Pat Robertson, master of the 700 Club and founder of the Christian Coalition, was edging pretty close to gruesome a while back, when he prayed on-air for more openings on the Supreme Court. Since the Justices have lifetime appointments, the logical inference was that he was praying for God to kill one of them, though perhaps he merely meant for the Big Guy to “turn the heart” of one of the Justices toward resignation.
Today, though, Mr. Robertson confirmed my suspicion that he is a blood-thirsty fellow lacking in the kindness and charitable spirit that used to be what we meant when someone was called “Christian.” He is now calling for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. You can view the video at Media Matters.
We have the Monroe Doctrine, we have other doctrines that we have announced. And without question, this is a dangerous enemy to our south, controlling a huge pool of oil, that could hurt us very badly. We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability. We don’t need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator. It’s a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with.
Whatever you think of Hugo Chavez, it’s pretty sad that what Pat has taken away from the disaster in Iraq is that we should have just used a covert action team, instead of a big ol’ expensive war.
It’s not surprising to me that Robertson’s foreign policy analysis is as shrewd and well-considered as his theology, but it scares me that thousands who watch this program actually take him for an authority, to the exclusion of other news sources, and they believe in the things he says.
Gosh, if only Jesus had had covert action teams to just “take out” his enemies. Perhaps we need WWJA stickers: Who Would Jesus Assassinate?