John Hagee
John Charles Hagee (born April 12, 1940) is an American founder and senior pastor of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, a non-denominational Charismatic megachurch with more than 20,000 active members. Hagee is also the chief executive officer (CEO) of his non-profit corporation, Global Evangelism Television (GETV). Hagee is the President and CEO of John Hagee Ministries, which telecasts his national radio and television ministry carried in the United States on ten television networks, including 62 high-power stations aired to more than 150 million households. He is shown on networks around the globe, including The Inspiration Network (INSP), Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), and Inspiration Now TV. John Hagee Ministries is in Canada on the Miracle Channel and CTS and can be seen in places including Africa, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Hagee is the founder and National Chairman of the Christian-Zionist organization Christians United for Israel, incorporated on February 7, 2006.
July 18, 2023: Word & Way: The Second Coming of John Hagee
As Sen. John McCain sought the presidency in 2008, he tried an unusual strategy for a Republican candidate. He decided to denounce a conservative Christian preacher. Controversy had swirled for weeks after John Hagee had endorsed McCain. Media attention highlighted Hagee’s past comments arguing Adolf Hitler had fulfilled God’s will to bring about the creation of the modern nation of Israel.
As Sen. John McCain sought the presidency in 2008, he tried an unusual strategy for a Republican candidate. He decided to denounce a conservative Christian preacher. Controversy had swirled for weeks after John Hagee had endorsed McCain. Media attention highlighted Hagee’s past comments arguing Adolf Hitler had fulfilled God’s will to bring about the creation of the modern nation of Israel.
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Dec 30, 2021: Jerusalem Post: Simcha Rothman on COVID-19 closure: Let the Jews back in first
Asked about influential Christian Evangelical leaders who are just as supportive of Israel, like Pastor John Hagee, Rothman said “John Hagee will accept it if I say Israel is the home of the Jewish people.” Dec 14, 2021: The Richest: Holy Millions: 10 Richest Celebrity Preachers In The World
John Charles Hagee is the founder of The Cornerstone Pentecostal Mega-Church, which he founded in 1983 in Nashville, Tennessee. With a net worth of $5 million, his purse is one of the most modest as a mega preacher. The Cornerstone Church seats over 20,000 members, making it one of the most successful wide-reaching Christian organizations in the world. Nov 16, 2021: Fox 5: Texas church under fire over 'Let's go Brandon' chants caught on video
A Texas church is coming under fire over a video showing people inside the place of worship chanting the viral anti-Biden phrase, "Let’s Go Brandon." "A euphemism for, you know, less than well wishes for the president of the United States and it has become a kind of a radical conservative rallying cry," Oklahoma pastor Jeremy Coleman said of the video showing people within the nondenominational Cornerstone Church in San Antonio chanting the phrase. |
April 12, 1940: John Charles Hagee is born.
February 7, 2006: Hagee and some 400 leaders from across the Christian and Jewish communities formed Christians United for Israel (CUFI). This lobbies members of the United States Congress, using a biblical stance for promoting Christian Zionism.
March 29, 2011: Can America Survive by John Hagee is released. |
Nov 16, 2021: Christian Post: John Hagee's Cornerstone Church criticized after ‘Let’s go Brandon’ chant erupts at event
On Saturday evening, the Twitter account PatriotTakes posted a clip of a large gathering at Cornerstone in which a crowd was chanting “Let’s go, Brandon,” a saying that has become a popular euphemism for “F*** Joe Biden" in recent weeks.
On Saturday evening, the Twitter account PatriotTakes posted a clip of a large gathering at Cornerstone in which a crowd was chanting “Let’s go, Brandon,” a saying that has become a popular euphemism for “F*** Joe Biden" in recent weeks.
Sept 20, 2021: Breitbart: Pence, Haley, Pompeo Rank as Top Christian Allies to Israel in the World
Former Vice President Mike Pence topped the second annual list of Israel’s Top 50 Christian Allies, released Tuesday by the Israel Allies Foundation in honor of the Jewish Sukkot holiday.
Coming in at number two is Pastor John Hagee, the founder and chairman of Christians United for Israel (CUFI). Spots three and four are filled respectively by Pastor Larry Huch of the Texas-based New Beginnings mega-church and former Canadian prime minister, Stephen Harper.
Former Vice President Mike Pence topped the second annual list of Israel’s Top 50 Christian Allies, released Tuesday by the Israel Allies Foundation in honor of the Jewish Sukkot holiday.
Coming in at number two is Pastor John Hagee, the founder and chairman of Christians United for Israel (CUFI). Spots three and four are filled respectively by Pastor Larry Huch of the Texas-based New Beginnings mega-church and former Canadian prime minister, Stephen Harper.
Aug 21, 2015: Charisma: JOHN HAGEE: 'The Antichrist is Here'
"All of this chaos is leading to a global dictator. Europe is going to call him the economic czar. The press will call him the 'new Caesar.' The Bible calls him the Antichrist." – John Hagee
"All of this chaos is leading to a global dictator. Europe is going to call him the economic czar. The press will call him the 'new Caesar.' The Bible calls him the Antichrist." – John Hagee
Apr 6, 2015: Right Wing Watch: John Hagee Winds Up Debunking His Own 'Blood Moons' Theory
On Saturday evening, right-wing televangelist John Hagee hosted a special program designed to promote his "Four Blood Moons" theory which contends that the occurrence of four lunar eclipses on Jewish feast days over the last two years is a sign from God that "something dramatic [will] happen in the Middle East involving Israel that will change the course of history in the Middle East and impact the whole world."
On Saturday evening, right-wing televangelist John Hagee hosted a special program designed to promote his "Four Blood Moons" theory which contends that the occurrence of four lunar eclipses on Jewish feast days over the last two years is a sign from God that "something dramatic [will] happen in the Middle East involving Israel that will change the course of history in the Middle East and impact the whole world."
Apr 3, 2015: Cross Examined: More John Hagee Hanky Panky
The ominous third of John Hagee’s four really scary “blood moons” happens tonight.
The ominous third of John Hagee’s four really scary “blood moons” happens tonight.
Feb 12, 2015: Charisma: WATCH: John Hagee's Four Blood Moons Book Comes Alive in Controversial Movie
Four Blood Moons is a theatrical one-night event exploring a rare lunar phenomenon that over the centuries has accompanied both tragedy and triumph for the Jewish people. From Pastor John Hagee's New York Times best-selling book of the same name (750,000 copies in print from Worthy Publishing), Four Blood Moons is in theaters March 23.
Four Blood Moons is a theatrical one-night event exploring a rare lunar phenomenon that over the centuries has accompanied both tragedy and triumph for the Jewish people. From Pastor John Hagee's New York Times best-selling book of the same name (750,000 copies in print from Worthy Publishing), Four Blood Moons is in theaters March 23.
Feb 4, 2015: Right Wing Watch: John Hagee: Obama's Treatment Of Benjamin Netanyahu Will Cause God To Destroy America Naturally, none of that is sitting well with John Hagee, who warned on yesterday's "Hagee Hotline" that God will destroy America for failing to adequately support Israel.
Jan 25, 2015: CBN: Divine Sign for Israel? Hagee Explains Blood Moons
According to Pastor John Hagee, God is getting ready to speak this way once again.
According to Pastor John Hagee, God is getting ready to speak this way once again.
Dec 13, 2014: Occidental Observer: John Hagee: A Profile in Pathological Christian Activism
We live in a truly depressing age — one where groups like the ADL and the Zionist Organization of America can kick back and let Christians do their dirty work for them. Although Pastor John Hagee, the founder of Christians United for Israel, has recently backtracked on his recent claim that Barack Obama is one of the “most anti-Semitic presidents” in history, he persists in attacking Obama for being ‘anti-Israel.’
We live in a truly depressing age — one where groups like the ADL and the Zionist Organization of America can kick back and let Christians do their dirty work for them. Although Pastor John Hagee, the founder of Christians United for Israel, has recently backtracked on his recent claim that Barack Obama is one of the “most anti-Semitic presidents” in history, he persists in attacking Obama for being ‘anti-Israel.’
The chairman of the largest Christian Zionist group in the United States, John Hagee, told a large group of American Jews that President Barack Obama is anti-Semitic, while speaking at an event on Sunday night.
The Christians United for Israel (CUFI) chairman and San-Antonio mega-church pastor, was receiving an award from the Zionist Organization of America when he made the comments.
During his speech, Hagee referred to Obama as “one of the most anti-Semitic presidents in the history of the United States of America,” due to his lack of support for the Holy Land in his foreign policy agenda.
Hagee also mocked Obama for having previously called US-Israeli relations unbreakable, stating that: “He knows it’s unbreakable because he’s been trying to break it for the last five years.”
US Senator Ted Cruz, a long-time critic of US policy toward Israel , headlined the Zionist organization’s event along with Hagee.
Click here to read more. 11.24.14
The Christians United for Israel (CUFI) chairman and San-Antonio mega-church pastor, was receiving an award from the Zionist Organization of America when he made the comments.
During his speech, Hagee referred to Obama as “one of the most anti-Semitic presidents in the history of the United States of America,” due to his lack of support for the Holy Land in his foreign policy agenda.
Hagee also mocked Obama for having previously called US-Israeli relations unbreakable, stating that: “He knows it’s unbreakable because he’s been trying to break it for the last five years.”
US Senator Ted Cruz, a long-time critic of US policy toward Israel , headlined the Zionist organization’s event along with Hagee.
Click here to read more. 11.24.14
Oct 9, 2014: ReKnew: Is God Trying to Tell Us Something Through Blood Moons?
This week we experienced the second of a series of four “blood moons.” If you’ve read John Hagee’s book Four Blood Moons: Something Is About To Change, you might be inclined to believe that God is sending us a message through these heavenly events. Greg begs to differ
This week we experienced the second of a series of four “blood moons.” If you’ve read John Hagee’s book Four Blood Moons: Something Is About To Change, you might be inclined to believe that God is sending us a message through these heavenly events. Greg begs to differ
Aug 18, 2014: Jewish Journal: Interview with Pastor John Hagee, founder of ‘Christians United for Israel’
Last month Christians United for Israel (CUFI) – the largest pro-Israel organization in America with nearly 1.8 million members (and 1.2 million Facebook followers – 15 times as many as AIPAC) – held its ninth annual Washington Summit, with 4,800 delegates from all 50 states
Last month Christians United for Israel (CUFI) – the largest pro-Israel organization in America with nearly 1.8 million members (and 1.2 million Facebook followers – 15 times as many as AIPAC) – held its ninth annual Washington Summit, with 4,800 delegates from all 50 states
May 6, 2014: Skeptical Inquests: Astronomy and Christian Superstition: A Review of John Hagee’s “Four Blood Moons”
John Hagee, founder and senior pastor of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, wrote a whole book about the coming tetrad of blood moons and their imagined connections to biblical prophecy.
John Hagee, founder and senior pastor of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, wrote a whole book about the coming tetrad of blood moons and their imagined connections to biblical prophecy.
ON THE RECORD: Apr 14, 2014: Joel McDurmon wrote an expose recently about John Hagee's "blood moon prophecies," ("Why John Hagee is certainly wrong about “blood moons"). McDurmon makes his position clear as he began:
"John Hagee’s Harold Camping moment has arrived, and whether or not his followers will abandon him as most did that previous false prophet, Hagee is certainly just as wrong about Bible prophecy.."
For those of you who do not know, the late Harold Camping is likely the 21st century poster child for false prophets.
McDurmon makes it clear that Hagee is doing nothing more than the typical "slight of hand," or in this case "slight of mouth," commentaries:
"In mainstream news outlets, however, Hagee has kept his predictions much more general. In an older interview with Fox, and now when contacted by New York Daily News, Hagee only predicts “something big is about to happen.” This is, of course, the kind of prediction that cannot fail to be proven true. If anything big happens between now and the feast of tabernacles 2015, Hagee can point to it as proof he was right."
Read More Here: Blood Moons and Bad Prophecies
"John Hagee’s Harold Camping moment has arrived, and whether or not his followers will abandon him as most did that previous false prophet, Hagee is certainly just as wrong about Bible prophecy.."
For those of you who do not know, the late Harold Camping is likely the 21st century poster child for false prophets.
McDurmon makes it clear that Hagee is doing nothing more than the typical "slight of hand," or in this case "slight of mouth," commentaries:
"In mainstream news outlets, however, Hagee has kept his predictions much more general. In an older interview with Fox, and now when contacted by New York Daily News, Hagee only predicts “something big is about to happen.” This is, of course, the kind of prediction that cannot fail to be proven true. If anything big happens between now and the feast of tabernacles 2015, Hagee can point to it as proof he was right."
Read More Here: Blood Moons and Bad Prophecies
Apr 14, 2014: Breitbart Unmasked: Pastor John Hagee Predicts ‘Blood Moon’ Eclipses Will Shake The World
Megachurch pastor John Hagee has prophesied that a “world shaking” event will take place some time during a sequence of four lunar eclipses between tomorrow and October 2015.
Megachurch pastor John Hagee has prophesied that a “world shaking” event will take place some time during a sequence of four lunar eclipses between tomorrow and October 2015.
Dec 28, 2013: MySA: Pastor John Hagee to atheists: Get out of U.S.
A San Antonio pastor has a message to atheists and people who don't celebrate Christmas: “Leave the country” or “Take your Walkman and stuff it into your ears.”
A San Antonio pastor has a message to atheists and people who don't celebrate Christmas: “Leave the country” or “Take your Walkman and stuff it into your ears.”
Sarah Posner
The following is adapted from Sarah Posner's new book, God's Profits: Faith, Fraud, and the Republican Crusade for Values Voters out now from PoliPoint Press.
Although over the past two years John Hagee has gained international notoriety for his agitation for an Armageddon war with Iran and his evangelical Zionist project, Christians United for Israel, back in 2000 he was little known outside Pentecostal circles. But for many years Hagee had been a mainstay on religious television, a Word of Faith televangelist with a large and devoted following. Known also as the prosperity gospel, Word of Faith is a nondenominational religious movement with no membership or doctrinal requirements. Its main tenets are revelation knowledge, through which the believer derives knowledge directly from God, rather than from the senses; identification, through which the believer is inhabited by God and is another incarnation of Jesus; positive confession, or the power of the believer to call things into existence; the right of believers to divine health; and the right of believers to divine wealth. It is through revelation knowledge that the Word of Faith movement has created its alternate universe in which rational thought is rejected and where the media, intellectual thought, science, and any type of critical thinking are scorned. Drawing on the Pentecostal tradition of casting out devils, pursuits associated with the Enlightenment, especially secularism and humanistic thought, are denounced as the work of Satan.
When preparing to run for president, then-Texas Governor George W. Bush knew that the San Antonio televangelist had a large television audience, which Bush family evangelical adviser Doug Wead estimated at seven million strong. Wead had ghostwritten Hagee's 1997 conspiracy-theory book, Day of Deception, which claims to take "a probing look inside the United States government and expose blatant acts of deception designed to destroy democracy in America." Those "acts of deception," according to the book, were carried out by the Antichrist in his effort to install a "one-world order." Evidence of the one-world order, according to Hagee, includes "the Eastern Establishment," the United Nations, the National Education Association (NEA), the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Illuminati, the imaginary, shadowy group of international financiers that has long been fodder for conspiracy theorists. Hagee didn't mention that many Illuminati theorists believe in a connection between the Illuminati and the Yale secret society Skull and Bones, to which both Bushes belong. Nor did Hagee, who bills himself as a friend of the Jews, note that Illuminati conspiracies have often included anti-Semitic narratives about Jewish bankers.
In his 1988 campaign biography of Bush Sr., Wead sought to dispel conspiracies that the Bush family was behind the supposed one-world order. But as a ghostwriter, Wead blamed his old boss for trying to bring about what Hagee believes is a satanic, demonic "new world order." Just one year after penning Hagee's conspiracy-laden screed, Wead was pushing Governor Bush and Karl Rove to arrange meetings between the governor and the pastor, and the governor enlisted Hagee to recruit other pastors to sign on to the Bush campaign effort.
Despite accusing Bush Sr. of collaboration with the Antichrist, Hagee delivered for George W. Bush in his 2000 book, God's Candidate for America. In that book, Hagee was unequivocal that Jesus would vote for Bush. "If you are concerned about the sort of America your children and grandchildren will grow up within," Hagee wrote, "then you need to cast your vote for George W. Bush and the Republican Party." God's Candidate, like Day of Deception, decries Satan's work through the United Nations and the NEA but omits references to a new world order created by international financiers and the "Eastern Establishment." Hagee continued to promote the book even after Bush took office, and he wrote a prayer for the president in the post-2004 election edition of Stephen Mansfield's campaign biography, The Faith of George W. Bush.
But for the vitriolic preacher, it wasn't enough to endorse Bush; Hagee had to equate the opposition with evil incarnate. The Democratic Party, Hagee wrote, "is the home of those who advocate homosexuality, abortion, free-sex, unlimited handouts, maximum taxation, little freedom from government control, and toleration of drug use." The GOP, in contrast, "is the home of social conservatives who believe in the sanctity of life, hard work, clean moral living, limited government interference in our lives, minimum taxation, and a return to Bible-based societal values." The book was published by his nonprofit Global Evangelism Television, which that year used tax-exempt donor money to pay Hagee nearly half a million dollars in salary and deferred compensation for sixteen hours of work a week. Hagee earned another $300,000 from his church. But in keeping with the Word of Faith credo that poverty is evidence of insufficient faith, Hagee went on to depict welfare as satanic:
Instead of faith, Satan offers fear; instead of commitment, Satan offers selfish promiscuity; instead of stable home lives, Satan offers multiple divorces. Instead of career and gainful employment, Satan offers laziness and quick-money schemes and gambling. Instead of Christian charity, Satan offers a lifetime on the public dole. God's will for each man and woman is to have positive self-esteem; Satan wants each man, woman, and child to feel insignificant.
Hagee offered up then-Governor Bush's taxpayer-funded, "faith-based initiative" as the best alternative to Satan.The Bush-Hagee alliance possessed a certain cognitive dissonance as so-called compassionate conservatism collided with mean-spirited denunciations of demon possession. Hagee lauded the Republican Contract with America, spearheaded by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who later admitted that he was committing adultery while pursuing the impeachment of Clinton. Nonetheless, Hagee invited Gingrich to be the keynote speaker for his 2007 Christians United for Israel Washington Summit. Mirroring the right-wing noise machine, while also reflecting the anti-intellectualism of Word of Faith, Hagee added that "the worldy-wise pseudo-sophisticates of the major news media will always put a positive spin on stories involving pet liberal issues while sneering at issues important to Christians and conservatives." Hagee's disdain for "pseudo-sophisticates" reflects the Word of Faith view that revelation knowledge is superior to the other truth-seeking pursuits and that any endeavor driven by critical thinking is to be not only scorned but mistrusted as the work of the devil himself.
In his writing and preaching, Hagee makes clear that people who engage in revelation thinking are controlled by God, not by their minds, and therefore will have more financial abundance in their lives: "Reason givers are controlled by their minds," he writes in his book, Mastering Your Money. "They do not ask God how much they should give; they ask their CPA. Revelation givers are controlled by the Holy Spirit. They see God as their supplier. Revelation givers do not give according to what they have, but according to what God can supply." Hagee continues that "you will never prosper until you believe and confess that it is God's will for you to prosper." He believes that there are two economic forces at work, those of God and those of Satan, and "you do not qualify for God's abundance until you become God's child." And exhibiting the anti-worldly, anti-government position of Word of Faith, Hagee maintains that "God Almighty controls the economy of America, and God controls your income! Your source is God, not the United States government. ... When you give to God, He controls your income. There is no such thing as fixed income in the Kingdom of God. Your income is controlled by your giving." Believing or not believing in these principles is one's choice, and if you make the wrong choice, you've clearly sided with Satan and will be cursed financially: "The difference between living a life of prosperity and a life of poverty is a matter of choice. ... Tithing is a choice. If you choose to not tithe, you will be living under a financial curse."
One former member of Hagee's church, fearful to talk on the record because Hagee is "really powerful" and has "got so much clout," described Hagee as "very angry" and "not approachable." The former member, who attended Cornerstone for about ten years, recalled that she had been going to Cornerstone for six years before she actually met Hagee. "I said, 'Oh, Pastor Hagee, I'm finally getting to meet you after six years,' and he said, 'Oh, I've been back here every Sunday' and turned and walked off." Her husband is bipolar, and when they went to marriage counseling, the church "told him he was a loser and an infidel." The counselors encouraged the former congregant to leave her husband, but "thankfully, I prayed enough. ... I began to see trouble, you know, I began to see things that wasn't right."
About the tithe, the former Cornerstone member recalled, "That's a shame issue there if you don't tithe. … We've heard him say, … everybody who's got their tithing envelope, wave it in the air. So that's shame on you" if you don't tithe. Yet Hagee, before he converted his nonprofit Global Evangelism Television into a church in 2004 (thus relieving him of the obligation to file a publicly available tax return), was known to be the highest-paid nonprofit executive in San Antonio, making nearly $1 million a year. Now, because of the conversion, his salary remains a secret. In 2000 his John C. Hagee Royalty Trust, whose trustee is Hagee's brother-in-law Scott Farhart, spent $5.5 million on a ranch in Brackettville, Texas. The property includes the Hagee-owned LaFonda Ranch, which has its own private airstrip, where televangelist and Hagee friend Kenneth Copeland landed his aircraft for a weekend of hunting rare exotic game.
Another component of Hagee's ranch is a cattle-raising operation. For that project, Hagee formed a nonprofit -- run only by himself -- called the Texas Israel Agricultural Research Foundation, which he claims works on joint research endeavors with an Israeli university. Water consumption is highly regulated in the parched section of the state where the ranch is located, but San Antonio legislator Frank Corte introduced a bill that would have exempted Hagee's outfit from the state's water use laws. To move the bill, Hagee enlisted the services of one of San Antonio's most powerful lobbyists, David Earl. Members of Hagee's church sent more than eighty nearly identical letters -- some from the church's fax machine -- to the Texas House of Representatives committee considering the bill, urging its passage. The letters argued that the bill would "protect Texas agricultural research projects that have entered into agreements to share information with Israeli organizations." The bill stalled in committee, and Hagee's lobbyists were forced to apply for permits from the local groundwater control board in Kinney County to pump water on the property.
Other Hagee ventures operate through trusts and companies run by Farhart and involve prominent San Antonio businesspeople. These ventures include a failed investment in a proposed hotel in downtown San Antonio and a planned development near his church. In another venture, Hagee crossed a group of local businesspeople who sought to market their beauty products made from salt from the Dead Sea through Hagee's ministry. They charged in a 2006 lawsuit that they entered into the deal after Hagee billed himself "as someone that had a lot of political connections," making the group "aware of his rubbing shoulders with people influential in the Bush Cabinet," according to the group's lawyer, Jesse Castillo. Castillo said that his clients claimed that Hagee backed out of the deal because the church was facing tax problems due to "a concern that they were mixing the business interests of the church with the business interests."
The former congregant whose husband is bipolar said that even though she and her husband wrote a big check to the church after they sold their house and tithed close to 10 percent of their income, "We never prospered there." Most of the people she knew there were struggling financially, including some who were evicted from their apartments because they couldn't pay their rent. Hagee, she said, has a "very powerful hold, and you don't even realize it. ... We were there ten years, and I knew something was wrong, but I couldn't figure out what it was." She even feared speaking to a reporter: "If I say too much about him, God's going to get me. ... [Hagee's] got so much money and he's so powerful, he could take everything we have in a minute."
Another former member told of tithing even when she had to borrow out of her 401(k) plan to make her mortgage payments. At one point, she said, "at Christmastime I didn't have gifts under my tree. Two small gifts for my kids, that was it. I was so broke, and I was tithing." At the time, she believed that tithing would result in her own blessing. Still another former member, a single mother divorced from an abusive husband, told of tithing out of her child support checks, even though she was living in an apartment with subsidized rent. Contrasting her small apartment with Hagee's home in an exclusive San Antonio subdivision and his multimillion-dollar ranch, she added, "I don't even have a house! My kids grew up on top of each other like sardines. ... I just want a little house." She added, "I thought something was wrong with me. Why am I still [living like this]. I've given and given and given and tithed and tithed and tithed." But while attending Cornerstone, she, like the others, felt guilt and enormous pressure not to question Hagee or his doctrine, and that atmosphere was reinforced through multiple church services each week and mandatory meetings with smaller cell groups whose leaders were vetted on the basis of classes, tests, and the faithfulness of their tithing. As a result, the former member said, "I looked to Pastor Hagee as a god."
Although over the past two years John Hagee has gained international notoriety for his agitation for an Armageddon war with Iran and his evangelical Zionist project, Christians United for Israel, back in 2000 he was little known outside Pentecostal circles. But for many years Hagee had been a mainstay on religious television, a Word of Faith televangelist with a large and devoted following. Known also as the prosperity gospel, Word of Faith is a nondenominational religious movement with no membership or doctrinal requirements. Its main tenets are revelation knowledge, through which the believer derives knowledge directly from God, rather than from the senses; identification, through which the believer is inhabited by God and is another incarnation of Jesus; positive confession, or the power of the believer to call things into existence; the right of believers to divine health; and the right of believers to divine wealth. It is through revelation knowledge that the Word of Faith movement has created its alternate universe in which rational thought is rejected and where the media, intellectual thought, science, and any type of critical thinking are scorned. Drawing on the Pentecostal tradition of casting out devils, pursuits associated with the Enlightenment, especially secularism and humanistic thought, are denounced as the work of Satan.
When preparing to run for president, then-Texas Governor George W. Bush knew that the San Antonio televangelist had a large television audience, which Bush family evangelical adviser Doug Wead estimated at seven million strong. Wead had ghostwritten Hagee's 1997 conspiracy-theory book, Day of Deception, which claims to take "a probing look inside the United States government and expose blatant acts of deception designed to destroy democracy in America." Those "acts of deception," according to the book, were carried out by the Antichrist in his effort to install a "one-world order." Evidence of the one-world order, according to Hagee, includes "the Eastern Establishment," the United Nations, the National Education Association (NEA), the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Illuminati, the imaginary, shadowy group of international financiers that has long been fodder for conspiracy theorists. Hagee didn't mention that many Illuminati theorists believe in a connection between the Illuminati and the Yale secret society Skull and Bones, to which both Bushes belong. Nor did Hagee, who bills himself as a friend of the Jews, note that Illuminati conspiracies have often included anti-Semitic narratives about Jewish bankers.
In his 1988 campaign biography of Bush Sr., Wead sought to dispel conspiracies that the Bush family was behind the supposed one-world order. But as a ghostwriter, Wead blamed his old boss for trying to bring about what Hagee believes is a satanic, demonic "new world order." Just one year after penning Hagee's conspiracy-laden screed, Wead was pushing Governor Bush and Karl Rove to arrange meetings between the governor and the pastor, and the governor enlisted Hagee to recruit other pastors to sign on to the Bush campaign effort.
Despite accusing Bush Sr. of collaboration with the Antichrist, Hagee delivered for George W. Bush in his 2000 book, God's Candidate for America. In that book, Hagee was unequivocal that Jesus would vote for Bush. "If you are concerned about the sort of America your children and grandchildren will grow up within," Hagee wrote, "then you need to cast your vote for George W. Bush and the Republican Party." God's Candidate, like Day of Deception, decries Satan's work through the United Nations and the NEA but omits references to a new world order created by international financiers and the "Eastern Establishment." Hagee continued to promote the book even after Bush took office, and he wrote a prayer for the president in the post-2004 election edition of Stephen Mansfield's campaign biography, The Faith of George W. Bush.
But for the vitriolic preacher, it wasn't enough to endorse Bush; Hagee had to equate the opposition with evil incarnate. The Democratic Party, Hagee wrote, "is the home of those who advocate homosexuality, abortion, free-sex, unlimited handouts, maximum taxation, little freedom from government control, and toleration of drug use." The GOP, in contrast, "is the home of social conservatives who believe in the sanctity of life, hard work, clean moral living, limited government interference in our lives, minimum taxation, and a return to Bible-based societal values." The book was published by his nonprofit Global Evangelism Television, which that year used tax-exempt donor money to pay Hagee nearly half a million dollars in salary and deferred compensation for sixteen hours of work a week. Hagee earned another $300,000 from his church. But in keeping with the Word of Faith credo that poverty is evidence of insufficient faith, Hagee went on to depict welfare as satanic:
Instead of faith, Satan offers fear; instead of commitment, Satan offers selfish promiscuity; instead of stable home lives, Satan offers multiple divorces. Instead of career and gainful employment, Satan offers laziness and quick-money schemes and gambling. Instead of Christian charity, Satan offers a lifetime on the public dole. God's will for each man and woman is to have positive self-esteem; Satan wants each man, woman, and child to feel insignificant.
Hagee offered up then-Governor Bush's taxpayer-funded, "faith-based initiative" as the best alternative to Satan.The Bush-Hagee alliance possessed a certain cognitive dissonance as so-called compassionate conservatism collided with mean-spirited denunciations of demon possession. Hagee lauded the Republican Contract with America, spearheaded by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who later admitted that he was committing adultery while pursuing the impeachment of Clinton. Nonetheless, Hagee invited Gingrich to be the keynote speaker for his 2007 Christians United for Israel Washington Summit. Mirroring the right-wing noise machine, while also reflecting the anti-intellectualism of Word of Faith, Hagee added that "the worldy-wise pseudo-sophisticates of the major news media will always put a positive spin on stories involving pet liberal issues while sneering at issues important to Christians and conservatives." Hagee's disdain for "pseudo-sophisticates" reflects the Word of Faith view that revelation knowledge is superior to the other truth-seeking pursuits and that any endeavor driven by critical thinking is to be not only scorned but mistrusted as the work of the devil himself.
In his writing and preaching, Hagee makes clear that people who engage in revelation thinking are controlled by God, not by their minds, and therefore will have more financial abundance in their lives: "Reason givers are controlled by their minds," he writes in his book, Mastering Your Money. "They do not ask God how much they should give; they ask their CPA. Revelation givers are controlled by the Holy Spirit. They see God as their supplier. Revelation givers do not give according to what they have, but according to what God can supply." Hagee continues that "you will never prosper until you believe and confess that it is God's will for you to prosper." He believes that there are two economic forces at work, those of God and those of Satan, and "you do not qualify for God's abundance until you become God's child." And exhibiting the anti-worldly, anti-government position of Word of Faith, Hagee maintains that "God Almighty controls the economy of America, and God controls your income! Your source is God, not the United States government. ... When you give to God, He controls your income. There is no such thing as fixed income in the Kingdom of God. Your income is controlled by your giving." Believing or not believing in these principles is one's choice, and if you make the wrong choice, you've clearly sided with Satan and will be cursed financially: "The difference between living a life of prosperity and a life of poverty is a matter of choice. ... Tithing is a choice. If you choose to not tithe, you will be living under a financial curse."
One former member of Hagee's church, fearful to talk on the record because Hagee is "really powerful" and has "got so much clout," described Hagee as "very angry" and "not approachable." The former member, who attended Cornerstone for about ten years, recalled that she had been going to Cornerstone for six years before she actually met Hagee. "I said, 'Oh, Pastor Hagee, I'm finally getting to meet you after six years,' and he said, 'Oh, I've been back here every Sunday' and turned and walked off." Her husband is bipolar, and when they went to marriage counseling, the church "told him he was a loser and an infidel." The counselors encouraged the former congregant to leave her husband, but "thankfully, I prayed enough. ... I began to see trouble, you know, I began to see things that wasn't right."
About the tithe, the former Cornerstone member recalled, "That's a shame issue there if you don't tithe. … We've heard him say, … everybody who's got their tithing envelope, wave it in the air. So that's shame on you" if you don't tithe. Yet Hagee, before he converted his nonprofit Global Evangelism Television into a church in 2004 (thus relieving him of the obligation to file a publicly available tax return), was known to be the highest-paid nonprofit executive in San Antonio, making nearly $1 million a year. Now, because of the conversion, his salary remains a secret. In 2000 his John C. Hagee Royalty Trust, whose trustee is Hagee's brother-in-law Scott Farhart, spent $5.5 million on a ranch in Brackettville, Texas. The property includes the Hagee-owned LaFonda Ranch, which has its own private airstrip, where televangelist and Hagee friend Kenneth Copeland landed his aircraft for a weekend of hunting rare exotic game.
Another component of Hagee's ranch is a cattle-raising operation. For that project, Hagee formed a nonprofit -- run only by himself -- called the Texas Israel Agricultural Research Foundation, which he claims works on joint research endeavors with an Israeli university. Water consumption is highly regulated in the parched section of the state where the ranch is located, but San Antonio legislator Frank Corte introduced a bill that would have exempted Hagee's outfit from the state's water use laws. To move the bill, Hagee enlisted the services of one of San Antonio's most powerful lobbyists, David Earl. Members of Hagee's church sent more than eighty nearly identical letters -- some from the church's fax machine -- to the Texas House of Representatives committee considering the bill, urging its passage. The letters argued that the bill would "protect Texas agricultural research projects that have entered into agreements to share information with Israeli organizations." The bill stalled in committee, and Hagee's lobbyists were forced to apply for permits from the local groundwater control board in Kinney County to pump water on the property.
Other Hagee ventures operate through trusts and companies run by Farhart and involve prominent San Antonio businesspeople. These ventures include a failed investment in a proposed hotel in downtown San Antonio and a planned development near his church. In another venture, Hagee crossed a group of local businesspeople who sought to market their beauty products made from salt from the Dead Sea through Hagee's ministry. They charged in a 2006 lawsuit that they entered into the deal after Hagee billed himself "as someone that had a lot of political connections," making the group "aware of his rubbing shoulders with people influential in the Bush Cabinet," according to the group's lawyer, Jesse Castillo. Castillo said that his clients claimed that Hagee backed out of the deal because the church was facing tax problems due to "a concern that they were mixing the business interests of the church with the business interests."
The former congregant whose husband is bipolar said that even though she and her husband wrote a big check to the church after they sold their house and tithed close to 10 percent of their income, "We never prospered there." Most of the people she knew there were struggling financially, including some who were evicted from their apartments because they couldn't pay their rent. Hagee, she said, has a "very powerful hold, and you don't even realize it. ... We were there ten years, and I knew something was wrong, but I couldn't figure out what it was." She even feared speaking to a reporter: "If I say too much about him, God's going to get me. ... [Hagee's] got so much money and he's so powerful, he could take everything we have in a minute."
Another former member told of tithing even when she had to borrow out of her 401(k) plan to make her mortgage payments. At one point, she said, "at Christmastime I didn't have gifts under my tree. Two small gifts for my kids, that was it. I was so broke, and I was tithing." At the time, she believed that tithing would result in her own blessing. Still another former member, a single mother divorced from an abusive husband, told of tithing out of her child support checks, even though she was living in an apartment with subsidized rent. Contrasting her small apartment with Hagee's home in an exclusive San Antonio subdivision and his multimillion-dollar ranch, she added, "I don't even have a house! My kids grew up on top of each other like sardines. ... I just want a little house." She added, "I thought something was wrong with me. Why am I still [living like this]. I've given and given and given and tithed and tithed and tithed." But while attending Cornerstone, she, like the others, felt guilt and enormous pressure not to question Hagee or his doctrine, and that atmosphere was reinforced through multiple church services each week and mandatory meetings with smaller cell groups whose leaders were vetted on the basis of classes, tests, and the faithfulness of their tithing. As a result, the former member said, "I looked to Pastor Hagee as a god."
Feb 26, 2008: Right Wing Watch: Catholic League Blasts McCain Over Hagee
It is really quite remarkable when someone like Bill Donohue is blasting John McCain for cozying up to a "bigot" like John Hagee: "There are plenty of staunch evangelical leaders who are pro-Israel, but are not anti-Catholic. John Hagee is not one of them. Indeed, for the past few decades, he has waged an unrelenting war against the Catholic Church.
It is really quite remarkable when someone like Bill Donohue is blasting John McCain for cozying up to a "bigot" like John Hagee: "There are plenty of staunch evangelical leaders who are pro-Israel, but are not anti-Catholic. John Hagee is not one of them. Indeed, for the past few decades, he has waged an unrelenting war against the Catholic Church.
Dec 11, 2007: Files From Toni: John Hagee Refuted By Dr. Michael L. Brown
Dr. Michael Brown has completed a superior refutation, posted here below in its entirety,concerning the false and erroneous teachings of John Hagee, who in October in his Defense of Israel Book, stated that Jesus did not come to earth to be the Messiah, and that the Jews cannot be blamed for not accepting what was never offered.
Dr. Michael Brown has completed a superior refutation, posted here below in its entirety,concerning the false and erroneous teachings of John Hagee, who in October in his Defense of Israel Book, stated that Jesus did not come to earth to be the Messiah, and that the Jews cannot be blamed for not accepting what was never offered.