2008 batshit-crazy preacher endorsement watch: Republicans, 2; Democrats, 1

See, this is the kind of shit that happens when we have a very real but rarely-talked-about religious litmus test for public office in this country.

McCain’s in the lead with endorsements from two Christofacist idiots.

• John Hagee: “”All hurricanes are acts of God, because God controls the heavens. I believe that New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God, and they are– were recipients of the judgment of God for that.” – (Google news count for search ‘”john mccain’ ‘john hagee’”: 495)
• Rod Parsley on Islam: “I know that this statement sounds extreme, but I do not shrink from its implications. The fact is that America was founded, in part, with the intention of seeing this false religion destroyed, and I believe September 11, 2001, was a generational call to arms that we can no longer ignore. -(Google news count for search “‘john mccain’ ‘rod parsley’”: 40)

Barack Obama’s jittles are in a wringer over controversial statements made by his preacher. This, from what I can discern in the librul media, is much more damning, since Obama has been attending this particular church for twenty years (at least when he wasn’t attending radical Muslim bombing classes as part of his training to lead America’s Biggest Sleeper Cell) whereas McCain only began courting batshit-crazy preachers for endorsments when he realized if he wanted to be president he’d have to cast aside all his principles and get jiggy with the Jeebus-freaks who comprise much of the Republican base. (Google news story count for a “‘barack obama’ ‘jeremiah wright’” : 1869)

• Jeremiah Wright Jr.: “The government gives them [blacks] the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strikes law and then wants us to sing ‘God bless America.’ No, no, no, not ‘God bless America.’ God damn America.”

And just for fun, from one of my favorite movies, “The Contender”

“And, Mr. Chairman, I stand for the separation of Church and State, and the reason that I stand for that is the same reason that I believe our forefathers did. It is not there to protect religion from the grasp of government but to protect our government from the grasp of religious fanaticism.

Now, I may be an atheist, but that does not mean I do not go to church. I do go to church. The church I go to is the one that emancipated the slaves and gave women the right to vote. It gave us every freedom that we hold dear. My church is this very Chapel of Democracy that we sit in together, and I do not need God to tell me what are my moral absolutes. I need my heart, my brain, and this church.”