Article & Essay: Pat Robertson Calls For Murder, Twice
interventionmag.com
The Christian minister called for the murder of the President of Venezuela, in an apology he repeated the call for murder: is this the voice of Christianity?
By Mark Biskeborn
Pat Robertson has called for the assassination of Hugo Chavez, the elected President of Venezuela. The founder and chairman of the Christian Broadcasting Network, an ordained minister and leader of a Christian church, Robertson claims he spoke out of frustration.
In his apology, Robinson said he was misunderstood, “misinterpreted.” So he wanted “to clarify remarks made on the Monday, August 22nd edition of The 700 Club where I ad-libbed a comment following a very brilliant analysis by Dale Hurd of the danger that the United States faces from the out-of-control dictator of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez. In this story, Chavez repeatedly claimed that Americans were ‘trying to assassinate him.’”
But even in his apology, Robertson repeated his call to assassinate Chavez:
“If you look back just a few years, there was a popular coup that overthrew him[Chavez]; and what did the United States State Department do about it? Virtually nothing; and as a result, within about 48 hours, that coup was broken, Chavez was back in power. But we had a chance to move in. He has destroyed the Venezuelan economy, and he’s going to make that a launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism all over the continent. I don’t know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we’re trying to assassinate him, I think we really ought to go ahead and do it. It’s a whole lot cheaper than starting a war, and I don’t think any oil shipments will stop. But this man is a terrific danger, and this is in our sphere of influence, so we can’t let this happen.”
This is not an apology since again the Christian minister calls for Chavez’s assassination. This makes us wonder about Robertson's mental stability. But there are other aspects of him that we are clear about.
• Even though Robertson claims to be a Christian, in calling for the murder of another man, an elected official in a sovereign country, this represents an outrageous distortion of Christ’s teachings.
• As a Christian leader calling for murder, Robertson places himself among the type of fundamentalists that in his statement he calls “Muslim extremism.”
• Robertson has lost all sense of ethics, and therefore he cannot possibly maintain any credibility in the Christian community.
• Any Christian community that still supports Robertson after twice advocating murder, is not adhering to Christ’s teachings.
Robertson’s Christian Fatwa, a religious call to murder someone he judges as an enemy, symbolizes the confused and vicious thinking of more than one man. It expresses the Bush Administration’s immoral foreign policy, its extremist militarism, its warlord and judgmental approach to war declared in the name of God. Nothing could be more irrational, emotionally charged and extremely dangerous to a democracy, especially one with the most powerful military in the world.
Mr. Pat Robertson, if you want a man dead, please don’t use God’s name. And who do you expect to do this killing that you request? Some kid from Central Point, Oregon? Well, I’m not going. And let's assume that someone agrees with you, some lost soul follows you like you’re a prophet -- who else do you have on your hit list? How did you come up with your list? Don't tell us God inspired it, we have already heard your exploitation of God's name.
Of course you would never murder anyone; you only call for others to do the murdering. In this way you again are like those who occupy the White House. The Bush Administration, in the name of Christianity, lied outright in order to justify a war that has killed tens of thousands of people, civilian and military personnel, and has squandered hundreds of billions of dollars. But it is not the Bush Administration's kids who are doing the killing, and are being killed. I understand both you and the Bush Administration want other Americans -- good, trusting, patriotic Americans -- to do your dirty killing. As I said, not me.
Mr. Pat Robertson, I suggest that you go back to praying for your soul, and stop thinking about the murder of God's children, and stop thinking about the flow of oil. You desperately need to reread the teachings of Jesus Christ.
Mark Biskeborn was born in Oregon and has over 15 years experience in the enterprise software industry. Mark has a M.B.A. and M.A. in comparative literature and teaches literature. You can email him mbiskeborn@hotmail.com
Posted Thursday, August 25, 2005
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