Christian Leaders Balk at Robertson's Remarks
by Barbara Bradley Hagerty
All Things Considered, January 12, 2006 ·

Pat Robertson, the TV evangelist with a passion for Israel, has found himself cut off from the Holy Land. Israel has suspended contact with Robertson after he suggested last week that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke was divine retribution. Robertson has been working to set up a massive Christian tourism center in Israel, and that deal is now in question. This statement is only the latest in a string of pronouncements that have left the Christian preacher increasingly isolated.

Pat Robertson has told viewers of his television show, The 700 Club, that he personally likes Sharon. In fact, Robertson said he's even prayed with him. But the preacher said Sharon made a mistake when he pulled out of the Gaza Strip, and so, he implied, no one should be surprised that Sharon fell ill.

"Here he's at the point of death," Robertson told viewers in early January, "he was dividing God's land. And I would say, woe unto any prime minister of Israel who takes a similar course to appease the E.U., the United Nations or the United States of America. God says, 'This land belongs to me. You better leave it alone.' "

It was one remark too many for Christian leaders.

"I was appalled," says Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's ethics and religious liberty commission. Besides the intemperate politics, Land says, this is bad theology. Saint Paul himself said that God's judgments are unsearchable, says Land, so when Robertson connects Sharon's stroke with God's judgment, "he's way beyond his theological pay grade. That's assuming the prerogatives of God and it betrays both an appalling spiritual ignorance and an appalling spiritual arrogance."

Those are tough words from an evangelical leader who shares a foxhole with Robertson in the culture wars. In fact, not so long ago, Robertson was swimming in the conservative evangelical mainstream. When he ran for the Republican nomination for president in 1988, he tapped into a well of evangelicals who had never entered politics.

For a segment of people worried about the country's moral direction, candidate Robertson offered a vision of moral -- that is, Christian -- certainty.

"As a people," Robertson said in 1988, "we believe our freedoms, our liberties, and our wealth were gifts of almighty God, and we must establish faith in God as our no. 1 priority."

Robertson's campaign caught on like fire in the underbrush. It turned from an oddity to a genuine drive, especially after he polled second in the Iowa caucuses, beating out then Vice President George H.W. Bush.

Eventually, Robertson's past statements caught up with him, such as his predictions that the Soviet Union would invade Israel, and that Christ would soon return. His campaign crumbled in the South. Robert Boston, a critic of Robertson's who authored a book about the televangelist called, The Most Dangerous Man in the World?" says underneath the mainstream patina, Robertson held extreme views.

"When he was running for president in 1988, he had staff, he had handlers, he had people who could pull him back when he went too far out on the limb," says Boston.

That continued into the 1990s, when Robertson founded the Christian Coalition -- a grass roots machine that would change the course of American politics. But Boston says, even then, Robertson remained quietly in the wings, choosing a baby-faced, sophisticated Ralph Reed to be the voice of the movement.

"Well, Ralph Reed is long gone," notes Boston. "He resigned in September 1997. So almost for the past 10 years, there's not anyone telling Pat Robertson, 'Be quiet, you're not helping us, you've gone too far.'"

Eventually, Robertson's main outlet became his television program, The 700 Club. The show became a showcase for his particular take on Pentecostalism, a tradition whose followers hold that God speaks directly to people and influences events.

Unleashed from the constraints of politics, Robertson warned his listeners that God was unhappy with the cultural drift. On June 8, 1998, he warned that a gay pride celebration in Orlando would invite terrorist bombs, earthquakes, tornados and even a meteor:

"I would warn Orlando that you're right in the way of serious hurricanes, and I don't think I'd be waving those flags in God's face if I were you," he told viewers.

That prediction became fodder for late night television jokes. Christian leaders grew increasingly embarrassed; Robertson was, after all, one of their highest profile leaders.

Soon, he would drive even these allies away, with his comments two days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Homosexuality, the ban on school prayer, abortion and other social ills, he seemed to imply, invited the death of 3,000 people:

"We have insulted God at the highest levels of our government, and then we say, why does this happen?," said Robertson. "Why it's happening is, God almighty is lifting his protection from us."

Since then, Robertson's tempo has increased. Last August, he sent with this warning to Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez:

"I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're going to assassinate him, we ought to do it, it's a whole lot easier than starting a war."

Three months later, Robertson turned his prophecy to the town of Dover, Pa., which voted out a school board that favored introducing intelligent design into science class.

Robertson told viewers: "I'd like to say to the good citizens of Dover, if there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God. You just rejected him from your city."

"I don't know a conservative Christian leader -- Protestant, Catholic or Jewish -- who has not run out of patience with Mr. Robertson's comments," says Michael Cromartie, director of an evangelical studies project at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Cromartie says Robertson speaks for an ever diminishing group of people -- and gives a bad name to evangelicals, by presenting a wrathful God of judgment, not mercy. He points to the comments Robertson made after Sept. 11.

"It is really dangerous when religious leaders come out and try to tell us exactly what God is up to," he says. "This is inappropriate theologically, as a Christian leader. Now what you want to do is fall on your face and say, 'God have mercy on us and help those suffering people who lost their families.'"

Robertson has been called one of America's best known religious extremists, and many say he's doing damage to America abroad -- especially among those in the Muslim world who fear that America is on a crusade to Christianize the world. Critic Robert Boston says U.S. policymakers are so careful to keep religion out of foreign policy, "but their efforts are being undercut when people like Pat Robertson make comments about Islam that are inflammatory, or link our public policy to the spread of Christianity, and imply that this something that is a national goal for the U.S. overseas."

Some view Robertson as a tragic case, whose odd comments have destroyed any impact he may have had. Rob Boston disagrees. Boston says when Robertson's biography is written, those comments will be a footnote -- his real legacy is that he helped create a movement that changed American politics.

"People will remember him as the architect of a political movement, and after Pat Robertson is gone, there will still be people active in the political system who learned their lessons from his organizations and his writings," says Boston.

A legacy that makes liberals shudder, and conservatives rejoice.

I think Pat should be given a network TV show on Sunday nights at 8pm.

That would be awesome. He needs a catchphrase though, like "You're Damned!" People can get voted out of salvation every week, it'll be great.

I am so far beyond hating Pat Robertson. He's just become a wonderful laughing stock with his own TV show, and EVERYONE knows he's batshit crazy. Whenever he talks now, I'm like, "C'mon Pat! Say some crazy retarded shit, you can do it! Yes! Make evangelicals look like clowns again! Remind us of how you were almost the GOP nominee for president. Go on Pat, undermine your cause!"

I love it. Someone with a microphone that everyone knows is full of shit is a wonderful thing. Keep on talking, Tom DeLay. Sure we believe you, Pete Rose. I just can't wait until President Bush reaches critical mass.

I fucking think this fucking thread is fucking brilliant great fucking work, oh and fuck pat robertson

I changed my mind. I want Pat to be the anchor on either the Today Show or ABC Nightly News. Maybe he can replace Ted Koppel!!
Pat and Katie together!

He should become O'Reilly's co-anchor

I changed my mind. I want Pat to be the anchor on either the Today Show or ABC Nightly News. Maybe he can replace Ted Koppel!!
Pat and Katie together!

As big of a douchebag as Pat Robertson is, he's still a threat to society. He still has millions of idiots watching him everyday.

Not to mention the millions of other idiots who switch from Robertson onto the Trinity Broadcasting Network to watch Benny Hinn "cure" somebody.

I've always wondered what would happen if I faked an illness and went up there and pretended to not be healed. I wonder if anybody has done that to him or any of those phony ass preachers.

to watch Benny Hinn "cure" somebody.

I'm sure it's happened all the time. I swear there've been countless news reports disproving bullshit like this.

I really have no idea what's wrong with these people in general. The religious right is one of the most baffling phenomenons of recent culture. Faith and a belief in God are one thing, but in a country like America in the year 2005, pre-Enlightenment thinking (ie: not thinking for yourself, a blind belief in rules deemed by a higher authority) is just absurd. The biggest problem I have with people like this is that not only are they anti-common sense, but that they have so much influence among everyone else. Moderates always seem to succumb to some of their moronic ideas, but then again its their right to anyway.

It'll change in our lifetime.

I don't think it's the religious right that's the problem, it's the 5% of them that make the most noise that are the threat. There are some very forward-thinking Christians out there who aren't complete dipshits, they just never get airtime.

It's too bad Billy Graham never gets half the airtime idiots like Paul Crouch, Robertson and Hinn do.

Billy Graham is just as bad as any of them. He's just smart enough not to say it in public. Have you heard him on the Nixon Oval Office tapes?

I never said he wasn't crazy, but he's at least diplomatic.