Going Undercover at Mad Pastor Hagee's Christians United for Israel Summit

[DogPoundPup]

To read the entire article: http://www.alternet.org/rights/92860/going_undercover_at_mad_pastor_hagee%27s_christians_united_for_israel_summit/


But as far off-message as the panelists got during their tirades about Muslims, Iran, the special relationship between the U.S. and Israel, and even beach vacations, CUFI was sure to keep the messages of its followers on point as they ventured to Capitol Hill on Wednesday. Every participant was issued a 15-page packet that outlined support for sustained military aid to Israel, increased sanctions on Iran, support for the divestment campaign against Iran, and exactly where each member of Congress stood on each issue. The directions were as simple as Ikea's: 1) stick to the talking points, 2) don't answer any questions beyond them, 3) don't talk to the press, and 4) don't engage any opposition views.

The first two points were rather simply explained by Joel James, a development manager for Eagles' Wings Ministries, in the regional breakout sessions. "Two years ago," he told the Region 10 attendees (Mid-Atlantic and North East states), "something happened that was embarrassing to CUFI and the body of Christ." Hagee's PR people have only been with him for the 2007 and 2008 summits, and were unaware of the incident, as were participants I asked about it. But considering my interviews with conference attendees, its not hard to imagine that some of the "core theological beliefs" that Hagee followers are so eager to discuss were unsettling to some of the politicians in Congress and their staffs.

In addition to telling attendees to disregard criticisms of and accusations about Hagee, Brog also told the participants to avoid the media because "some in the media have disrespect for people of faith," and that discussing issues with protesters was useless because "they hate us and everything we stand for." This hardly seems like the modus operandi of an organization that is constantly on the defense and begs for absolution by its ideas to be made available to the public. Instead, it comes off like CUFI and Hagee have something to hide. From observing both the public and private faces of CUFI at the Washington-Israel Summit, I would venture to say that what they're hiding is a fundamentalist, apocalyptic, Christian right ideology that does not have high regard for most of the world's people and instead condemns most of them -- even those it claims to love and defend -- to hell.

[anonymous171]

1. I am very scared of these people

Sounds like they are running a suicide cult (rapture by WWIII) of massive proportions behind the scenes.