June 8, 2023
"Unlike many evangelists, Rev. Robertson came from a privileged background. He grew up in the corridors of power in Virginia and Washington and graduated from Yale Law School..."
"... before turning to the ministry in the late 1950s.
'Robertson’s critics often depict the evangelist-broadcaster as a political extremist with bizarre beliefs,' novelist and journalist Garrett Epps wrote in The Post in 1986. 'But it may make more sense to view him as the last old-school southern politician.'"
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15 comments:
My most recent memory of him was when he made his "pact with the devil" comments regarding the Haitian earthquake. I remember it vividly because I was at Ft. Riley, KS at the time and people couldn't shut up about how it was the kind of thing "Wahhabist jihadis would say" about a natural disaster, which is right, they do say things similar to that.
Getting into heaven is easy compared to Yale Law School. I hope he made it.
Sad to hear it. But he lived a nice long life. Politically speaking, Robertson was basically the "controlled opposition" and his job was to corral all the evangelicals into supporting tepid "Conservativism" and interventionist foreign policy. And of course vote for Republican estblishment candidates.
Sometimes Robertson would take the establishment party line on the middle east or some other foreign conflict and dress it up in Evangelical kookery. For example, when Putin invaded Ukraine, Robertson he thought we needed to support Zelensky.
But his reason was based on the book of Revelations. Y'see Putin was the devil and was going to conquer Ukraine, then march down through the balkans and Turkey, and then attack Israel!
I could take the naked-capitalist evangelism for what it was, Jim Baker and Jimmy Swaggart et al - just a kind of lurid, sensationalist, profiteering in the base emotions, beliefs-mining. But Pat Robertson gave me the creeps with that sanctimonious, eyes-closed, head-wagging, prayin'-so-hard-my-teeth-hurt stuff. RIP, I guess.
Al Gore got his degree in theology and has been an evangelist for decades now, with millions of faithful adorers. He was born in the lap of privilege, his father being one of those famous bought and paid for Senators that appear as characters in the literature of the time, the fruits of which corruption created an easy life for Gore. Gore also makes claims that natural disasters are aimed at "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry Gaia." My apologies to Jonathon Edwards.
The Las Vegas attack was the result of disrespect for President Trump, televangelist Pat Robertson told his viewers [on Oct 2, 1917].
There is “violence in the streets,” Robertson said, because “we have disrespected authority. There is profound disrespect for our president, all across this nation. They say terrible things about him. It’s in the news; it’s in other places.”
Who mixed politics and religion: morality in a universal frame, ethics its relativistic sibling, and law their politically consensual cousin.
I'm so old that I remember both the 700 Club and the Mickey Mouse Club. And truth be told, they were indistinguishable. Well, except that Disney had Annette Funicello.
The evangelical Christians I know, and I know quite a few, regarded Pat Robertson as somewhat of a kook.
It'll be toasty warm where Robertson ends up!*
*(Metaphorical wishful thinking, as there is no place or existence after we die.)
civil rights activist
Only the good die young.
Sam Kinison's opinion of Pat Robertson sums it up for me.
1987.
"'The Lord told me to run for president.'"
Yeah, I bet he did. Well... the Lord must want to make you look like a complete ass in the political arena, huh?
He's gonna have a fun night. He's gonna be driving home election night going, can't we just see it ...
"'Yeah, great! Thanks for making me look like a fucking ass!'"
God's up in heaven, like...
"Yeah, I got bored. I got bored so I told Pat Robertson to run for president.
Watch this. Watch him do it. Watch him do it."
He probably has a lot of fun.
"Hey, tonight, tonight... tonight I'm gonna wake him up about three in the morning and have him take his tire pressure. Watch this.
"'Pat, it's the Lord. Yeah, I want you to go out and check your tire pressure.'"
Yep. Guess the Lord likes to have a good laugh once in a while.
And despite Sam's dig at Robertson as a presidential candidate - under the old caucus system - he was Washington state's Republican nominee in 1988.
Which is partially why we've gone longer than any other state in the Union without a Republican governor. (John Spellman. 1984)
"It'll be toasty warm where Robertson ends up!*
*(Metaphorical wishful thinking, as there is no place or existence after we die.)"
You know no more about the Universe (space, time, dimensionality, etc.) than an ant farm ant at a middle school science fair in Ottumwa, Iowa knows about traffic patterns in Beijing. It's why I find your comments consistently lacking insight and as predictable as a traffic light.
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