STOCKTON — After enduring criticism for weeks, John McCain broke Thursday with two controversial televangelists whose endorsements he once trumpeted in a bid to win support from religious conservatives.
At a late-afternoon rally in Stockton, McCain said he rejected the endorsement of John Hagee after learning of a recording in which the San Antonio pastor portrayed Adolf Hitler as being sent by God to force Jews "to come back to the land of Israel."
McCain said he had not been aware of the comments -- which were made in a sermon in the late 1990s and turned up recently on the Internet -- when Hagee endorsed him in February. "I just think that the statement is crazy and unacceptable," McCain said. The pastor's words, he added, "are just too much."
Later in the day, McCain told the Associated Press that he also repudiated the support of Rod Parsley, an Ohio preacher who has sharply criticized Islam and called the religion inherently violent. "I believe there is no place for that kind of dialogue in America," McCain said.
McCain, who is viewed with suspicion by many conservatives in the Republican Party, had actively sought endorsements from evangelicals. He has had a rocky relationship with evangelical leaders, notably calling Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell "agents of intolerance" in the 2000 presidential campaign.
His experience with Hagee's endorsement, which drew even more criticism than Parsley's, recalled the controversy that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama confronted after incendiary sermons made by his former pastor became public. After the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. made similar comments in an appearance in Washington, Obama strenuously disavowed them and severed ties with his longtime mentor.
As McCain in recent weeks began distancing himself from Hagee, many Obama supporters complained that news outlets were paying more attention to Wright's statements.
In Stockton, McCain said he did not think the comparison was fair. "I've never been in Pastor Hagee's church or Pastor Parsley's church. I didn't attend their church for 20 years, and I'm not a member of their church. I received their endorsement, which did not mean that I endorsed their views."
Obama, campaigning in Florida, responded: "John McCain has to deal with Hagee, who said something that is mind-boggling. I don't attribute those statements to John McCain. Nobody thinks McCain believes that stuff."
