Denounce Robertson, Now

Pat Robertson is a kook.

I don't have a fast enough connection to track the links, but all you have to do is run a search with the words "Robertson" and "hurricane", "dictator", "gold", or "judges" and you'll get plenty of examples.

But yesterday he reached a new level, calling for the assassination of the (elected) President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez. He has not been quoted out of context. In fact viewing the quote in context makes it even worse by making it clear this was not merely a throw away line.

I don't expect any response from our government, since the Bush Administration apparently supported a coup attempt against Chavez in 2002. (And this failed coup was a partial source of Robertson's tirade). They are not going to denounce Robertson for asking them to do something they wish they could do.

But I should be able to expect a response from the "leaders" of the Evangelical community. And I'm looking at you, Ted Haggard, President of the National Association of Evangelicals. Haggard has spoken on a broad number of issues, but only to turn the NAE into a reliable voice in support of this Administration, so I can't imagine anything will be forthcoming, but it should.

Christian leaders should denounce Robertson, clearly, without any qualification. But they won't. This will cause hardly a ripple. And the fact that there are many Christians who would want to argue that assassinating democratically elected leaders of neighboring countries might be OK just shows how captive we have become to our culture.

But at least I can say it. "I denounce Pat Robertson for calling for the assassination of Hugo Chavez. He does not speak for me and vigorously reject any assertion that he may be speaking for the Church and for the Gospel of Jesus".

Well, at least I feel better.