Pat Robertson, assassination and the truth
Thursday, September 01, 2005
Have you ever been at a social event, when one of your relatives, a person you love dearly, said something terribly inappropriate, causing you tremendous embarrassment? You simultaneously grit your teeth, inhale the entire room’s oxygen supply and you roll down your bottom lip in horror.
Well, that’s how I felt when Pat Robertson suggested on the August 22nd edition of “The 700 Club” that America assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
To be honest, I was embarrassed.
Pat is one of the most visible representatives of Christianity in America, if not the world. And for the non-Christian world, his thoughts are presented as though they are indicative of the rest of the body of Christ.
In this case, I take dramatic exception.
You see, I’m pained by his remarks because he is a fellow brother in Christ, one with whom I have stood shoulder-to-shoulder in the fight for America’s future.
If I thought he was (a) irrelevant or (b) a lightweight, his statement wouldn’t bother me anymore than if Barney said he likes strawberry ice cream. I wouldn’t be embarrassed. I would simply ask, “Who cares?”
It’s precisely because I care so much, that I’m pained.
I’ve interviewed him for my afternoon talk show “Take A Stand” on AM 630, KSLR on several occasions, most recently for his two latest books entitled “The Ten Offenses: Reclaim the Blessings of the Ten Commandments” and “Courting Disaster: How the Supreme Court is Usurping the Power of Congress and the People.” Both were terrific.
And, if you check out my website, www.TakeAStand.net, you can read Pat Robertson’s endorsement of me in which he said, “Having appeared on his show by phone, I know first-hand that Adam McManus has both a keen grasp of America's political landscape and a unique ability to empower his audience to take a stand for the right."
No one, least of all myself, would dare suggest that Pat hasn’t advanced the kingdom of God in some very dramatic ways. No doubt his crown in heaven will be heavy with jeweled rewards.
Pat Robertson stood tall and spoke out for Christian values when other Christian leaders remained sadly and sinfully silent.
· As founder of “The 700 Club” back in 1960, he reaches one million people daily throughout 200 nations and in 70 languages with critical news updates and the gospel of Christ.
· In 1977, Robertson founded Regent University, a Biblically-based, fully-accredited graduate school that offers degrees in business, communications, divinity, education, government, law, and psychology. With 3,000 students on campus, Regent is developing Christian thinkers who will make a dramatic difference around the world.
· He formed Operation Blessing International Relief in 1978 whose purpose is to demonstrate God's love by alleviating human need. Remarkably, Operation Blessing has touched the lives of more than 175 million people in 96 countries and all 50 U.S. states, distributing more than $750 million in goods.
· Robertson is founder of the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), a public interest law firm that defends the First Amendment rights of people of faith. The law firm, headed up by Jay Sekulow, focuses on pro-family, pro-liberty and pro-life cases nationwide.
· After Robertson ran for president, he converted his supporters into the Christian Coalition, which in the 1990’s, at its height, and with Ralph Reed at the helm, had 2 million members, 2,000 local chapters, and distributed 45 million non-partisan voter guides throughout 125,000 churches.
His list of accomplishments is truly dazzling both in terms of Biblical content and raw numbers. The Lord has clearly anointed his ministry for many years now.
Which brings me back to Robertson’s call for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez which is not only in direct violation of U.S. law, but morally problematic.
In his broadcast, Robertson said: "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."
I featured Reverend Rob Schenck, the director of the conservative National Clergy Council, on my talk show for some perspective. He’s worked closely in the past with Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network, including hosting Mr. Robertson for major events and appearing on his 700 Club Broadcast. He was also a paid consultant to the American Center for Law and Justice, Robertson's legal arm.
Rev. Schenck said, “I have always held Pat Robertson in the highest esteem, but his remarks today about Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez were at best indiscreet and probably crossed a serious moral and ethical line. Reverend Robertson must immediately apologize, retract his statement and clarify what the Bible and Christianity teaches about the permissibility of taking human life outside of law."
The Houston Chronicle quoted leaders of the Baptist General Convention of Texas who also called Robertson's comments inappropriate and detrimental to the church's message.
Phil Strickland, director of the convention's Christian Life Commission, said "Pat Robertson does not advance the Christian faith by announcing on television his own preferences about who around the world he wants killed."
And the convention Executive Director Charles Wade remarked, "Those of us who call for Muslims to condemn terrorism by their brethren cannot be silent when one of ours advocates this kind of violence."
Rev. Albert Mohler, President of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, and a nationally syndicated talk show host, said, that Robertson “brought shame to the cause of Christ. This is the kind of outrageous statement that makes evangelism all the more difficult. Missing from the entire context is the Christian understanding that violence can never be blessed as a good, but may only be employed under circumstances that would justify the limited use of lethal force in order to prevent even greater violence. Our witness to the Gospel is inevitably and deeply harmed when a recognized Christian leader casually recommends the assassination of a world leader.”
In addition, Mohler quoted from Matthew 12:36-37: “I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
Robertson issued a clarification. Earlier in the day, he had claimed that press reports had "misinterpreted" his comments. "There are a number of ways to take out a dictator from power besides killing him," Robertson said. "I was misinterpreted by the AP, but that happens all the time."
Personally, this is what I’ve found to be the most troubling, the most disturbing.
It’s one thing for Pat to make an adlib comment, which, in hindsight, went over the line. After 45 years in front of the camera, perhaps he’s almost too comfortable, and doesn’t filter his gut-level reactions through at least a diplomatic grid.
But it’s quite another thing for Pat to falsely claim that he was misinterpreted. Baloney. That’s patently not true. That’s a lie.
While the liberal mainstream media is all too often guilty of misreporting and spinning a story, in this case, they did their job correctly.
There was no misinterpretation. There was no spin. Just the ugly truth that the founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network, a pastor, had openly lied for all the world to see.
He did in fact say, "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."
I played the original sound clip in which he called for Chavez to be assassinated back to back with his new claim that he was misinterpreted.
And it simply didn’t pass the smell test.
Then, when he belatedly did issue an apology, no doubt at the partial behind-the-scenes insistence of the White House, it wasn’t for lying, but for the initial comment. Frankly, at that point, he should have apologized for both.
"Is it right to call for assassination?" Robertson said. "No, and I apologize for that statement. I spoke in frustration that we should accommodate the man who thinks the U.S. is out to kill him."
To me, the worse offense was the lie. In an odd way, although on a different level, I was reminded of Richard Nixon. He ultimately resigned, not because of the third-rate burglary at the Watergate offices, but because of his lies, his cover-up.
Later in Robertson’s statement, he noted that “Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the brilliant Protestant theologian who lived under the hellish conditions of Nazi Germany, is reported to have said: ‘If I see a madman driving a car into a group of innocent bystanders, then I can’t, as a Christian, simply wait for the catastrophe and then comfort the wounded and bury the dead. I must try to wrestle the steering wheel out of the hands of the driver.’
“On the strength of this reasoning, Bonhoeffer decided to lend his support to those in Germany who had joined together in an attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Bonhoeffer was imprisoned and killed by the Nazis, but his example deserves our respect and consideration today.
Robertson concluded, “There are many who disagree with my comments, and I respect their opinions. There are others who think that stopping a dictator is the appropriate course of action. In any event, the incredible publicity surrounding my remarks has focused our government’s attention on a growing problem which has been largely ignored.”
If we could have assassinated Adolf Hitler and his top aides, ensuring that hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people’s lives might have been spared, would it be morally justified? Yes.
However, despite the fact that Hugo Chavez is becoming a major menace in South America, his capacity for evil doesn’t begin to touch Hitler’s. In other words, Chavez is no Hitler.
If anything good has come out of the latest Robertson flap, it’s that we are focused like a laser beam now on this Venezuelan leftist president Hugo Chavez.
To be honest, I had been totally oblivious to his rise to power, as I’m sure most of Americans had been.
CBN Senior Correspondent Dale Hurd points out some alarming developments:
· Chavez is forging a new Cuban-Venezuelan alliance with Fidel Castro, bankrolled by oil profits, which threatens to create a block of anti-American states across Latin America.
· Chavez intends to fund the violent overthrow of democratically elected governments throughout South America, beginning with neighboring Colombia.
· Some say Chavez is now looking beyond Venezuela's borders. With billions of dollars in oil profits, Chavez is buying advanced Russian fighter planes and helicopters, dramatically increasing the size of his armed forces and integrating it with Cuba's.
· A large body of evidence suggests that Chavez is harboring and supporting the FARC guerillas of Colombia, one of the largest and most dangerous terrorist organizations in the world.
· Venezuela is the world's fifth largest oil exporter and a major supplier to the United States, providing 10% of our annual consumption. As America's fourth largest oil supplier, Chavez believes he has the U.S. by the throat.
And he just might.
· Chavez has already rewritten the constitution, stacked the courts and begun throwing political opponents into jail.
· In a typical Chavez diatribe, he compares capitalism to Count Dracula, Frankenstein, Jack the Ripper and the Boston Strangler, but then added that Capitalists are much worse than those monsters.
· Chavez has embraced virtually every enemy of the United States, past and present, from Saddam Hussein to Moammar Khaddafy to the Taliban and Iran.
· Chavez recently purchased 100,000 Russian AK-47s and announced plans to increase the size of the army reserves from 50,000 to 1.5 million.
· In past speeches, Chavez has called Bush obscene names, and made sexually suggestive comments about Condoleezza Rice.
· Chávez was a student of a noted Argentine neo-fascist and holocaust-denier named Norberto Ceresole. While anti-Semitism does not seem to be widespread in Venezuela, the government sometimes blames Venezuela's troubles on Jews and Israeli intelligence.
· A former aide to Chávez once claimed that he was instructed to deliver $1 million to al-Qaeda after 9-11. The Venezuelan government said the money was given to the UN for Afghan refugees.
· But most troubling to some is Chávez' announced intention to develop a nuclear program with the help of Iran.
No one can deny that Hugo Chavez is a bad man. We need to watch him closely because he certainly poses a clear and growing threat to the stability of South and Latin America, if not America itself.
But this is not the first time that Robertson angered and embarrassed Christians in America and around the world.
On Monday, April 16, 2001, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked Pat what he thought about China's "one child" policy that can result in state-ordered abortions.
Rev. Robertson said, "I don't agree with it. But at the same time, they've got 1.2 billion people, and they don't know what to do. If every family over there was allowed to have three or four children, the population would be completely unsustainable. . . . I think that right now they're doing what they have to do. I don't agree with the forced abortion, but I don't think the United States needs to interfere with what they're doing internally in this regard."
So, which is it Pat? Are you for or against the forced abortion policy of Communist China? First you say that you don’t agree with it. Then, you proceed to eloquently summarize and seemingly rationalize the very pro-death position of the Communists themselves. Whose side are you on?
To his credit, Charles Donovan, who was then the executive vice president of the Family Research Council, was quoted in the April 18, 2001 edition of The Washington Post as having said, "I'm saddened and surprised. This policy [of forced abortion] doesn't need comfort, and it certainly doesn't need comfort from a Christian and a conservative."
And Concerned Women for America released a statement that did not mention Robertson by name but was directed toward him. "It has been claimed," the statement said, that China's abortion policy "is the logical result of its growing population. However, babies are not the cause of China's problems.
Communism is. . . . It would be a dereliction of our duty as Christians and as human beings to ignore the human rights abuses in China's forced-abortion policy."
How ironic.
Pat does not “think the United States needs to interfere with what [China] is doing internally in this regard” – in terms of killing innocent boys and girls through abortion – and yet he does think that the United States should interfere with what Venezuela is doing internally and kill the head of state outright.
I love the forthrightness of Dr. Albert Mohler. He’s concerned that Robertson’s lapse of judgment this time ‘round might “become an enduring obstacle to the Gospel.” In that respect, I think Mohler speaks for all of us who name Jesus Savior.
Admittedly, Pat Robertson is not the only Christian who has ever put his foot in his mouth. However, the difference between his gaffe and ours is that one million people witnessed him insert his shoe leather between his lips.
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© 2005 Adam McManus. -------------------------------------------------------
Adam McManus hosts a weekday afternoon radio show called "Take A Stand" on AM 630, KSLR in San Antonio, Texas from 3-6 p.m. If you’d like him to speak to your group or you’d like to react to this column, call Adam at (210) 344-8481 ext 132 or e-mail adam@takeastand.net. Join 5,300 San Antonions and sign up for his weekday e-mail alert about upcoming guests, critical articles and action steps to make a difference Go to: www.TakeAStand.net and listen live at www.kslr.com
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