Sunday, January 24, 2010

Pat Robertson on Non-Christians and they wrong type of Christians

Obviously, Pat Robertson spews garbage about virtually everybody, but I, as a Lutheran, was offended very personally by this gem I found (from The 700 Club on January 14, 1991):
You say you're supposed to be nice to the Episcopalians and the Presbyterians and the Methodists and this, that, and the other thing. Nonsense. I don't have to be nice to the spirit of the Antichrist. I can love the people who hold false opinions but I don't have to be nice to them.
Wow, if you're not a fundamentalist Christian, Pat Robertson believes you are the "spirit of the Antichrist" and he doesn't feel the need to be nice to you. What a jerk! STFU, Pat!

Here's another dangerous quote from Pat Robertson (in New York Magazine on August 18, 1986), when he called for a "godly fumigation" of non-believers in positions of authority:
It is interesting, that termites don't build things, and the great builders of our nation almost to a man have been Christians, because Christians have the desire to build something. He is motivated by love of man and God, so he builds. The people who have come into [our] institutions [today] are primarily termites. They are into destroying institutions that have been built by Christians, whether it is universities, governments, our own traditions, that we have.... The termites are in charge now, and that is not the way it ought to be, and the time has arrived for a godly fumigation.
STFU, Pat!

36 comments:

  1. That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever!!! I can not even wrap my mind around such nonsense.

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  2. Wow, this is clearly a man who has not only never traveled anywhere, but also has no idea what other civilizations have done and built. And the "godly fumigation" comment has a distinctly Hitleresque ring to it...

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  3. It's sad to me that fundamentalist wing-nuts like Pat Robertson exist, but I suppose people like him are the sanity-checkers that remind us to stay far, far away from those kinds of fringes. I lot him in with the rest of the Rogues' Gallery of wing-nuts: American Communist Party members (and Socialists), neo-Nazi groups, anti-Federalist paranoid survivalists, and hippy-dippy New-Agers who have no real clue what "spiritual enlightenment" really means.

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  4. @Julia -- that was my first (sickening) impression as well. How can so much vileness emanate from someone who professes to be a Christian? Clearly he's an example of "the mouth says one thing, but the heart and hands demonstrate the diametric opposite".

    @Matty - Like you, I was raised Lutheran, but as I grew older and studied more history and more religions, I became more Universalist. I think whatever leads you, if there's a shred of human decency inside (let alone any sort of spirituality) then Robertson's spew cannot help but offend. I arrived here from the link on Facebook and was led to join the discussion.

    IIRC, the Gospels recount lesson after lesson after lesson on forbearance, forgiveness, understanding, tolerance, direct instructions to uplift, feed, and heal the poor and sick, and many admonitions against the accumulation of wealth. Nearly every lesson ends with a snap-line about how the holier-than-thou, oh-so-better'n'-yew Pharisees who just never got that all their riches and rules and regulations (better applied to everyone ELSE, of course) would never get them one micrometer closer to heaven.

    Ol' Pat's got cars, mansions, and bank accounts (plural!) with commas (plural!) in them. Looks like he's taking his reward now. According to the Gospels, that's how Satan rolls, not Jesus. Jessayin'. But let's not continue to belabor the patently obvious. The reader is welcome to read the Gospels, evaluate the situation, and make his or her own observations.

    From where I sit, when someone professes to do G'd's work, collects bazillions of dollars from folks who can ill afford it, uses every tax-dodge known to hang on to it, runs diamond mines with slave labor, and when it comes time to do G'd's work, he basically throws that cash in the air and hollers "whatever G'd can catch, He can keep!".

    Pat, if you're gonna throw terms like Christ and anti-Christ around, you ought to at least read the material in the Good Book instead of reading Mein Kampf as a how-to. Just a suggestion. But it's your everlasting soul, your Karma, not mine.

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  5. I enjoy the 'Christians build nations' dealie. From what I recall it was the Christians who enslaved a people to do the building for them. LAZY!!!

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  6. WOW... it won't be long and Pat will join forces with Al-Queda... the amount of arrogance and hate he has is frightening. What an embarrassment to the entire Christian tradition. Pat can you say Al-Queda?

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  7. I can tell you from experience and association with fundies that almost all of them have this same opinion of the other christian faiths. I was once married to a fundie (big mistake on my part) and she was the same, non-fundies will go to "hell".

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  8. I'm stuck at the level of not being able to understand why you wouldn't want to be nice to people you love (while recognizing that they "hold false opinions"). You'd think that loving people you regard as being in league with the Antichrist would be the hard part; being nice to them is simply good manners.

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  9. Reminds me of the Gary Larson "Far Side" cartoon where God stands behind several petri dishes one of which is labeled "Earth." The cover of the dish is off & God is using a salt shaker to add to the contents. The salt shaker is labeled "JERKS.".... And thus Pat Robertson & his ilk walk among us.

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  10. What Phil said! What is it Heinlein said? (I'll post in haste and repent at leisure...) It went something like, good manners and social graces are the lubrication that keep the gears of society from grinding to a halt.

    Pat has more money than Croesus. He could easily do the humanitarian (at least) or the Gospel-instructed thing: feed the hungry, clothe the naked, house the homeless anywhere on earth -- let alone Haiti. Nawp, he puts on a sneer like a perfect cat's backside, points a crooked finger and spouts ugliness. There's no visage of Christ or Buddha or anything positive in that.

    By their fruits shall you know them.

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  11. "Beware of false prophets . . . ."

    I am not nor have ever been Christian -- but I'm pretty sure Pat is what that quote was talking about...

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  12. Not Christian now. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why. By their fruits ye shall know them, and the fruit of Pat Robertson's divisiveness is hatred.

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  13. I don't even want to know what he has to say about Catholics, then. Considering these comments, what he had to say about Haitians, and that 80% of Haitians are Catholic... well, yeah.

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  14. These types of "Christians" are exactly the reason I will never call myself a Christian. I honestly do not think that this type of religion is what Jesus Christ had in mind. I'm so tired of hearing how the "Select Few" will go to heaven and the rest will be left behind. According to the bible (the same bible I'm assuming Pat uses, although I wonder)Jesus said, "This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you." John 15:12
    I would never call for a "Godly Fumgation" on those I love,Pat.

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  15. I was sent to Catholic grade and high school, had to be on my deathbed to miss church on Sundays, and stopped attending before I graduated HS.

    I detest fundies like Robertson and his ilk. I consider myself a hardcore agnostic, and whenever I think about religion or more likely morality (probably much more often than self annointed "Christians" do), I tend to think of trying to act and be like Christ rather than blindly repeat those in religious power who claim to act on his behalf. Regardless of whether or not one is a christian, or even whether Jesus actually existed (there's a substantial *lack* of evidence to even support that the man existed at all), by just about any set of morals you care to rate him by he is a model human being, behavior to be aspired to. Which is don't f**k with people, help out when you can, basically all the tenets of the Golden Rule.

    Absolutely nothing like the backwoods ignorants who proclaim to follow him.

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  16. Pat really makes me proud to be a Methodist... Personally I don't care if he's nice to me, or any other fundamentalists for that matter. I feel no need for the approval (or niceness) of people that are too ignorant to use the brains that God gave them! =)

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  17. All the evidence seems to point in the direction of Pat Robertson being the one who signed a pact with the Devil. In fact, he seems to personify Satan.

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  18. Those who don't think these times are particularly scary (unfortunately) are deluding themselves. I believe that we will survive as a species, much as we have survived for the last 100,000 years, but we are definitely in danger of spending some time in another dark ages---don't mean to sound despairing---I am actually hopeful for our species--- but we have an unfortunate habit of denying the obvious, based on what we want to be true, and not on what the concrete evidence tells us. Pat R. is evidence of this. A Neanderthal, when we need a new age Humanist.

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  19. Be careful about tarring all Christians with the Pat Robertson brush.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hasty_generalization

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  20. Believe what you are going to believe, but have the facts straight. Christianity has little to do with that whack job Pat Robertson. He just happens to be using the terms and names expressed in the religion's text. Time and place altered, he may well use or have used another text to support his hatred and distorted view of the world. Christianity in Pat's hands is a mockery of the faith.Just like the principles of freedon, justice, and democracy in the hands of certain politicians. The principles still stand, but are severly misrepresented, thus casting doubt on the on the one presenting and the principles themselves. i.e. Pat Robertson and the faith and principles of Christianity.

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  21. Has Pat Robertson never heard of a termite mound? Of course they build things.

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  22. Shame on the media for allowing Pat Robertson be the voice of those cuckoo Christians. The rest of us persons who try to follow Christ suffer because of one person being given the bully pulpit..and bully he does. I am sinfully proud to be a Presbyterian. However, the theology of the sovereignty of God and the grace of Christ doesn't make the news.

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  23. But, termites build their own cathedrals!

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Termite_Cathedral_DSC03570.jpg

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  24. Pat doesn't speak for God or for Christians. In my opinion, his comments about Haiti were blasphemous.

    Lee, I find it strange that you wouldn't be a Christian because Pat is one. I mean since Pat called a majority of Christians "the spirit of the Antichrist." Rather than basing your life on a reaction to a crazy person you could try visiting a church that Pat insults. I'm sure there is an Episcopal, Presbyterian or Methodist church nearby.
    You are certainly free to be of whatever religion you choose, or no religion at all. I just hope that whatever you decide, it's for a good reason.

    How would you respect someone who said they are not an atheist because Karl Marx was an atheist?

    Peace,
    Sharon

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  25. AMAZING that this guy is allowed any kind of airtime! AMAZING that people say AMEN to the things he spews from his mouth. AMAZING that he thinks he will be admitted to heaven, with his hate spewing messages. AMAZING that there are spiritual, god loving people, like us that see messages are delivered through him FROM the Anti-christ! Just sayin : )

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  26. @sharon, we have seen this kind of attitude from more Christians than this fool. I know some people I would call a true Christian, but they are few and far between.... which is sad.

    I grew up Christian and found a much better way to live. I am happy and have a wonderfully full life.

    As for non Christians not building anything important... Stonehenge comes to mind. Many others as well.

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  27. I was raised by an Assemblies of God minister (A/G being the denomination Pat belongs to) in the Bible Belt, so I've definitely seen the worst that the fundamentalists have to offer.
    However - for those saying they aren't a Christian and he is the reason why, remember that is the same as saying "I'm not a Muslim because of Bin Laden."

    You aren't a Christian - heck, I'm not one either anymore - but neither is Pat Robertson.

    He is a Christian in name only, because he has pretty much violated almost all of Christ's basic teachings and acts in a manner exactly the opposite of Christ himself.

    So - don't base your religious affiliation or lack thereof on the likes of him. Base it on something rational.

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  28. I always thought this man was off the wall. But now he is clearly downright dangerous to the good of our world. He deserves no press, but the crazier he becomes the more he gets. Money is talking and nothing more.

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  29. Fact #1 - Pat Robertson is NOT A CHRISTIAN in any way, shape or form!
    Fact #2 - He promotes and demonstrates nothing but JUDGMENTS on all people of the world!
    Fact #3 - He is as ARROGANT as can be thinking that he knows what our God wants for us, or thinks of us as humans. Only God can provide us with that....not any MAN, especially when filled with his own EGO driven motives!
    "jobert3rd" said the answer....BOYCOTT any and all forms of support or braodcasting that supply him the means of promoting his HATEFUL message!

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  30. That comment about "a godly fumigation" sounds exactly like the Islamic extremists - exactly! It's just another form of the Islamic jihad. Robertson is the kind of extremist who gives Christianity a bad name. I am Christian in that I believe in what Jesus taught; I am spiritual, though not religious. Robertson is neither; he's an extremist, and all extremists are dangerous.

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  31. To Pat Robertson: From what I've read in the Bible, you ARE the Anti-Christ!!

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  32. One thing that the 700 Club seems to have improved at in the last few years is disguising their 'news' segments so that if you aren't really paying attention, it looks like an ordinary news program.On a couple of occasions I've made that mistake (usually while flipping thru channels hastily trying to find the news in order to watch it while getting ready for work or something). Once or twice I've not caught my mistake until the 'news' segment is over and they return to Pat Robertson in the studio. Apparently he does this daily lecture on the Ten Commandments, but in his senility he never gets past the first one~ the worship of 'false' idols. Old Pat REALLY has a bug gnawing on his prostate over false idols...he never gets to stealing or killing or adultery or any of the rest, but he'll babble on incoherently about the Catholics with their Saint statues and...well, after that he gets kind of vague. He alludes to some primitive types who worship the sun and whatnot, and as far as he's concerned, once the door is open to that stuff, people will just worship objects willy-nilly...Volkswagons, sunglasses, family size bags of Fritos...WHERE WILL IT END?
    If it sounds like I'm pulling your leg here, I'm not...the arguments against breaking Commandment #1 are bound to be silly even if well argued, but old Pat's argument (and had I only been treated to it once I might consider it a fluke, but fortuitous timing combined with a sick fascination with craziness have allowed me several viewings of this, and it only gets better each time)sounds as if it should be coming out of the mouth of someone wearing dirty bunnyslippers, a yellow rainslicker and a motorcycle helmet and nothing else. He just rambles along as if the ridiculous examples and shaky logic he's using are all unassailably persuasive. If you can stand it, it's really something to see. He probably delivers a version of the same lecture once a week: who would tell him not to, right?

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  33. This is one of the worst things I have ever heard him say. He is the anti-christ.

    As a Christian myself who practices love and tolerance as Jesus did, this makes me sick to my stomach. PLEASE know that there are so many Christians who couldn't be further from this idiot in their beliefs.

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  34. I am also a Christian, and it infuriates me that someone as prominent as this ruins the whole basis of faith for everyone. According to certain interpretations of scripture, by driving people away from God, he has every chance at burning in hell next to the Antichrist himself.

    Destroying decent reputations of Christians everywhere, one quote at a time...

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  35. doesn't this shit sound like something from an al-quada terrorist? Is Pat robertson going to send flunkys to blow shit up now? We've seen what has happened when Christianity is allowed to go unchecked (Crusades, inquisition, the "witch children" of Africa)that's the kind of shit these people are trying to bring back, DO NOT LET THEM

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  36. I take personal offense @ PR...I don't care what denomination a person is...if they believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, they are most definitely not an antichrist. Thankfully, Jesus is man enough, if He so chooses to have PR thrown smack dab into hell, circle # 9.

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