matter is, there are many pundits today predicting the decline and fall of this alliance; that a "New Left" liberal / anti-business / anti-Christian alliance centered around the Democratic Party is rising to take its place. That's what Lance Selfa thinks; he writes that Bush and his conservative cohorts have run into a -

"… a leftward shift in popular consciousness."

Selfa explains:

"With each new day, more bad political news seems to befall the Bush administration and Republicans in Congress. Major national opinion polls estimate that only about one-third of Americans support President Bush and the Republicans in Congress … Liberal commentators are already predicting the possibility of a 'tsunami' of angry voters sweeping … [a Democrat into the presidency] in November."

REPUBLICANS HAVE
DESERTED THEIR BASE

Religious Right conservatives explain that the shift of the American electorate against Bush can be explained by the fact that leaders in the Republican Party have "deserted their base." Selfa explains:

"As they do every time [when the Religious Right's] extreme agenda alienates large numbers of Americans, conservatives accuse the administration and Republicans in Congress of 'deserting the base' - i.e., of not being conservative enough."

Sean Hannity and other conservatives council -

"… 'going to the base' to save the Republican Party in 2008."

However, Selfa writes:

"It's doubtful whether this advice [i.e., 'going to the base'] will really stave off GOP losses. For one thing, opinion polls show that Bush and the GOP by and large retain the support of conservatives. Instead, they have lost more moderate Republicans - the people least exercised by the Religious Right … If opinion polls are predictive of strategy, 'going to the base' might be a way to preserve hard-core GOP support, but at the cost of [alienating moderates and] losing the 2008 elections …"

In other words, the Business Right of the Republican Party should employ a strategy of jettisoning their alliance with the Religious Right and moving the party back to the so-called "moderate" center. AND THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT THE BUSINESS RIGHT SEEMS TO BE DOING IN SUPPORTING THE CANDIDACY OF JOHN McCAIN, much to the chagrin of Religious Right leaders such as Dr. James Dobson, who said just last year:

"I WILL NOT VOTE FOR McCAIN UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES."

THINGS AREN'T ALWAYS
WHAT THEY APPEAR TO BE

Given this reality - specifically, the apparent shift of the Business Right of the Republican Party away from its alliance with the Religious Right - it would seem that the moderates have won control of the Republican Party. But as Paul Neuman said to Sally Fields in Absence of Malice:

"Things aren't always what they appear to be."

Just as there were forces in Germany from 1930 to 1933 that were at work underneath the German political landscape that belied what was happening on the surface, so there are forces at work below the surface of the American political landscape that belie what's really happening insofar as the Republican Party and the Religious Right are concerned. The truth of that statement can be gleaned from the support that McCain (presumably a moderate) recently received from the pastor of San Antonio's huge Cornerstone Church, the Rev. John C. Hagee (presumably a "card-carrying member" of the Religious Right) who said of McCain:

"John McCain is a man of principle."

JOHN HAGEE ON JOHN McCAIN

In endorsing McCain over what seemed to be the choice of most Religious Right conservatives - i.e., Mike Huckabee - just prior to the Texas primary, Hagee seemed to be endorsing the "moderate" shift of the Republican Party (which hardly seems likely); OR maybe - just maybe - indicating that McCain isn't quite the "moderate" that most people think he is. THIS IDEA GAINED A GOOD DEAL OF CREDENCE WHEN MODERATES RAISED A FIRESTORM OVER HAGEE'S ENDORSEMENT OF McCAIN, AND McCAIN REFUSED TO BACK AWAY FROM HAGEE'S ENDORSEMENT.

And exactly why, one might ask, would moderates find Hagee's endorsement of McCain so unappealing? HAGEE IS A MAN WHO SUBSCRIBES TO THE IDEA THAT THE UNITED STATES MUST JOIN ISRAEL IN A PREEMPTIVE MILITARY STRIKE AGAINST IRAN THAT WILL LEAD TO THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. This is hardly a view calculated to win the support of either moderate Republicans or moderate Democrats, the very people to which the Business Right of the Republican Party wants to appeal.

Asked about Hagee’s extensive writings on Armageddon and about what one questioner said was Mr. Hagee’s belief that the anti-Christ will be the head of the European Union, McCain responded:

"All I can tell you is that I AM VERY PROUD TO HAVE PASTOR JOHN HAGEE'S SUPPORT."

NOTE ON HAGEE:

Hagee, now 66 years old, divorced his first wife 30 years ago when their children were ages 3 and 6, and less than six months later married his second wife with whom, many suppose, he had been having an affair and who happened to be 12 years his junior.

The Christian pollster George Barna recently reported that Hagee is ranked in the top 10 spokesmen for Christianity among Pentecostals. Pastor George Morrison of Arvada, Colorado, who has been friends with Hagee for more than 20 years and whose ministry has likewise "always seen Israel in God's plan for the future," says that Hagee "Has proven himself a spiritual leader in the country. And he has the platform, his TV ministry and the great respect of a lot of other leaders; so certainly, he's in that position of spiritual leadership and authority to lead the evangelical churches and help unite them."

Along with friends like Bennie Hinn, Joyce Meyer and Rod Parsley, Hagee has come under fire for excessive compensation derived from his nonprofit ministries. According to his organization's tax returns, Hagee has earned more than $1 million annually since 1999 in salary and deferred compensation from his nonprofit Global Evangelism Television and Cornerstone Church. In 2004, the San Antonio News Express reported that he was the highest-paid nonprofit executive in that city; his pay was nearly twice that of the next best-paid executive. Hagee's ministry follows the "Word of Faith" theology pioneered by Kenneth Hagin, Oral Roberts, Kenneth Copeland, etc. - a pentecostal movement based on the "power of the spoken word" to claim one's "material" desires. One of the central tenets of the movement is the notion that "sowing a seed" -- i.e., contributing to the ministry -- will result in the donor's "harvest" of PERSONAL prosperity. [Please see our article, "The Superman Theology of the International Christian Embassy's Feast of Tabernacles" for a description of the eschatology animating Hagee and his allies;" please also see our articles, "The Obermenschen (Supermen) of Kenneth Hagin, Bennie Hinn, and John Wimber," "The God-Men of America's New World Order System," "Luciferic Christianity" and "Today's Church: Making Zombies out of Christians" for a more in-depth analysis of the "Word of Faith" movement.]

NOTE ON TBN:

The "Word of Faith" movement is galvanized to a very large extent around Jan and Paul Crouch's Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN). TBN is the largest Christian television network in the world, claiming to reach more than 92 million households in the United States alone. The Republican Party has embraced TBN's audience as a valuable constituency. TBN has made much of its own Republican connections, touting network founder Paul Crouch's relationship with former Attorney-General John Ashcroft (they attended the same church as children) -- and the Republicans have returned the compliment.

In his 1999 campaign memoir, Bush recalls feeling "spellbound" by the preaching of Dallas-based TBN televangelist T.D. Jakes, a "Word of Faith" minister whom he has since invited to participate in official White House events. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has lauded TBN's efforts to expand its broadcasting into China. TBN's lawyer is Colby May, who also serves as counsel to the American Center for Law and Justice, a group founded by Pat Robertson, whose president Jay Sekulow, a converted Jew, advised Bush on his Supreme Court nominees.

May also represents certain members of Congress on legislative initiatives and helped draft the Houses of Worship Free Speech Restoration Act, which, if passed, would lift the ban on electioneering from the pulpit. Its chief sponsor, Congressman Walter Jones, a North Carolina Republican, has appeared on Praise the Lord to promote the bill. Other guests on TBN programming have included Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina; Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, a California Republican; Texas GOP co-chairman David Barton; and Oliver North, the radio host and Iran-Contra scandal celebrity. [Please see our article, "The Death Squads, Oh, What a Tangled Web We Are Weaving."]

Several years ago, after he interviewed California Congressman Duke Cunningham, Crouch wrote in TBN's newsletter: "What a soul-winner he is! Every time he shares his powerful testimony, lives are touched, and our soul totals soars!" That was long before Cunningham pleaded guilty to bribery and conspiracy, and fell under suspicion of providing favors to a defense contractor who sent him prostitutes via a limousine service.

CHRISTIANS UNITED FOR ISRAEL (CUFI)

And it's not just Hagee that has come over to the side of McCain in apparent defiance of Dobson, but many others such as Rod Parsley of the World Harvest Church Ministerial Fellowship centered out of Columbus, Ohio. [Please see our video, "Greed Is Good," for information on Parsley.]

Again, What's going on? Why are Hagee and Parsley breaking with what most commentators say is the leader of the Religious Right, James Dobson. The answer is: Their view on Armageddon, and their membership in an organization known as "Christians United for Israel" (CUFI) - an organization with which McCain is closely (but somewhat furtively) affiliated.

CUFI is the Christian counterpart of the "American Israel Public Affairs Committee" (AIPAC). IT IS THE BELIEF OF CUFI MEMBERS THAT WE ARE ON THE VERGE OF ARMAGEDDON, a war in which Israel will defeat the forces of anti-Christ which are centered around the European Union - at least according to CUFI members. Hagee, who is the head of CUFI, has written in Jerusalem Countdown that what's going on in the Middle East today -

" … is all about the end of days and how nuclear war with Iran will ignite it."

NOTE:

The CUFI board of directors includes the former Republican presidential candidate and religious right activist Gary Bauer and George Morrison, pastor of the 8,000-member Faith Bible Chapel in Arvada, Colorado, and chairman of the board of Promise Keepers. Rod Parsley, the Ohio televangelist who is rapidly becoming a major political figure in the Christian right, signed on as a regional director. Among CUFI's other supporters are nationally syndicated Christian right talk show host Janet Parshall, who serves on its board of advisers, and Ron Wexler, an Orthodox Jew and president of the theocratic Ten Commandments Commission, which has the backing of nearly every prominent conservative evangelical in the country. Many popular TBN televangelists, among them Benny Hinn and the best-selling author of self-improvement books, Joyce Meyer, have also offered their support. Meyer was named one of the country's 25 most influential evangelicals in an oft-cited 2005 Time Magazine article -- as was Stephen Strang, CEO of Strang Communications. David Brog, a former chief of staff to Senator Arlen Specter, the Pennsylvania Republican, serves on CUFI's board of advisers. Standing With Israel, his book urging Jews to embrace the support of evangelical Christians, has just been published by Strang.

Sarah Posner, who has written extensively on Hagee, writes:

"In September [2007] Hagee preached that 'World War III has begun' and released a sermon series that purported to 'show the historical and Biblical foundations that explain the war we are in now and point us to Armageddon'. In January he wrote about the Book of Revelation and its prediction that 'Jesus Christ will soon rule the world with a rod of iron from the city of Jerusalem'. And in March, he sermonized about 'the edge of time ... the final countdown has begun'."

HAGEE AND AMERICA

Hagee sees the Russian Federation as an ally of the anti-Christ and - ipso facto - the European Union in the upcoming war against Israel. According to Hagee, THE ONLY QUESTION THAT NEEDS TO BE ANSWERED NOW IS, ON WHOSE SIDE WILL THE UNITED STATES ALLY ITSELF? [Please see our articles, "America vs. Europe" and "Reducing Europe to the Status of Greece in the Days of Rome;" please also see Chapter XII of the NEW ANTIPAS PAPERS, "The Beast of Revelation 17," finally, we urge you to see our DVD, "Greed Is Good."]

Hagee believes that he has a mandate from God to call America to side with Israel in the soon-to-come struggle. This is what he supposes he has been called to do - and in doing so, he believes that he will save the United States on the basis of Genesis 12:1-3:

"Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:

"And I will make of thee [i.e., Israel] a great nation, and I will bless thee [i.e., Israel], and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:

"And I WILL BLESS THEM THAT BLESS THEE [again, Israel], and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." (Genesis 12:1-3)

In the light of this passage of Scripture, Hagee believes that the fate of the United States revolves around whether or not America sides with Israel in the coming struggle with Iran, which he sees as the coming battle of Armageddon - AND THIS REGARDLESS OF THE MOTIVATIONS THAT MIGHT ANIMATE THE U.S. IN SUPPORTING ISRAEL.

THE INWARD MOTIVATIONS OF OUR HEARTS
COUNT INSOFAR AS GOD IS CONCERNED

However, God - who knows the secrets of our hearts (Psalm 44:1) - does not judge by the "outward," but by the "inward" - AND HE CONDEMNS ALL THOSE WHO DO OTHERWISE AS HYPOCRITES:

"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, HYPOCRITES! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.

"Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also." (Matthew 23:25-26)

These are people who honor God -

"… with their lips, but their heart is far from Him." (Mark 7:6)

And there can certainly be no better description of the business elites with whom the Religious Right has covenanted in order to "bring America back to Christ:" HYPOCRITES - people who honor God with their lips, but whose hearts are far from Him. These are the very people about whom Jesus said:

"It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a [sewing] needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." (Mark 10:25)

These people are not interested in the survival of Israel and the Jewish people; their only interest is in using Israel as a puppet in order to gain control of the "black gold" of the Middle East, OR does anyone really think that there is anything else motivating the elites who sit on the board of Haliburton, Bechtel, Exxon, Shell, Philips, etc? After using Israel for their own pecuniary interests, they will throw her away just like a spoiled child would throw away her rag doll after it has been dirtied.

YOUR COVENANT WITH DEATH;
YOUR AGREEMENT WITH HELL

It is for this PRECISE reason that the Bible calls the defense pact between Israel and the United States towards which Hagee and his CUFI allies are pressing -

"Your [i.e., Israel's] COVENANT WITH DEATH" (Is. 28:18a; cf. Daniel 9:26-27) [Please see Part 6 of Chapter XV. "Israel's Agreement with Hell."]

And

"Your [i.e., Israel's] AGREEMENT WITH HELL" (Is. 28:18b; cf. Daniel 9:26-27) [Again, please see Part 6 of Chapter XV. "Israel's Agreement with Hell."]

That's pretty heavy! Commenting on this "agreement," J. Dwight Pentecost writes that the "Coming Prince" (i.e., the anti-Christ) -

"… will make a covenant with Israel for a seven year period. This covenant evidently ... guarantees Israel’s integrity [i.e., it is a defense pact] ... [and] also is a Satanic imitation of the fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant which ... [guaranteed] Israel title deed to the land." [Please see "The Four Unconditional Covenants of God with Israel" in Part 2 of Chapter VI of the NEW ANTIPAS PAPERS.]

Pentecost continues:

"This action is pictured by John [in the Apocalypse] (Rev. 16:2) as a rider going forth to conquer [i.e., as the first horseman in the Apocalypse] ... This condition exists for three and one-half years, after which the covenant is broken by the ... [Antichrist]."

What's that say insofar as Hagee is concerned? - clearly it says that Hagee is (wittingly or unwittingly, no matter) serving the purposes of "death and hell" - AND SO ALSO ALL THOSE WHO HAVE JOINED THEMSELVES WITH HAGEE IN SUPPORTING THE GOAL OF CUFI (Christians United for Israel) TO UNITE ISRAEL AND THE UNITED STATES TOGETHER IN A FORMAL DEFENSE PACT. [We URGE you to read ALL of Chapter XV of the New Antipas Papers, "The Gog/Magog War."]

Now think about all this! Think about what this says not only about John Hagee, but John McCain. How is it possible, in view of all this, to take seriously McCain's claim to be a "moderate" - someone who can "hold in check" what moderates - the very people to whom McCain is supposed to be appealing - call the "crazies" of the Religious Right?

One would think that McCain would want to distance himself as much as possible from Hagee and his cohorts; but other than trying to "obscure" Hagee's views on Armageddon, McCain has done nothing to put any distance between himself and Hagee.

JOHN HAGEE AS JOHN
McCAIN'S SPIRITUAL ADVISOR

In the spring of last year (2007) Posner attended a CUFI conference in Washington D.C. organized by John Hagee and Rod Parsley. Posner writes:

"At the CUFI conference, there was a lot of fretting about Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's '12th Imam'."

NOTE:

The Hidden (or 12^th) Imam (also known as the "Mahdi") is Islam's Messiah - a savor-like figure who will appear at the "end of days" to conquer the enemies of Islam and lead the world into a time of justice and peace. A common rumor - denied by the Iranian government, but widely believed - is that Mr. Ahmadinejad and his cabinet have signed a "contract" pledging themselves to work for the return of the Mahdi. [Please see our article on the 12^th Imam - "Iran Is Breaking the Seals: Preparing the Way for the 12^th Imam."]

Serious talk about Islam's "12^th Imam?" - and that by people pledged to McCain's so-called "moderate" candidacy. It seemed all so paradoxical and inconsistent. Again, one would think that Republican Party leaders who are promoting McCain as a "moderate" would have denounced Hagee and the other attendees at the CUFI conference. Instead, many of them were attendees themselves who were "gushing" over Hagee's "biblical insights" into the politics of the Middle East. Posner continues:

"No doubt it was difficult for Hagee to be questioned, given that speaker after speaker at the conference, INCLUDING MEMBERS OF CONGRESS, all extolled his divine mandate. HOUSE MINORITY LEADER ROY BLUNT pointed to AIPAC board members and quipped that Hagee could be that organization's president too. CUFI, Blunt added, is "part of God's plan." JOE LIEBERMAN echoed that sentiment, calling CUFI "miraculous" and claiming to "see God's hand" working in it. LIEBERMAN COMPARED HAGEE TO MOSES -- a "man of God" -- who has become a "leader of a mighty multitude." JOHN McCAIN THANKED HAGEE FOR SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE … David Brog, CUFI's executive director (who is Jewish) maintained that just like God placed Harry Truman in his mother's womb at a juncture in history when his support of Israel was needed, God placed Hagee in his mother's womb as well."

These people (including "Independent" Joe Lieberman) are not "backbenchers" in the halls of Congress; they reside at the very center of American power. Again, What's going on? The kind of sentiments being expressed here are hardly sentiments to which moderate Republicans and Democrats would subscribe.

ED LASKY AND THE AMERICAN THINKER

And make no mistake about it, CUFI is no a moderate organization. CUFI IS DEDICATED TO INSTIGATING A WAR OF EXTERMINATION AGAINST IRAN, AND IT IS DEVOTED TO "SLIMING" ANYONE WHO STANDS IN ITS WAY WITH REGARD TO THIS MATTER. THAT IS PRECISELY WHAT IT IS DOING INSOFAR AS BARACK OBAMA - WHO THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT BELIEVES IS WILLING TO "ACCOMMODATE" IRAN - IS CONCERNED. IT'S HERE THAT ED LASKY AND THE AMERICAN THINKER COME IN.

Lasky is involved in a particularly insidious effort to paint the Muslim community as an "ENEMY ABSOLUTE" THAT SHOULD BE EXTERMINATED IN THE SAME MANNER ONE WOULD EXTERMINATE A NEST OF SNAKES. [Please see our article, "Hardening Our Hearts Against God: Becoming a Prisoner of a Pathology of Hate" and "Radical Islam;" please also see chapter XV of the New Antipas Papers, "The Gog/Magog War."]

The effort centers around the attempt to paint Obama as a "secret" Muslim and tie him to the so-called "Worldwide Islamic Conspiracy" to take over the world.

NOTE: According to Netlore Archive, there are two variants of the smear that Obama is a Muslim:

Variant #1:

"Be careful, be very careful.

"Barack Hussein Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Barack Hussein Obama Sr. (black Muslim) of Nyangoma-Kogelo, Siaya District, Kenya, and Ann Dunham of Wichita, Kansas (white atheist ). When Obama was two years old, his parents divorced and his father returned to Kenya. His mother married Lolo Soetoro -- a Muslim -- moving to Jakarta with Obama when he was six years old. Within six months he had learned to speak the Indonesian language. Obama spent 'two years in a Muslim school, then two more in a Catholic school' in Jakarta. Obama takes great care to conceal the fact that he is a Muslim while admitting that he was once a Muslim, mitigating that damning information by saying that, for two years, he also attended a Catholic school.

"Obama's father, Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. was a radical Muslim who migrated from Kenya to Jakarta, Indonesia. He met Obama's mother, Ann Dunham - a white atheist from Wichita, Kansas - at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Obama, Sr. and Dunham divorced when Barack, Jr. was two. Obama's spinmeisters are now attempting to make it appear that Obama's introduction to Islam came from his father and that influence was temporary at best. In reality, the senior Obama returned to Kenya immediately following the divorce and never again had any direct influence over his son's education.

"Dunham married another Muslim, Lolo Soetoro who educated his stepson as a good Muslim by enrolling him in one of Jakarta's Wahabbi schools. Wahabbism is the radical teaching that created the Muslim terrorists who are now waging Jihad on the industrialized world. Since it is politically expedient to be a Christian when you are seeking political office in the United States, Obama joined the United Church of Christ to help purge any notion that he is still a Muslim.

"Handsome … Charming … Winsome … Dangerous … Deceptive … Determined."

Variant #2:

"Who is Barack Obama?

"Probable Democrat presidential candidate, Barack Hussein Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Barack Hussein Obama, Sr., a black MUSLIM from Nyangoma-Kogel, Kenya and Ann Dunham, a white ATHIEST from Wichita, Kansas. Obama's parents met at the University of Hawaii. When Obama was two years old, his parents divorced. His father returned to Kenya. His mother then married Lolo Soetoro, a RADICAL Muslim from Indonesia. When Obama was 6 years old, the family relocated to Indonesia. Obama attended a MUSLIM school in Jakarta. He also spent two years in a Catholic school.

"Obama takes great care to conceal the fact that he is a Muslim. He is quick to point out that, 'He was once a Muslim, but that he also attended Catholic school'. Obama's political handlers are attempting to make it appear that Obama's introduction to Islam came via his father, and that this influence was temporary at best. In reality, the senior Obama returned to Kenya soon after the divorce, and never again had any direct influence over his son's education.

"Lolo Soetoro, the second husband of Obama's mother, Ann Dunham, introduced his stepson to Islam. Obama was enrolled in a Wahabi school in Jakarta. Wahabism is the RADICAL teaching that is followed by the Muslim terrorists who are now waging Jihad against the western world. Since it is politically expedient to be a CHRISTIAN when seeking Major public office in the United States, Barack Hussein Obama has joined the United Church of Christ in an attempt to downplay his Muslim background.

"Let us all remain alert concerning Obama's expected presidential candidacy. The Muslims have said they plan on destroying the US from the inside out, what better way to start than at the highest level - through the President of the United States, one of their own!!!! ALSO, keep in mind that when he was sworn into office - he DID NOT use the Holy Bible, but instead the Kuran (Their equivalency to our Bible, but very different beliefs)

"Would you want this man leading our country?...... NOT ME!!!"

NOTE:

Obama used the Bible when he was sworn into office, and the school he attended in Jakarta was a public school, not an Islamic one; furthermore, neither his father or his step father were practicing Muslims.

NOW ONE NEEDS TO UNDERSTAND JUST HOW SERIOUS THIS CHARGE IS: IF ONE AGREES THAT THERE IS ACTUALLY A WORLDWIDE MUSLIM CONSPIRACY TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD, AND - AS A RESULT - MUSLIMS SHOULD BE VIEWED AS AN "ENEMY ABSOLUTE" MUCH IN THE SAME FASHION THAT JEWS WERE VIEWED AS AN "ENEMY ABSOLUTE" BY THE NAZIS, THEN IT IS NOT THAT MUCH OF A JUMP TO THE CONCLUSON THAT THE NAZIS MADE WITH REGARD TO THE JEWS: THAT MUSLIMS SHOULD BE EXTERMINATED!

This is insane stuff! - and so much so that most would be tempted to dismiss such thinking as nonsense. But those who do so have little or no idea of the kind of "absolutist thinking" that animates the members of CUFI.

THE LABYRINTH OUT FROM
WHICH THIS SMEAR ORIGINATED

According to Netlore, it's nearly impossible to decipher exactly where the smears against Obama originated. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency traced one variant on this smear back to Tel Aviv where it disappeared into the "ether-sphere" that surrounds the "Hagee / Parsley / Lasky / CUFI / IFCJ / neo-con" nexus.

NOTE ON THE IFCJ:

Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein's International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ) is an integral part of the anti-Obama nexus, and it is, therefore, no accident that Lasky sits on the governing board of this organization. The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews was founded in 1983 by Eckstein to "promote understanding and cooperation between Jews and Christians and to build broad support for Israel and other shared concerns." The organization is a registered 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization, which had revenue of $50 MILLION in 2005. It has offices in Chicago and Jerusalem. It is perhaps THE leading organization in the world dedicated to promoting "understanding" between the American evangelical community, the world-wide Jewish community and the state of Israel.

The Obama smears were eventually picked up by Insight Magazine, a publication of the Washington Times, which said of Obama, "Once a Muslim, always a Muslim."

Shortly thereafter, Human Events, another conservative magazine, published the smears on its website in a series of articles called "Barack Obama Exposed." One of the articles was titled "The First Muslim President?" From there the smears spread to conservative talk-radio where Michael Savage "noted" Obama's "background" in a "Muslim madrassa in Indonesia," and Rush Limbaugh said that he occasionally got "confused" between Obama and Osama bin Laden. Others - such as Ed Cunningham - began emphasizing Obama's middle name "Hussein" - knowing full well that most people would connect that name to Saddam Hussein, the former dictator of Iraq.

NOTE ON CUNNINGHAM:

Now one must understand something here! - to believe that McCain is unaware of what Hagee and his supporters in CUFI are up to in smearing Obama is tantamount to believing in the tooth fairy. Such naiveté would qualify one for a charter membership in the Flat Earth Society. Of course McCain knows! - and all his efforts to pretend otherwise ring very, very hollow. For example, take the way McCain "pretended" to repudiate Bill Cunningham's rant against Obama at a campaign rally just prior to his appearance at the same rally. Cunningham attacked Obama by saying:

"When the great prophet from Chicago [meaning Obama] takes the stand [i.e., the presidency], the world leaders who want to kill us will be singing Kumbaya together around the table with Barack Obama."

Afterwards, McCain spoke. McCain says he was unaware of Cunningham's attack on Obama - though how, it's difficult to say, he was standing right there. Told later about the attack (i.e., after he had finished speaking) McCain took the opportunity to repudiate Cunningham:

"I did not know about these remarks, but I take responsibility for them. I repudiate them. My entire campaign and I have treated Senator Obama and Senator (Hillary Rodham) Clinton with respect. I will continue to do that throughout this campaign."

Again, all this rings more than a bit hollow - McCain was standing not more than twenty feet away from Cunningham when he made the remarks. The disingenuousness of it all led John Amato to say,

"One has to wonder if McCain really was unhappy about it [specifically, the incident with Cunningham], and whether or not this was McCain's Sister Soljah Moment."

The reference here to Sister Soljah, a militant, black singer - was a reference to an incident during Bill Clinton's first campaign for the presidency when Clinton "engineered" an event with Soljah that gave him an opportunity to criticize the so-called "Liberal Left" and present himself to the electorate as a "moderate" rather than a liberal. AND IT WORKED!

Amato and others believe this is exactly what happened insofar as Cunningham is concerned. Cunningham had been hand-picked by the McCain campaign to "warm up" the crowd prior to McCain's appearance. HAND-PICKED! The campaign could not have but known about Cunningham's reputation for being a "hard-right" critic of Obama - after all, he is a widely-listened-to radio talk show host with a national following - one that was perfectly capable of letting fly a whole host of incendiary remarks. Indeed, he was told by the campaign to "throw the audience some red meat." Very obviously, the campaign was setting up Cunningham for McCain's "Sister Soljah Moment."

And notice here: McCain was careful not to "set up" his followers in the Religious Right who would have made much better targets than Cunningham. INDEED, THE CUNNINGHAM INCIDENT WAS PROBABLY A "SET-UP" TO THROW THE PRESS OFF THE SCENT OF McCAIN'S COZY RELATIONSHIP WITH THE "HAGEE / CUFI / IFCJ" NEXUS - a relationship that McCain views as sacrosanct - even in the face of much harsher (and much more justified) criticism from his moderate supporters.

All this says something about how deeply McCain has been affected by the theology that animates Hagee and CUFI, if not on a religious basis, at least on the basis that Muslims are an "ENEMY ABSOLUTE" that must be dealt with in the severest of terms. [And again,, one is being very simple-minded to believe that McCain is not aware of how Hagee and his allies propose dealing with the Muslims of the Middle East: TO WAGE A WAR OF EXTERMINATION AGAINST THEM, much in the same fashion that the Nazis waged war against the Jews in the 1930s and '40s. [We URGE you to see "A War Aimed at De-Populating the Middle East," in Part 3 of Chapter XV of the NEW ANTIPAS PAPERS."]

THE SMEARS SPREAD INTO THE
MAINLINE EVANGELICAL COMMUNITY

From talk-radio, the smears spread rapidly into mainline evangelical churches where people like Bryan Keelin of Charleston, South Carolina, who works with an organization of churches there, began spreading the smears in churches where he worked: "I assume his father - who was a Muslim - instructed him on the ways of being a Muslim," said Keelin; he continued: "The Muslims have said they plan on destroying the U.S. from the inside out." The Rev. Rob Schenck, a reform Jew who converted to Christianity and who now calls himself a "missionary to Capitol Hill," also "bought into" the smears; he mused, "Is Obama a Muslim?"

Schenck's musings were picked up by the Christian Newswire and Cross Action News, a self-described "Drudge Report for Christians." A separate report carried by the Christian Newswire charged Obama with wearing a "What-Would-Satan-Do Bracelet." Debbie Schlussel went on to parrot the charge, "Barack Hussein Obama: Once a Muslim, always a Muslim."

NEW VARIATIONS

By now the rumors have taken on a number of different variations. They include the old charges that -

1. Obama is a "secret" Muslim.

2. He was sworn into office on the Koran.

However, they also include several new charges; specifically, that Obama is -

1. Anti-Israel.

2. His advisers are anti-Israel.

3. He is friends with terrorists.

4. The terrorists want him to win and are secretly funding him - which accounts for the massive donations that are fueling his campaign, funds from Islamic sources that are being channeled through the internet using a plethora of sympathetic "liberals" as "fronts."

Once again, the "Ed Lasky / CUFI / IFCJ / Hagee / Parsley" nexus could be found at the center of the new charges.

THE OBAMA SMEARS ARE PICKED
UP BY THE JEWISH PRESS

These charges were quickly picked up by the Jewish media. Indeed, Lasky became a household name in the mainstream Jewish press, and the talk of the town at synagogues - even liberal ones. The charges that Obama was anti-Israel and that he was connected to Muslim terrorist groups circulated far and wide. Caroline Glick of the Jerusalem Post quoted Lasky at length in a January column, printing his false claims as fact. All this led Andrew Silow-Carroll, editor of the New Jersey Jewish News, and no necessary friend of Obama, to write:

"I wonder how a tendentiously argued anti-Obama piece is mass-emailed by so many Jews who should know better,"

AND THEY SHOULD KNOW BETTER! - involving themselves as they are doing in a nexus of hate that has no real love for the Jewish community and the state of Israel. It's not as if there is much "digging" necessary to find out the truth of this matter. [Please see our articles, "The Religious Right and Israel; A Relationship that Cannot Hold," "The Real Enemy of Israel; It's Not Who You Think" and "The Republican Party and the Jews."]

The Jewish community would have been well advised to have taken the advice of Christ concerning such "false" alliances:

"Cast [not] your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you." (Matthew 7:6)

AARON KLEIN

Another Jewish purveyor of the smear campaign against Obama is Aaron Klein, a close associate of Lasky, and through Lasky, the "CUFI / IFCJ / Hagee / Parsley" nexus. Klein, who is an Orthodox Jew, is Jerusalem correspondent for WorldNetDaily (WND). WND is notoriously disreputable, a sort of National Enquirer for the right (typical headline: "I Took Drugs and Had Homo Sex With Obama").

Klein made a name for himself by getting terrorists to say nice things about Democrats so that he could later charge these same Democrats with being "enemies of Israel" and "soft on Islamic terrorists." Klein has called Hillary Clinton the "jihadist choice for president," but when Clinton stumbled, he turned his fire on Obama, attempting to expose his so-called "terrorist connections."

Klein penned two stories in late February wildly distorting Obama's links from his days in Chicago to pro-Palestinian activists like Rashid Khalidi, a respected professor of Middle East studies at Columbia University who previously taught at the University of Chicago (hardly a bastion of left-wing activism). Klein's story goes something like this: Obama sat on the board of a foundation in Chicago that gave a grant to the Arab American Action Network (AAAN), run by Khalidi's wife, which supposedly rejects Israel's existence; and Khalidi directed the PLO's Beirut press office and is a supporter "of Palestinian terror."

NOTE:

In fact, the AAAN focuses solely on social service work in Chicago and takes no position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Khalidi says he was never employed by the PLO; he has been a harsh critic of Palestinian suicide bombings and is a longtime supporter of a two-state solution; and, finally, he has never been an adviser to Obama.)

UNITING WHITE RACISM WITH ISLAMOPHOBIA

CUFI and those connected to CUFI are now involved in an effort to elicit the support of latent white racism in their effort to "slime" Obama - an effort that involves connecting Obama to Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam. In connecting Obama to Farrakhan, CUFI gets a "TWO-FER" - that is to say, the charge incites not only white racism against Obama, but connects that racism to the so-called "Worldwide Muslim Conspiracy."

For example, take what Erik Rush, a card-carrying member of the "CUFI / IFCJ / Hagee / Parsley" nexus and a columnist for WorldNetDaily, has been saying about Obama:

"Notice what color you will need to be if you should want to join Obama's church: B-L-A-C-K !!!"

Rush calls Obama's Chicago church a "black supremacist" and "separatist" institution; a church more closely in tune with Farrakhan and Islam than with Christians and Christianity. These charges have found a very sympathetic audience at Fox News, where Rush was interviewed by Sean Hannity.

And one should not make the mistake that the connection being pursued here by CUFI is "happenchance." It's not! CUFI is closely associated with the Council For National Policy (CNP), a far right Christian / Business organization with connections to racist and Nazi ideology. [Please see our articles on the CNP, "The Council on National Policy" and "The Ideological Origins of the CNP;" please also see our articles, "The Olson Salon: A Case Study of the Machinations of the Religious Right," "The Right Wing Panics," "Richard Mellon Scaife and the Evil that Men Can Do" and "The Rutherford Institute and R.J. Rushdoony" for background on the kind of ideology that grips organizations like the CNP.]

And there in the midst of it all - unfazed by CUFI's connections to the CNP - are CUFI's Jewish allies, not only in the United States, but in Israel. Again, one is left breathless as to how Jews - conservative, liberal or otherwise - could be connected to a group with close ties to the CNP; but it follows a pattern established by the Jewish community during the Balkan crisis of the 1990s, a crisis which saw the Jews, at the bidding of their masters in Washington, turn against what historically were their allies - i.e., the Serbs - in favor of currying the aid of their masters on the Potomac. It seems today that Washington's friends - whoever they might be - are Israel's friends, and Washington's enemies are Israel's enemies, even the Serbs who along with the Bulgarians were the only friends the Jews had in all of Europe during the Second World War, saving countless numbers of Jews from Hitler's grasp during the Holocaust. [Please see our articles, "Kosovo and America: What's Going On," "Kosovo and Depleted Uranium Weapons," "The Elite's Explanation of What's Happening in Chechnya;" "More Lies and Deception Concerning Kosovo," "More Smoke and Mirrors" and "Things the American Media Are Not Telling You;" please also see "Racism and Right-Wing Christianity."]

McCAIN SENDS A COLD
CHILL DOWN ONE'S SPINE

All this is enough to make anyone who is fair-minded to take a hard look at McCain's supposed "moderate" credentials - unless one is prepared to write someone off as a "moderate" who wants to wage a war of extermination against the worldwide Muslim community. And make no mistake about it, McCain is planning to deal with the Muslims in very severest of terms. Robert Dreyfuss writes:

"To combat what he likes to call 'the transcendent challenge [of] radical Islamic extremism', McCain is drawing up plans for a new set of global institutions, from a potent covert operations unit to a 'League of Democracies' that can bypass the balky United Nations, from an expanded NATO that will bump up against Russian interests in Central Asia and the Caucasus to a revived US unilateralism that will engage in 'rogue state rollback' against his version of the 'axis of evil'. In all, it's a new apparatus designed to carry the 'war on terror' deep into the twenty-first century."

Republican Senator Thad Cochran writes of McCain:

"THE THOUGHT OF HIS BEING PRESIDENT SENDS A COLD CHILL DOWN MY SPINE. He [i.e., McCain] is erratic. He is hotheaded. He loses his temper, and he worries me."

Not something one would say about a real moderate; someone one would trust to be self-restrained and sober in a crisis - which indicates that Hagee and his CUFI friends see something in McCain that others don't; something that scares - even terrifies - many of those who know McCain on a personal basis. And it's not just McCain's Senate colleagues like Cochran who are worried about McCain, but others who have worked with him on a more bureaucratic level, like Larry Wilkerson, a retired army colonel who was former Secretary of State Colin Powell's top aide; Wilkerson has said of McCain:

"There's a quality about him [i.e., McCain] that greatly disturbs me."

YES! - WORLD WAR III IS COMING

Yes! - World War III is coming! But it's not Armageddon (which will bring to a close the Tribulation of the "end of days"); it's the Gog / Magog War (a war which will initiate the Tribulation Period), a war through which the United States will take control of the world. [Please see Chapter IX of the NEW ANTIPAS PAPERS, "The Course and Character of the Last Days."]

The very real fact of the matter is, THE WAR THAT HAGEE AND CUFI ARE PRESSING ON McCAIN AND THE WORLD WILL NOT INITIATE THE SECOND COMING OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, BUT THE COMING OF ANTI-CHRIST. [Again, we urge you to read all of Chapter XV of the NEW ANTIPAS PAPERS, "The Gog / Magog War."

Hagee, McCain, CUFI, the IFCJ, the neo-cons, etc. are all FOOLS. Don't YOU be a fool.

Yes! The Gog / Magog War is coming. Nothing can stop it; but Jesus said:

"Woe unto the world because of offences [in this case, the Gog / Magog War]! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!" (Matthew 18:7)

What's that say then about how Hagee and his allies in CUFI will fare on THAT day?

ALL THIS TO SAY …

All this to say that while the "nightmare" of the Bush presidency may be coming to an end - and all that that seemed to portend insofar as the "end of the age" is concerned - THERE ARE FORCES AT WORK UNDERNEATH THE POLITICAL LANDSCAPE THAT BELIE THE CALM THAT SOME SEE EMERGING ON THE SURFACE; FORCES THAT SUGGEST THAT A McCAIN PRESIDENCY - IF IT SHOULD COME - MAY NOT PRESAGE THE KIND OF DEATH KNELL TO THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT (AND THE CONCOMITANT WAR-MONGERING THAT HAS ACCOMPANIED THEIR ASCENDANCY) THAT MANY POLITIAL PUNDITS CLAM TO SEE. INDEED, ONE MAY EVENTUALLY FIND THAT THE ALLIANCE McCAIN HAS MADE WITH THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT IS FAR MORE SINISTER AND MALEVOLENT THAN THE ONE MADE BETWEEN BUSH AND THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT. Indeed, all that may be happening is that the rich are creating a different kind of alliance with the Religious Right - an alliance that passes itself off as "moderate," but which - in reality - is far more dangerous than the one it is replacing. As Albert and Vera Weisbord said so long ago:

"The fascist movement is inevitable in the United States. To believe otherwise is to imagine that the … [rich] will give up their power without a fight. On the contrary, at the slightest indication of loss of their power, they will be prepared for a most ferocious struggle. The people of this country must learn this important truth." [Please see our articles, "Birth of a Christian Police State," "Cell Phone Technology: You Are Being Tracked," "Don't Be Naďve About Going to Prison for Christ," "The Watchers Are Watching You" and "Welcome to the New National Security State."]

That is to say, to believe that the American elites will allow themselves to be pushed out of the Middle East by what Lance Selfa calls a "… a leftward shift in popular consciousness" is nuts! They will do whatever it takes to retain their hold on the "black gold" of the Middle East.

YES! - WE ARE STILL IN
AN "IN-BETWEEN" TIME

Yes! - we are still in an IN-BETWEEN time; but one would do well not to be lulled to sleep by its seeming calm. When the end comes - and it will - it will come suddenly, like a thief in the night, and if you are not ready for it, you will be swept away. Jesus warned His disciples:

"WATCH THEREFORE, FOR YE KNOW NEITHER THE DAY NOR THE HOUR WHEREIN THE SON OF MAN COMETH.

"For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods.

"And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey.

"Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents.

"And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two.

"But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord’s money.

"After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them.

"And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more.

"His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.

"He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents: behold, I have gained two other talents beside them.

"His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.

"Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed:

"And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine.

"His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed:

"Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury.

"Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents.

"For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.

"And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matthew 25:13-30)

God bless you all!

S.R. Shearer
Antipas Ministries

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"IF WE HAVE SOWN UNTO YOU SPIRITUAL THINGS, IS IT A GREAT THING IF WE SHALL REAP YOUR CARNAL (MATERIAL) THINGS?" (1 Cor. 9:11)

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* A great deal of information for this article was derived from Sarah Posner's book, GOD'S PROFITS.

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