The Rev. John Hagee, televangelist, pastor of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio and co-founder of Americans for a Safe Israel, has dedicated a great deal of his time to attacking the Catholic Church. Not only has he trotted out old charges made by anti-Catholic Protestants that the Church is “The Great Whore” of Revelation, he has perpetuated lies and slander about Church teaching and history on numerous occasions. As Hagee has published a number of books and offers many of his sermons for sale on video, it is easy to document his clear pattern of attacking what he calls the “Roman Church” at every turn. Below are some of the claims and allegations he has made:
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“This is the Great Whore of Revelations 17. [Hagee is pointing to a picture of a woman on the back of a beast.] This is the anti-Christ system [pointing to the beast]. This is the apostate church [pointing to the woman again]. In this cup [the cup the woman is holding], if you will read it in the Book of Revelation, is the blood of the saints. This is talking principally about the blood of the Jewish people. Where from the Crusades that happened back here [pointing to a place on a timeline], from the Spanish Inquisition, from the Holocaust. When Adolf Hitler came to power he said, ‘I’m not going to do anything in my lifetime that hasn’t been done by the Roman Church for the past 800 years, I’m only going to do it on a greater scale and more efficiently.’ And he certainly had done just exactly that. God has said, ‘I gave you the time to repent but you did not.’ You, this false cult system [pointing again to the woman and beast] that was born in Genesis 10 and progressed through Israel and became veiled worship. God says, ‘The day is going to come when I’m going to cause this beast to devour this apostate system.’ So you can see very clearly that while the Church is in Heaven, this false religious system is going to be totally devoured by the anti-Christ.” (from a video of Hagee discussing the Book of Revelation, available on YouTube.com
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There is no difference between the popular religious hatred of the Church Fathers and the Nazi hatred for the Jews, save the clerical robes of the religious princes and the Swastika arm bands of the Third Reich.” (Should Christians Support Israel?)
“Anti-Semitism in Christianity began with the statements of the early church fathers, including Eusebius, Cyril, Chrysostom, Augustine, Origen, Justin, and Jerome…. This poisonous stream of venom came from the mouths of spiritual leaders to virtually illiterate congregants, sitting benignly in their pews, listening to their pastors. They labeled the Jews as ‘the Christ killers, plague carriers, demons, children of the devil, bloodthirsty pagans who look for an innocent child during the Easter week to drink his blood, money hungry Shylocks, who are deceitful as Judas was relentless.’” (Jerusalem Countdown, with a quote from Should Christians Support Israel?)
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“The Crusaders “were thieves and they were murderers who marched from Europe to Jerusalem. Who murdered, who robbed and raped the Jewish people coming and going because they had been forgiven by the pope in advance of their sin before they left Europe.” (“Southern Steps: Jerusalem and Bible Prophecy”)
“The Roman Catholic Church, which was supposed to carry the light of the gospel, plunged the world into the Dark Ages…. The brutal truth is that the Crusades were military campaigns of the Roman Catholic Church to gain control of Jerusalem from the Muslims and to punish the Jews as the alleged Christ killers on the road to and from Jerusalem.” (Jerusalem Countdown)
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“The Crusaders beheaded thousands of people. Others were shot with arrows. Infants were tossed into the air and caught on swords. Others were forced to jump from the towers of the city wall to their deaths…. What Jews the Crusaders could not find were accused of having aided in the defense of the city [Jerusalem]. They were rounded up and taken to the synagogue. There the Crusaders locked them in the synagogue, set the synagogue on fire, and as they listened to men, women and children begging for their lives, screaming for mercy, the Crusaders marched around the synagogue singing, ‘Christ, we adore thee.’” (“Southern Steps: Jerusalem and Bible Prophecy”)
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“The Spanish Inquisition was perhaps the most cynical plot in the black history of Catholicism, aimed at expropriating the property of wealthy Jews and converts in Spain for the benefit of the royal court and the Roman Catholic Church.” (Jerusalem Countdown)
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“In the fanatical effort to determine who was truly a loyal Catholic and who was not, Jewish children were choked to death in the presence of their parents.” (Should Christians Support Israel?)
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“When Hitler came to power he dutifully followed…Roman Church policies.” (Should Christians Support Israel?)
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“Adolf Hitler attended a Catholic school as a child and heard all the fiery anti-Semitic rantings from Chrysostom to Martin Luther. When Hitler became a global demonic monster, the Catholic Church and Pope Pius XII never, ever slightly criticized him. Pope Pius XII, called by historians ‘Hitler’s Pope,’ joined Hitler in the infamous Concordat of Collaboration, which turned the youth of Germany over to Nazism, and the churches became the stage background for the bloodthirsty cry, ‘Pereat Judea.’” (Jerusalem Countdown)
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“Nazi legality was immensely strengthened by the concordat with the Vatican (July 20, 1933), an agreement that the Catholic Church had refused to grant the previous Weimar Republic. Hitler described the Concordat of Collaboration as an ‘unrestricted acceptance of National Socialism by the Vatican.’ Indeed it was, since it subordinated all of cultural and educational activities of the church to Nazi ideology and regimen. It began with the placing of Hitler’s portrait on the walls of all Catholic, parochial, and Sunday schools, and ended with the church bells ringing at every Nazi victory, including the arrest and transportation of the last Jew from every town and hamlet in Germany. The sell-out of Catholicism to Hitler began not with the people but with the Vatican itself…The German bishops followed the Vatican, represented by the Secretary of State, Cardinal Pacelli, and later Pope Pius XII. The priests obeyed the bishops, and the parishioners fell in line.” (Jerusalem Countdown)
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“In all of his [Hitler’s] years of absolute brutality, he was never denounced or even scolded by Pope Pius XII or any Catholic leader in the world. To those Christians who believe that Jewish hearts will be warmed by the sight of the cross, please be informed—to them it’s an electric chair.” (Jerusalem Countdown)
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“Need we be reminded that the loving theology of the New Testament, as translated by the Roman church fathers, is what sponsored the Crusades, the Inquisition, and ultimately produced the Holocaust?” (In Defense of Israel)
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“Where are the Jews of Spain? They were murdered in cold blood by the Roman Church! Where are the Jews of Portugal? They were murdered in cold blood by the Roman Church! Where are the Jews of Italy and France? There were murdered in cold blood by the Roman Church! Where are the Jews of Austria and Hungary? A Godless theology of hate that no one dared try to stop for a thousand years, produced a harvest of horror.” (Should Christians Support Israel?)
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“The venom of Christian hatred for the Jews reached its crescendo with the coming of Saint John Chrysostom (A.D. 345-407), known as the ‘bishop with the golden mouth.’ One of the first to describe the Jews as ‘killers of Christ,’ for centuries Chrysostom’s anti-Semitic venom was considered classic Roman church reading.” (Final Dawn Over Jerusalem)
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“The crusaders were, in fact, seasoned soldiers operating under a blanket of papal protection known as the indulgence…in other words, the crusaders could kill, maim, rape and steal from the Jews with impunity—and God would turn a blind eye to their sins.” (Final Dawn Over Jerusalem)
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“Most readers will be shocked by the clear record of history linking Adolf Hitler and the Roman Catholic Church in a conspiracy to exterminate the Jews.” (Jerusalem Countdown)
