Pat Robertson has done it again. According to Pat, Ariel Sharon's stroke is punishment from God for giving away Israeli land.
Face it, though — we all knew this was coming. After all, we've had people talking about God electrocuting a pastor in Texas because he was part of the "emerging church" movement. And who better to say it than Pat Robertson? Seriously — how many people are actually taking this guy seriously anymore?
Yes, his cable TV show has a ton of viewers. I'd wager that many of those viewers are people waiting for the next idiotic thing to come out of Robertson's mouth. I know I used to watch Bob Tilton all the time for the pure entertainment value of a grown man claiming he got "ink poisoning" from laying on the prayer requests that people had sent to him as he prayed over them. And I used to do a great Ernest Angley impersonation.
My point is that viewership does NOT equal influence. But Pat provides the perfect target for people who want to believe that all evangelicals are complete blithering idiots like Robertson. One of these days, maybe folks will figure out that Christians don't like Robertson any more than anyone else does.
Article comments
1 - Natalie Davis
Yes, there are Christians who realize that Robertson is less than representative of Jesus' teachings. But in this nation where fundamentalists have control over the law of the land, where fundie churches and organizations take action against television shows and corporations for allegedly having different values, where fundamentalism is growing in the south and west, I can't buy that there aren't a lot of people taking this shit seriously. And remember that Bushie - the leader of the friggin' free world in the eyes of many - has been bending over for these folks since before the SCOTUS gave him the job.
2 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Many of us in Israel do not need Pat Robertson to tell us what we know already. Some of us are terribly amused that secular Israelis will pay attntion to what Pat Robertson says when they should have been paying attention to their own consciences and to the more courageous rabbis here.
Your own president has only contempt for the fundamendalist Chistians he pretends to identify with. But that is a problem you get to contend with. From where I sit, it is nice every now and then when a preacher from another religion gets it right. It ain't often.
3 - Dave Nalle
You forgot to put 'cynical' before contempt, Ruvy. It's one of the reasons to love Bush.
Dave
4 - RJ Elliott
"When will we just stop paying attention to Pat Robertson?"
Most people stopped paying attention to him a long time ago. The only time we notice him anymore is when he says something lunatic...which is about once a week...
5 - Dave Nalle
Pat who? He really needs to get himself in a Jim Bakker style gay sex scandal or at least pick up some hookers like Jimmy Swaggart. THEN we'd take him seriously again.
Dave
6 - Warren
Sad thing is, Natalie, the people I'm talking about who don't like Robertson ARE fundies and evangelicals. Robertson has never been a fundie. Of course, I keep saying that (having been a hardcore fundie and still being a conservative evangelical, I know what I speak of, and I know the diffference) and nobody listens. But he's conservative and religious, so he gets to be a fundie.
7 - Andy Marsh
He scares me...I live to freaking close to the guy!
8 - Andy Marsh
I think the big problem is he has all these monster satellite dishes in his backyard. You should see the set up behind Regents University! From back in the days when he had the "family" channel.
9 - Webbster
< obvious comment>I don't know about this doctrine of assassination...but I think somebody should take him out. < /obvious>
10 - Aaman
Those microwaves from the satellite dishes must be frying his brainwaves
11 - Warren
Aaman, I can't tell you HOW many times I've told him to not leave the house without wearing his foil hat. The Illuminati are everywhere ...
{what the internet REALLY needs is an emoticon for tongue-in-cheek}
12 - gonzo marx
thy Wish is granted...
{8^P
ok...i ain't figured out cheeks yet...
i dunno...i do not know PM Sharon personally, over the years his policies appear to have shifted between various positions...and it has always seemed that he has held the best of Intentions for his Nations at heart if nothing else
that some would lay the "blame" for a stroke on "god" is quite fascinating....
me? i think the fact that he is 77, at least 100 pounds overweight and holds one of the most stressful jobs in the history fo the world MIGHT have had a bit more to do with it
but i'm silly like that...
did i miss the part where god was forcefeeding him blintzes and yelling "no pressure dude" in his ear for the last 50 years??
Excelsior!
13 - Matthew T. Sussman
Pat Robertson loves posts like this, because it mentions his name.
Warren, nice job pointing out that he is not indicative of what Christians believe, but it seems people try to smush the two together.
I'm sure a good chunk of atheists try to distance themselves from Michael Newdow. I won't lump them together.
14 - Warren
Pat Robertson loves posts like this, because it mentions his name.
Good point. Maybe we need some sort of BlogCritics nickname for Robertson.
I suggest "That Fragging Idiot."
15 - zingzing
"i dunno...i do not know PM Sharon personally, over the years his policies appear to have shifted between various positions...and it has always seemed that he has held the best of Intentions for his Nations at heart if nothing else."
let's face it, sharon has (had...) the most difficult job on this planet. not only does he have to be contend with an angry palestine, (and the entire arab world), he got to handle u.n. and u.s. expectations, his own people's expectations, terrorism, shifting borders, shifting hawk/dove tendancies, shifting party allegiances, being damned or praised by the same people that praised or damned him the week before... the man must be confused. he hasn't made his own life easy with the decisions he has made, but he has made decisions based on what he thought was right at the time, whether or not he really was right. i'm not a big fan of the man... he hasn't solved any problems... but at least he tries to make headway against the brick-wall-w/-spikes-coming-out-of-it that is arab/israeli relations.
on that note, pat robertson should be taken off the air and beaten. then, as he lays there, coughing up his own blood, someone should tell him about "god's punishment."
"why would He do this to me? me! pat robertson!"
16 - Victor Lana
It amazes me that anyone pays attention to this guy at all. Okay, he has his followers, but the rest of us should just stop the insanity and forget about this nutcase.
17 - larry
doesnt pat have editors editors or assitants to to say not a good idea idea pat. can you imagine
this man was a serious
candidate for President o of the United States? larry States