# John Hagee **John Hagee** (b. April 12, 1940) is a San Antonio televangelist and the most important organizer of [[Christian Zionism]] in American politics. In 1966 he founded Trinity Church, and in 1975 the church that became **Cornerstone Church**, a nondenominational megachurch with a national television ministry. He has since stepped back from the senior pastorate, and his son Matt Hagee now preaches at Cornerstone. His lasting political creation is [[Christians United for Israel]]. ## Christians United for Israel Hagee founded CUFI on February 7, 2006, at a meeting of about 400 Christian and Jewish leaders. It claims more than ten million members and is widely described as the largest pro-Israel organization in the United States. It is certainly the largest Christian one. CUFI turned an end-times theology into a lobbying operation. Its annual Washington summit and its "Night to Honor Israel" events build congressional support for maximalist Israeli positions and oppose pressure on Israel over settlements or Palestinian statehood. When the U.S. embassy opened in Jerusalem in May 2018, Hagee gave the closing benediction. ## The theology Hagee's politics come from dispensationalist prophecy. The return of Jews to the land, and the defense of Israel against its enemies, are steps in a divine timetable that ends in the Second Coming. That frame explains positions that look contradictory from outside: fervent support for the Jewish state alongside teachings many Jews find offensive. His 2013 book *Four Blood Moons* tied a 2014–15 lunar tetrad to prophetic events. ## The 2008 episode Hagee endorsed John McCain in 2008, and McCain rejected the endorsement after two sermons surfaced: - **On the Holocaust.** Reading Jeremiah 16:16, Hagee cast Hitler as a "hunter" God sent to drive Jews to Israel after they ignored the "fisher," Herzl. - **On Catholicism.** He had called the Catholic Church "the great whore" and tied Catholic teaching to Nazi policy. He apologized to Catholics on May 12, 2008. The episode showed that his support could cost a candidate. It did not reduce CUFI's access to Republican leadership, which only grew in the Trump years. ## Why he matters here Hagee is the institutional link between the evangelical right and Israel policy. He is the reason "pro-Israel" in Republican politics is as much an evangelical constituency as a Jewish one, and a constituency with its own theological reasons for opposing any settlement. In the 2024 cycle he endorsed [[Nikki Haley]] in the primary. ## See also - [[Christians United for Israel]] · [[Christian Zionism]] · [[Religious Zionism]] · [[Israeli Influence]] - [[Religions and Right-Wing Politics]] · [[Judaism Timeline]] · [[Israeli History Hub]] · [[Christian Right]]