Re: Pat Robertson ... Just Shut Up!

This should not be necessary but it is:

Pat Robertson has never been, is not now and never will be a spokesman for the Oklahomilist, his family, the vast majority of his friends and co-religionists.

Pat Robertson, in our considered opinion (IOCO), has a few loose nuts and bolts in the mechanism of his mind. This is nothing new. There's been creaking and clanking for years now.

Pat Robertson is past his prime, whenever that was.

We have no doubt that Mr. Robertson means well. We have no doubt that he loves Jesus, and no doubt Jesus loves Pat (for He loves all of us).

It's just that from time to time Pat has spoken in Jesus' name without first bothering to check to see if Jesus would approve the message. On Monday, as part of his "700 Club" broadcast which purports to impart Christian-oriented advice and teaching, Pat said it would be okay for the United States to send assassins to kill Hugo Chavez, President (Strongman) of Venezuela. This seems to imply that the commandment "Thou Shalt Not Kill" is not absolute, or at least has interesting caveats.

"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," Robertson said. "It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war ... and I don't think any oil shipments will stop."

Robertson accused the United States of failing to act when Chavez was briefly overthrown in 2002.

"We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability," Robertson said.

"We don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator," he continued. "It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with."

Glancing momentarily at our WWJD decoder ring, these words from the 5th chapter of Matthew's gospel come to mind:

"You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, 'You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment.'

But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment, and whoever says to his brother, 'Raqa,' will be answerable to the Sanhedrin, and whoever says, 'You fool,' will be liable to fiery Gehenna.

Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift."

Reconciliation, not retaliation, is the first duty of the one who would serve God at the altar. Jesus also said that those who live by the sword perish by the sword.

We are not so naive as to believe that nations never employ assassination as a means of foreign policy, and as an exercise in moral logic the spiritual cost of the death of one man versus the deaths of many (in a $200 billion war?) is certainly grist for the mill. But it is not a proper public topic for a man who claims to proclaim the Word.

And that's always been our problem with Pat Robertson. He often mixes up his thoughts as an American citizen with his views on the message of Christ. He appears to have trouble telling the difference.

At the least, Pat Robertson (and his TV production team) should be more careful. More to the point, perhaps it is time for him to retire.