Right wing, badda bing!
For those of you that might have missed the most crazy random headline of the past week, on Monday, August 22, The Rev. Pat Robertson, one-time presidential candidate and full-time zealous maniac made the following remark referring to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez:
"You know, I don't know about this doctrine of
assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it. It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war, and I don'tthink any oil shipments will stop."He continued: "We have the ability to take him out, and I
think the time has come that we exercise that ability."
- Last year, Robertson said President Bush told him before the Iraq invasion, "We're not going to have any casualties," but that "the Lord told me it was going to be (a) a disaster and (b) messy." The White House issued denials.
- - Following the Sept. 11 attacks, he said that "God Almighty is lifting his protection from us" because "we have insulted God at the highest level of our government," allowing things like abortion and pornography and barring school prayer.
- - After launching a 21-day "prayer offensive" in 2003 to pray for three justices to leave the U.S. Supreme Court after it had decriminalized sodomy, Robertson said: "We ask for miracles in regard to the Supreme Court."One justice was 83 years old and two others had serious ailments, he noted.
Some other classics I found after I Googled the three words "Pat Robertson quotes":
- "The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians."
-- Pat Robertson, fundraising letter, 1992 - "I think we ought to close Halloween down. Do you want your children to dress up as witches? The Druids used to dress up like this when they were doing human sacrifice... [Your children] are acting out Satanic rituals and participating in it, and don't even realize it."-- Pat Robertson, The 700 Club television program, October 29, 1982
- - "If the widespread practice of homosexuality will bring about the destruction of your nation, if it will bring about terrorist bombs, if it'll bring about earthquakes, tornadoes and possibly a meteor, it isn't necessarily something we ought to open our arms to."
-- Pat Robertson, The 700 Club television program, August 6, 1998
This week in an editorial, The New York Times called Robertson a "garden-variety crackpot with friends in high places" and I think that might be it in a nutshell (emphasis on the 'nut).
Pat, it's time to step aside and go build bird houses out of popsicle sticks from here on out. The combination of so many symptoms of mental illness (paranoia, delusions, breaking with reality) with his brand of "Christianity" is disturbing. Jon Stewart has been poking fun at this guy on "The Daily Show" for years and I think it's funny that the massive coverage of his latest psychotic rant has caused other Christian groups and conservatives to treat him like the kid who made a log in the baby pool. (I can just see Karl Rove making the throat slashing hand gesture after this story broke).
I don't understand why Pat Robertson or the 700 Club even matter. I thought it was common knowledge that televangelists are scumbags who either steal money from vulnerable naive people that believe the hype, get caught with hookers in sleazy hotels and/or go on crusades against the Teletubbies (America's true enemy). These guys sure do make for interesting stories as they prepare for the Armageddon that America will surely face because of our mixing of race and religion and our growing tolerance for "sinful lifestyles" and the "liberal media" among other "atrocities."
Pat did issue an apology for the Chavez comment, although it reeks of after-the-fact damage control prompted by well-paid publicists. Pat doesn't want to kill the Venezuelan president anymore, instead I'm sure he'll ask God to send a meteor to do the job.
For more on the political side of this story see my blog buddy Mojo's recent entry on the subject: http://dialeticstorm.blogspot.com/2005/08/pat-robertson.html
Comments
First he claimed never to have said assasinate. He admitted he said, "take him out" but claimed assasinate was never mentioned.
Then someone reminded him he was (as one might expect) being recorded saying assasinate.
So then he must have said, "Oh yeah. I, uh, guess I did say that."
Not only did this Man of God call for the murder of another human, but he also lied about it. Wow. Two commandments broken in two days.
You gotta wonder if he's on a 10 Commandments marathon. Next week it will come out in the "liberal media" that he also worshipped graven images, robbed a liquor store and fooled around with his neighbor's wife.
There is just something inherently creepy about someone who makes a business of their religious beliefs which should, in my opinion, be something personal, sacred, and mostly between me and God. Even as a Christian (in the sense that I try to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, and yes, I Tivo the Daily Show, so I saw Jon's crack about trying to follow Christ--"after a day of that, your'e gonna need some me time"--funny!)I still struggle to figure out how so many people from every sect miss the fundamental principle of Christianity: Charity--the pure love of Christ--unconditionally loving people and looking beyond thier mistakes or indiosynchracies to see the coolness that is A PERSON. Hello....??? I've always been freaked out by Pat Robertson and I grieve what he has said and done in Christ's name. End of rant.
Pat considers Mormons to be a threat to his "cult of God" as well Episcopalians (my family's religion) and I think it is safe to say he has now isolated himself from anyone that has a single degree of sanity. He is even getting blasted by the Southern Baptists down here and that is saying quite a lot. Glad to see your comment Jamie. You always bring out good points.
of the white house is going to deny!
Insulted God, Pat's mere prescense on this earth insults God!
I wonder what Pat has quoted about Harry Potter?!
If Pat thinks that about the feminist movement, then women ought to be let known about this so they not elect another conservative idiot...
Meteor eh? hmmmmmmmmmmm, very nice idea!
He would have invoked the definition of the constitution that all men are created equal. He would have required all women to be barefoot and pregnant at all times....
"God's pattern is for men to be the leaders, both in the church and in the family... "Women should listen and learn quietly and submissively. I do not let women teach men or have authority over them."
-- Pat Robertson, reciting a passage from I Timothy in his book, "Bring It On", quoted from Nicholas D. Kristof, "Peter, Paul, Mary ... and God" (The New York Times: February 28, 2004) ††
ALL religions are wrong, whatever sacred cow you happen to believe in, the only reality is the reality of your own life and what you do with the brief time you have in the cosmos.
You can run amok and create hell or you do your utmost to create heaven.
Sad....
Dear God, please save me from your followers.