Paul Revere by Cyrus Dallin, North End, Boston

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Wednesday, January 13, 2010

THE NINCOMPOOPERY OF TELEVANGELIST, PAT ROBERTSON


UPDATE BELOW

He's at it again.  Just like his asinine remarks after 9/11 where he agreed with the charlatan "minister" Jerry Falwell when he said 9/11 was caused by feminists and gays, Robertson has pronounced on his scam "700 Club" show that the Haitian earthquake is the result of the Haitians having made a "pact with the devil" two centuries ago.

Here is the report:

Pat Robertson said Wednesday that earthquake-ravaged Haiti has been "cursed" by a "pact to the devil."


"Something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it," he said on Christian Broadcasting Network's "The 700 Club." "They were under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon III, or whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, we will serve you if you'll get us free from the French. True story. And so, the devil said, okay it's a deal."

Robertson said that "ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other"

This miserable Gantryite piles on the poor Haitian people by suggesting that God is punishing them for something that happened centuries ago? 

While all people of compassion and good will, real Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Atheists, are trying to help the injured, the sick, and the dying, this jackass used his position as a "Christian" spokesman to blame the afflicted for this catastrophe. 

Pat Robertson is a fool and beyond contempt and is no more a "Christian" than is the devil he stupidly believes in.

Cross posted a The Swash Zone.

UPDATE:

Michael Rowe, independent journalist and essayist, writing for the Huffington Post has this to say about the obscenity that is Pat Robertson:

"Perhaps in the aftermath of yet another grotesque pronouncement from this man who claims to speak for God, while blaming victims of a natural horror for their own misery, it might be time for America to take a long, hard look at the multi-billion dollar religion industry (which is largely tax-exempt) and ask itself if it still wants to invest people like Pat Robertson and his evangelical corporation with anything but jaundice.



It's too much to expect Robertson's millions and millions of followers to share the outrage we feel over his comments about Haiti. It's too much to expect them to immediately cease funding his enterprise and send their money instead to an aid organization. Imagine the many millions of dollars for Haitian aid that would generate.


It's too much to expect them to recall what their own Bible says about false prophets, or to see Robertson in the context of Isaiah 29:13: The Lord says: "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by me


But of those of us who are outraged by Robertson's foulness chose to give an extra ten dollars to Oxfam or the Red Cross as an expression of that outrage, perhaps some small good can come out of it.


And then, when we've really done all we can, perhaps we can finally have that honest discussion about religion, and the role of people like Pat Robertson in American popular culture. And perhaps then we can discover who's really made a pact, and with which devil. Lets hope it isn't us."

14 comments:

dmarks said...

Thanks for addressing an aspect of the Haiti situation. I heard on NPR tonight that Boston has the third largest Haitian community in the country. But you probably already knew it.

Shaw Kenawe said...

Just about any time I need to use a cab here in the city, I get a Haitian cab driver, and we always have great conversations.

I'm thinking about those men and their families. What devastations.

Anonymous said...

There's a young lady from my small town missing in Haiti. She's a college student who went to Haiti with a group of 14 to work with a relief agency this semester. There's a news truck parked outside the families home as they await word of their daughter's fate. I can't even imagine what they are going through right now. And for this jackass to say what he did...well words can't even express. We live in a world wide community, we're all connected in some way.

Shaw Kenawe said...

Anon,

I'm sorry to hear about your hometown neighbor. I'm afraid we'll be hearing more and more of these heartwrenching stories. To much to bear.

Robertson should be shunned by every right-thinking American.

He has proved himself to be, once again, an insensitive jackass unworthy of the classification as "human."

Oso said...

Robertson.What a miserable, worthless POS he is.
I've written a couple other places today,soon as I read that I figured it was because people were unable to accept that Toulouse Lautrec was able to defeat an imperial European army with his own army of slaves. Had to be the devil cause how else could the victory be explained ?

Our own fear of the slaves here,of them rising up like the Haitians did caused us to condemn and torment Haiti, and it became national policy.

Look at us, Clinton first overthrew Aristide I think in 1997? Then Bush took a turn in 2004.

Obama gonna give them aid. Good thing and I'm glad but what hypocrisy our imperial policy is. Invade and terrorize and overthrow and when it looks good for PR reasons offer aid.

Sorry, I must have got up on the wrong side of the bed the past 30 years.

Jim said...

What a disaster. Pray for the survivors.

I thought it odd to have such a large quake in that region. So I did a little research. It is not as common an occurrence as it is here in SoCal but the region of the Caribbean has had more devastating ones. Click here for a science article detailing other quakes.

dmarks said...

I saw this and was reminded of the president of Iran and his various and varied demands for, calls for, predictions of the extermination of Jews/Israelis.

Not that it's the same thing (although someone should of course free to argue that it is). But there is something similar.

Dave Miller said...

The term Pond Scum comes to mind.

It is hard enough doing what I do without having to say he does not speak for me, or my understanding of Christianity at every turn.

The J Mopper said...

I don't know what's more unfortunate: Robertson's demented comments/views or the fact that he has such a large/loyal following...actually I would lean towards the latter.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Andrew L. said...

Looks like another idiot needs prayers. Limpbaugh came out and accused Obama of using the Haitian disaster to ingratiate himself with the black community, and he admonished people NOT to give money to aid the people of Haitie because we already send them money via US tax dollars.

What an incredible beast he is. A very rich beast. Only in America could something as stupid and hateful as he is become rich off of the jerks who listen to him.

(O)CT(O)PUS said...

Shaw, I deleted the comment of Dr. Keith Currie (above). When I clicked on the link, it turned out to be an advertisement, i.e., "Chiropractic Marketing."

How ironic! A spambot of the "Pond Scum" persuasion.

dmarks said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
dmarks said...

A member of the "religious Left" has now weighed in with a view as detestable as Robertson's. He claims that the earthquake in Haiti was the justified wrath of his god/goddess/whatever in reaction to a few people in a recent meeting in Europe not saying the right thing:

Story here.