One of the real tragedies of American Evangelicalism is that Pat Robertson is viewed by the media and the general public as one of our spokesman. So what does it say about us when, speaking of troublesome Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez on the “700 Club” yesterday, Robertson says:
“We don’t need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator. It’s a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with… 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’t think any oil shipments will stop.”
Here’s the link (registration required).
Good grief. It just strikes me as unseemly for a Christian minister to outright call for the murder of a human being because of his political philosophy. Pat Robertson has long been the champion of those who confuse Republican politics with the Christian ministry and the call of the gospel (and I speak as one who tends to be sympathetic to conservative politics). It seems that every few months the founder of the “Christian Coalition” just sticks his foot in his mouth and makes some ridiculous pronouncement. Think about the stereotype this feeds: Evangelical Christians are opportunistic war mongers who are more concerned with oil and politics than human life. It just seems he does more harm than good.
Somebody please make him SHUT UP!