Monday, August 29, 2005

Pat Robertson in the news...

Pat Robertson is the head of the Christian Broadcasting Network and founder of the Regent University School of Law. This school is distinctive among law schools because of the integration of Christian Principles into their curriculum.

Although Pat Robertson professes to be a Christian, he called for the assassination of Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela. The U.S. tried to dismiss the call and Robertson tried to take it back, but once those words are uttered there is no going back. What would make an alleged man of God, utter such words and want to topple a democratically elected government? According to Alex Keyssar, Robertson's words to assassinate Chavez are because of his anticapitalist views and his resistance to American domination of the western hemisphere. Keyssary continues, to advocate removal of a foreign leader (even peaceably) for such reasons expresses a crude political and economic agenda, not a moral one: Robertson's statement vibrated with Cold War hostility to the political left, while also voicing the fantasy that the left is somehow allied to Islamic fundamentalism and terrorists. Is this what the Christian right is becoming -- very right and not very Christian?

Pat Robertson also supported Charles Taylor of Liberia and criticized President Bush's call for Taylor to step down. He went on to praise Taylor as a "fellow Baptist," and accused the State Department of being the real cause of Liberia's problems. Charles Taylor among other things is infamously known for backing the rebels in Sierra Leone whose teenage soldiers were guilty of extreme brutality. Some believe that Robertson's support of Taylor was because he invested in the diamond mines controlled by Taylor in Liberia.

John W. Dean believes if Pat Robertson had been a Democrat, he'd probably be hiring a criminal attorney right about now because he thinks Robertson's call for the assassination of a democratically elected President is a crime. The question then becomes did Pat Robertson commit a crime for calling for the assassination of a foreign leader?

I wonder what the students of Regent University School of Law think of Robertson's latest outburst about the assassination of Hugo Chavez by the U.S. government? Does his views reflect those of the Christian right?

So far, I haven't seen any conservative sites, moderates or otherwise, condemn this barbaric statement.
posted by Cynthia   Permalink| Comments(13)|

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