Pastor John Hagee disinvited from AJF men’s event

IN response to a “vocal minority” that opposed the choice of Pastor John Hagee as guest speaker at the Allied Jewish Federation’s Men’s Event Nov. 21, the federation has canceled his appearance.

“We were not deluged” by critics of the controversial televangelist and founder of Christians United for Israel, Doug Seserman, president and CEO of the federation, told the Intermountain Jewish News Monday.

“There has always been a vocal anti-Hagee minority and a vocal pro-Hagee minority,” he says. “The vast majority of people had no idea who Hagee is and what he stands for.

“What we underestimated was how controversial and hurtful some of what he’s said would be perceived by certain members of our community.”

 

Hagee has cast aspersions on homosexuals, Catholics and Muslims, and called Hurricane Katrina “the judgment of G-d against the city of New Orleans.”

 

He retracted his statement about Hurricane Katrina in 2008 and later modified his anti-Catholic remarks, but his original words left their wounds.

Seserman says that Hagee was selected as the guest speaker for one of the federation’s major fundraisers due to his unwavering moral and financial support of Israel. Read the related IJN editorial

Hagee, the head pastor of the Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, is the founder of Christians United for Israel (CUFI) — which has contributed at least $43 million to Israel since the group’s 2006 inception.

“John Hagee, one of the best advocates for the state of Israel, is a very engaging and legitimate speaker in terms of building and sustaining life in Israel,” Seserman says.

“We wanted to educate the Jewish community on the CUFI movement, especially in a time when there are so many attempts to delegitimize Israel, which is under attack all over the world — even in our own country.”

While the federation understood that Hagee’s personal views might disturb segments of the community, it was confident that his message about Israel would take precedence.

“It was never our intention to be divisive,” Seserman says. “We knew he would be a provocative speaker. But we were comfortable with our choice because he is aligned with our mission.

“When we bring in speakers [to federation events], we don’t necessarily have to be aligned with their personal and political and religious views.”

The major consideration, he says, is that speakers will address a topic that is related to and furthers the mission of the federation —nurturing Jewish life in Colorado, throughout the world and Israel.

Under that definition, Hagee’s record of Israel advocacy fits the bill.

But ongoing local dissention over some of Hagee’s other pronouncements led the federation’s executive committee to announce his cancellation on Wednesday, Sept. 29.

“We all came to an agreement that it wasn’t the right thing to bring him in right now,” Seserman says.

Hagee’s tight schedule also played a role, he says.

“It was a challenge for Hagee to come to Denver due to scheduling conflicts. He was doing us a favor by agreeing to speak. We didn’t want to bring him here in the midst of all this divisiveness.”

Seserman says the cancellation decision was a collaborative one, as was the initial choice to feature Hagee at the Men’s Event.

“It was a collective collaboration between the federation, the underwriter [Larry Mizel] and the Christian Zionists to choose Pastor Hagee, and a collective collaboration to cancel him,” he says.

APPARENTLY, the federation was aware that some of Hagee’s disputatious remarks would offend certain members of the Jewish community.

The federation’s press release announcing Hagee’s appearance at the Men’s Event, published Sept. 3 in the IJN, contained an unusual disclaimer near the end.

“The federation does not endorse all of Pastor Hagee’s individual opinions on social issues or his evangelical ideology,” Seserman was quoted.

Asked by the IJN why those particular words were inserted, Seserman says he was primarily referencing the issue of having a Christian guest speaker at a Jewish fundraiser.

“It was important to explain that we weren’t trying to communicate that our values were 100% aligned with [Hagee’s] values. If they were, we’d be Christians! We’d be practicing another religion.”

However, Seserman adds, “It was always important to say that we don’t endorse his social agenda or evangelical ideology.

“Hagee has individual positions on different topics that are obviously controversial. And we know that there is no consensus opinion on these issues in the Jewish community.

“The federation represents a heterogeneous group of people,” he says. “We know there is great diversity within our Jewish community.

“In terms of Hagee’s social issues, we had to be clear that we weren’t stating that we shared the same agenda.”

Seserman, who has researched Hagee carefully, characterizes him as a “biblical literalist. He has a real fascination with the Old Testament. He believes the first five books of Moses are the foundation for Christianity.”

As an example, Seserman points to Leviticus, which denounces homosexuality as a sin.

“In the Old Testament, it’s pretty clear that homosexuality is not a Jewish practice. Still, homosexuality today is a very challenging issue for the Jewish community. Yet, one of the most important Jewish values is that we are all created in G-d’s image, and we should view everyone that way.

“Many Jews are more liberal when it comes to social concerns, and what Hagee says can be hurtful to them.

“At the end of the day, the federation is trying to build community — but Hagee’s position on some of these issues was getting in the way of furthering our mission” as the umbrella organization of the Jewish community.

“But we absolutely support both Hagee’s and CUFI’s commitment to the State of Israel, as evidenced by their advocacy and fundraising for our Jewish homeland.”

ARI Morgenstern, a spokesman for Pastor Hagee, sent the IJN an e-mail explaining that while the situation in Denver was unfortunate, it did not preclude a future visit by Hagee.

He began by referring to scheduling difficulties already mentioned by Seserman.

“Long before he received the invitation to speak in Denver,” Morgenstern wrote, “Pastor Hagee had agreed to speak at David Horowitz’s Restoration Weekend in Florida,” which would be held the same weekend as the Men’s Event.

“While we were trying to work out the scheduling conflict, a small but vocal minority in the Denver community expressed their opposition to Pastor Hagee speaking at the federation event.

“At that time, Pastor Hagee and the federation concluded that ?now is not the right time for this event.”

Morgenstern also noted that although many Jews applaud Hagee’s Israel advocacy, some can’t set aside their objections to the pastor’s personal opinions.

“Pastor Hagee has devoted his life to support Israel and the Jewish people,” he wrote.

“At times, there are those who cannot see past their differences with Pastor Hagee on domestic policy issues in order to focus their attention on joining with Christian Zionists in support of Israel.

“While this is unfortunate, I can assure you that it has little impact on Pastor Hagee’s [Israel] efforts, and we look forward to having Pastor Hagee address Denver’s pro-Israel community at another time.”

Seserman, who worked continuously with CUFI Executive Director David Brog, says that the group “wasn’t surprised by the controversy we were having.

“They understand that we have so much respect for Pastor Hagee, but they also understand the hurtful ramifications of some of the things he’s said.”

DOUG Seserman hopes that Denver Jews can move beyond this recent splitting of communal seas and ?reach a more unified, understanding shore.

“I want this to be an enlightening experience for our community — one that teaches how we can become more open-minded and respectful of other points of view,” he says.

“It’s important in this complex world where we might not agree on everything to create alliances with groups whose values we may not accept but who stand up for Israel.”

One of the positives resulting from the brouhaha is that it’s increased local Jews’ awareness of the Jewish-Christian Zionist alliance “and we’re all better off for that,” Seserman says.

The federation, he says, is the modern day manifestation of Kehillah, community. As such, Seserman takes his leadership role in creating community cohesiveness quite seriously.

“Hopefully, improving social discourse and people’s ability to take different sides of the same issues and discuss them with mutual respect, will grow out of this,” he says.

“We live, thank G-d, in a country that advocates free speech. Hagee is free to have his beliefs. But we should learn to be tolerant of each other, especially when we have a common goal like Israel.”

The federation is actively seeking a replacement for Hagee.

Copyright © 2010 by the Intermountain Jewish News