Long before Reverend Jeremiah Wright began making trouble for Barack Obama's campaign, John McCain had a problematic pastor of his own in John Hagee, the Texas televangelist whose bigoted labelling of the Catholic church as the "great whore" became a runaway YouTube hit.
Just as McCain's praise for Hagee is getting more notice, the pastor has realised the error of his ways and made a stunningly broad apology to the conservative Catholic League. Hagee's explanation? He was just so committed to opposing discrimination that, well, he got a little discriminatory.
In my zeal to oppose anti-Semitism and bigotry in all its ugly forms, I have often emphasised the darkest chapters in the history of Catholic and Protestant relations with the Jews. In the process, I may have contributed to the mistaken impression that the anti-Jewish violence of the Crusades and the Inquisition defines the Catholic church.
Could this be timed to spare McCain more scrutiny over his enthusiastic courtship of the pastor? Nah, I'm sure the press release headed "Controversy Ends" was in honour of National Wishful Thinking Day.
