Editorial: Robertson’s rant/Hatred in religion’s name

08/25/2005

Star Tribune Editorial
August 25, 2005

Given the absurdity of his more famous quotations, one can only hope that Pat Robertson’s television viewers don’t think he gets his ideas straight from the top, as it were. His declarations seem clearly to be born of his own mind. Indeed, the host of the Christian Broadcast Network’s “The 700 Club” made the point quite tellingly on Monday in urging that U.S. agents assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

That’s not a strategy the pacifist from Nazareth—himself a victim of state-sponsored murder—would likely endorse, and it ought to dismay Robertson’s followers as readily as his detractors. Denominations may differ on the meaning of the Christian message, but few preachers embrace selective slaughter as a noble means to an honorable end.

Yet Robertson did just that on Monday: “If he thinks we’re trying to assassinate him,” he told his viewers, “I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it. It’s a whole lot cheaper than starting a war.” That exhortation casts evangelism in a whole new light. Not satisfied with spreading the word of God, Robertson is peddling the political wares of Caesar.

There’s no question that the White House is irked by Chavez, whose fiery rhetoric against U.S. “imperialism” has sparked worries that Venezuela may curb its substantial oil sales to the United States. Chavez’s suspicions against Washington run high, and he has in fact accused U.S. officials of trying to assassinate him.

But whatever plots and resentments may have arisen between the two nations, it’s hard to imagine that gunning down a president would calm the tumult. Not even U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld—usually pretty well aligned with Robertson & Co.—would cotton to the notion, commenting Tuesday: “Our department doesn’t do that kind of thing. It’s against the law.”

The administration’s understated eagerness to distance itself from Robertson’s daft doctrine is heartening, but it isn’t likely to set the Christian Coalition commandant on the straight and narrow. His first defense before finally apologizing Wednesday—a feeble insistence that he “didn’t say ‘assassination’ “ (he did)—suggests he’s as fond of mendacity as of murder.

Robertson’s words were plainly foolish, but listeners should guard against making too much of them. Many people of faith have rushed to denounce his views, and America’s official policy explicitly forbids his favored tactic. More ominous than the substance of Monday’s utterance is what it reveals about religious fundamentalism in this new century: In America and across the globe, movements meant to beckon believers back to their roots have been turned into political campaigns with the loosest of links to spiritual tradition.

None of the world’s great teachers embraced hatred, murder or retaliation. Why, then, do their self-proclaimed followers?