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June Among the leaders of our country there are, frankly, no good models of how to clean up the messes humans inevitably make. And that includes religious leaders, where you’d think concepts of repentance, sinfulness, and humility would have taken hold. It’s no wonder we don’t know how. We witnessed another non-example on May 12th when right-wing religio-political leader John Hagee, after discussions with what his letter (www.fairnessproject.org/Hagee_Letter_p1.html) says were Catholic “friends and leaders” (As in “I ‘m not prejudiced, I have many friends who are…”), wrote a 2 1/2 page letter to critic William Donohue, President of the Catholic League. In what is dubbed by the mainstream media as an “apology,” Hagee spoke of regret for his insensitivity to how Catholics would take his fairly regular negative comments about their Church – “apostate church,” “great whore.” These not so pleasant designations are based on his sectarian interpretation of the New Testament book of Revelation which, in addictive religious fashion, he believes are not his, but God’s, views. Of course, writing this letter now is a politically-motivated move by Hagee, since John McCain sought out and cherishes Hagee’s endorsement. We remember McCain beaming on February 27 while standing alongside this pastor of an 18,000 member right-wing church in San Antonio with a nationwide TV audience and a pro-Israel lobbying organization courted by the Republicans -- “Christians United for Israel.” We also remember McCain’s careful responses to Catholic criticism formulated so as never to admit that Hagee ever did say anything wrong, but, “if he did,” making sure it would not reflect on McCain’s campaign, while still bathing in Hagee’s endorsement. And we again see the constant adoring media desire to save McCain from his flip-flops and pandering by framing this as an apology that for them settles all McCain’s problems. In the letter Hagee never uses the world “apology,” asks for forgiveness, or takes anything back. One is, after all, reminded of the Latin root of “apology” in apologia. It means not an admission of wrong but “a defense of one’s opinions or actions.” And that’s just what most so-called apologies have come to be. They aren’t admissions of wrong that require repentance, a word meaning personal change, literally turning oneself around. They are defenses of oneself and what one has said or done that project the blame for any problem on the feelings and reactions of the offended. They are slights of hand. You know, it’s the “I’m sorry if that hurt you” pseudo-apology. Translated, that means: “I’m sorry that you reacted the way you did. Had I known that you were going to react that way, I would have done or said something differently. I didn’t actually do or say anything wrong. It’s your reaction that causes me to have to say this now. What I did or said would be okay if you weren’t so sensitive.” We don’t apologize by admitting we have done something that is our problem because we’ve been taught to believe that people won’t like, love, respect, or think highly of us if we aren’t perfect. We’ve been taught to even be perfect in order to have friends and lovers. So, imagine the pressure on religious leaders. They believe this too and so must maintain perfection before “followers” who they need in order to qualify as admired leaders. Otherwise they’d be nobody. Note Pope Benedict’s response when Muslims reacted negatively in 2006 to his quoting of a Byzantine emperor in a University speech. Of all the quotations from Western history he could have used in his talk in Germany, and of all the religions --including his own -- he could have chosen to illustrate what in his response to the later criticism he called the “theme of the relationship of religion and violence,” he chose: “Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.” When world reaction was negative, the Pope justified his choice of the quotation as appropriate, thus not admitting any error on his part (How could the Pope err?) and then blamed Muslim reactions by saying he “sincerely regrets that certain passages of his address could have sounded offensive to the sensitivities of the Muslim faithful and should have been interpreted in a manner that in no way corresponds to his intentions.” In the letter that the mainstream media wants to call Hagee’s apology, we must parse the words as if they came from the Bush administration, as if they were carefully chosen to not admit error and to blame the offended. The letter’s intention is clearly political. He writes not to apologize but “to clarify my views.” He writes to “advance greater unity among Catholics and Evangelicals,” which is not about their doctrines and institutions. How can it be? Hagee still believes the Catholic Church is wrong (He wouldn’t say that in this letter.), though he concedes some individual Catholics will be saved. The unity he wants to advance, the letter says, is Catholics joining with the right-wing in the political causes of right-wing Protestants. This is consistent with how the Protestant right-wing has historically used Catholics to further their political agenda while still considering the Catholic Church somewhat of a cult. So he writes that he wants to promote Catholic unity with Evangelicals in resisting “any tendency to treat religion as a private matter,” and in legally forcing the right-wing religious agenda on American (“our increasingly secular”) society. Hagee thus commends Catholics more than once for not only uniting with Evangelicals in the past “to defeat the evil of Communism,” but now uniting with them “to be a voice for life, the family, marriage, and Christian values to our nation.” Donohue of the Catholic League has declared the problem solved. That’s wishful thinking. Only the people who want this to be an apology and to put this behind McCain think so. Chris Korsen, executive director of Catholics United, recognizes this as only the beginning: “…he has yet to apologize for past remarks comparing women to dogs and terrorists, as well as his incredibly offensive comments blaming the residents of New Orleans for bringing the wrath of God upon themselves in the form of Hurricane Katrina." Only when it’s politically expedient, will we see those non-apologies. Which means gay people better not expect even that. © 2008 Robert N. Minor Other Issues, Books, Resources
Robert N. Minor is the author of Scared Straight: Why It's So Hard to Accept Gay People and Why It's So Hard to Be Human and Gay & Healthy in a Sick Society and Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. He may be reached through www.fairnessproject.org
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