Little to Celebrate on Pat Robinson Birthday

Monday, March 22nd, 2004

"Words for Today
"The Lord has just blessed him. I mean, he could make terrible mistakes and comes out of it. It doesn't make any difference what he does, good or bad, God picks him up because he's a man of prayer and God's blessing him. I think Bush is going to win in a walk."
So said millionaire televangelist Pat Robertson on the 700 Club of the Christian Broadcasting Network recently - along with his conviction that President George W. Bush would be reelected to the presidency in a walk. Worth some 140 million dollars, the man who turns seventy-four this very day owns the Ice Capades, diamond mines, and has money in banks everywhere. Yet he's on television daily begging for money from widows on fixed income and those who cannot afford health insurance. Old Pat doesn't miss a bet - he's in on all the latest crazes with another money-making scam, ready to tap the true believers for every cent they have. The man has no conscience, as far as I can tell - and he's aligned himself with the Republican Party whom he continues to influence far beyond anything that is either seemly - that may, indeed, be unconstitutional. He's absolutely shameless, and age has brought him more craftiness in his effort to recreate our social compact in his image. There's still many a North Dakotan who sends along $417 a month as members of the 700 Club Founder's Club. Membership in the 700 club continues at $20/month - but you can be sure that you'll get a reminder if the check doesn't arrive on time. Pat will happily sell you his age-defying protein pancake, he'll give you complete information about preventing Alzheimer's, and he'll help you get out of debt (a plan that includes giving to the 700 Club).

Pat Robertson has never recanted a single one of his outrageous statements on everything from feminism to the role of Christianity in the founding of this country. Millions believe this consummate liar when he looks into the camera and says, " The founding document of the United States of America acknowledges the Lordship of Jesus Christ because we are a Christian nation." Nothing could be less true - the founding generation had the deepest of distrust of Christianity and consciously built a wall between church and state. At Pat's elaborate web site, you'll find answers to questions where he exposes himself as a bigot beyond redemption -- go here, if you have the stomach for it. For example, Pat's staff puts up the question from a listener

Here's a sample from the 700 Club Web Site
A LISTENER ASKED, About five years ago, I came out to the rest of the world as a lesbian. I am in a committed relationship with another woman. I don't understand why you say that homosexuality is wrong. Isn't my happiness the most important thing? Isn't that what God wants? I think that is what matters, not telling people what is right and wrong.

PAT ROBERTSON'S ANSWER:

I didn't write the Bible. I really didn't. The Bible was written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit by wonderful men like the Apostle Paul, like Moses, people like that, very highly respected people, and right down the line, they said that homosexuality is an abomination to God. The Apostle Paul said that nobody who is a homosexual is going to get into heaven. That doesn't mean you have a tendency. It didn't say nobody with homosexual tendencies is going to miss getting into heaven.

People who are practicing homosexuals or lesbians, this is an unnatural relationship. There is no way in a "committed lesbian relationship" that you are going to conceive a baby. If two lesbians conceive a baby without the help of something else, I will admit on this program that I am wrong. But they haven't done it so far; nor have two homosexuals. It is unnatural.

Now, you say 'Doesn't God want me to be happy?' Well, this may be happiness for you now, but what is going to happen is when you die, you are going to hell (see 1 Corinthians 6:9-10). I don't want to overstate it, but that is what the Bible says: You shall not enter the kingdom of heaven, you shall not go to spend an eternity with God, and you will spend an eternity away from Him. God loves you, but He says that you cannot do something He says is an abomination and is wrong. It is just that simple. He made sex to be enjoyed, but he made it in the confines of marriage between heterosexual people, partially for the propagation of the race and the nurture and the admonition of the young. That's what it is there for.

God is not there to make us happy. Sure it is a misconception. God is there to show us what is right. What He says to do will make us happy. If we follow His principles about finance, about sex, about marriage, about love, about commitment, about all the other good things that He says, if we keep His commandments, we will be happy. It will bring us happiness. But happiness is never going to come if we do something that is sinful because He will not give you the witness of the Holy Spirit in your heart that you are doing something right. You won't have it. You won't know the overwhelming joy. The Apostle Peter talked about 'joy unspeakable and full of glory' (1 Peter 1:8). That comes about through fulfilling the plan of God and having the power of the Holy Spirit moving in your life and knowing when you die that you are going to heaven.
End excerpt from 700 Club Web Site

On this day in history, back in 1972, remarkably enough, the Senate passed the Equal Rights Amendment by a vote of 84-4. The vote would have banned all discrimination against women. The bill was not ratified - in the decades following, folks of the ilk of Pat Robertson launched an all-out campaign against the very notion that women and men should be treated exactly the same in this country. There were fear mongers circulating warnings that women would be drafted and raped in war, that the amendment would destroy families. After all, hadn't St. Paul himself pointed that women were to be subject to the will and power of their husbands? The very notion was unChristian. Said our friend, the master of hype, the fear-mongering war hawk Pat Robertson,

Feminism is a socialist, anti-family, political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.

Perhaps the easiest way to minimize the influence of such self-righteous, self-serving opportunists who latch on to people's thirst for spiritual values is to simply allow the ilk of Pat Robertson to say as much as possible as often as possible - for much of what he offers is so outrageous that not even the true believer can swallow some of it.

"The mission of the Christian Coalition is simple," says Pat Robertson. It is "to mobilize Christians -- one precinct at a time, one community at a time -- until once again we are the head and not the tail, and at the top rather than the bottom of our political system." Robertson predicts that "the Christian Coalition will be the most powerful political force in America by the end of this decade." And, "We have enough votes to run this country...and when the people say, 'We've had enough,' we're going to take over!"

It is interesting, that termites don't build things, and the great builders of our nation almost to a man have been Christians, because Christians have the desire to build something. He is motivated by love of man and God, so he builds. The people who have come into (our) institutions (today) are primarily termites. They are into destroying institutions that have been built by Christians, whether it is universities, governments, our own traditions, that we have. .  .  . The termites are in charge now, and that is not the way it ought to be, and the time has arrived for a godly fumigation.

[on teaching children planned parenthood] It is teaching kids to fornicate, teaching people to have adultery, every kind of bestiality, homosexuality, lesbianism-everything that the Bible condemns.

[on the role of people who may hold beliefs other than Christianity of Judaism in government] If anybody understood what Hindus really believe, there would be no doubt that they have no business administering government policies in a country that favors freedom and equality. . . . Can you imagine having the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as defense minister, or Mahatma Gandhi as minister of health, education, and welfare? The Hindu and Buddhist idea of karma and the Muslim idea of kismet, or fate condemn the poor and the disabled to their suffering. . . . It's the will of Allah. These beliefs are nothing but abject fatalism, and they would devastate the social gains this nation has made if they were ever put into practice.

​Pat Robertson remains a major force in our society - and is taken quite seriously by the current administration. I feel deeply sad for the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Dakotans who turn into that broadcast of hate and intolerance under the guise of Christian love. Pat's not alone in preying upon the most lonely and vulnerable among Americans - it's done by a host of ministers and priests every single day throughout the country. 'Tis far too beautiful a day to give Pat much more than our disdain - and our thanks to whatever gods and goddesses may be that his fervent prayers that millions die so Americans can be safe go unanswered. I don't mean to wish less than the best for all fellow travelers here in the middle world, but I do hope another year will bring Pat Robertson to some sort of realization that his legacy will be one of encouraging folks to miss a meal or two in order to support his hatred. I trust that you, my kola, are taking care of yourselves - if you're sending Pat Robertson money, reconsider - and reconsider all those who demand that you kill folks for their own good and hate those who disagree with you.

Ev Albers