Old news? Not old enough… Televangelist Pat Robertson, host of The 700 Club, recently said:”LA Times | Robertson’s Call for Chavez Assassination Draws Criticism”:http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-082305robertson_lat,0,2075668.story?coll=la-home-headlines that the Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez, would make his nation “a launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism all over the continent.” He also declared that killing Chavez would be a “whole lot cheaper than starting a war.” Wow… does anyone else think of this as a direct conflict against his evangelical role? Robertson, the founder of the Christian Coalition of America, was a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 1988. His conservative Christian fans tune in to his 700 Club television show daily.
So, how did Venezuela’s goverment respond? Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel said today that Robertson’s remarks were “terrorist statements.” He condemned them as incitement to commit murder, and called on U.S. officials to make clear that the law applies “even to such Christians.”
Rangel went on to say:
The ball is in the U.S. court after this criminal statement by a citizen of that country. It’s a huge hypocrisy to maintain this discourse against terrorism and at the same time, in the heart of that country, there are entirely terrorist statements like those.
He’s got a point. Even with all this controversy swelling up around Bush’s the U.S.’s ‘war on terrorism’ (Cindy Sheehan, anybody?), the Bush administration seemingly dismissed:”NY Times | Robertson Is Pilloried for Assassination Call”:http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/23/politics/23cnd-robertson.html Robertson’s comments. Donald Rumsfeld said to reporters, “Certainly it’s against the law. Our department doesn’t do that type of thing. Private citizens say all kinds of things all the time.”
But Robertson’s “conservative Christian allies” were not so dismissive. Rev. Rob Schenck, president of the National Clergy Council in Washington, released a statement demanding Robertson to “immediately apologize, retract his statement and clarify what the Bible and Christianity teaches about the permissibility of taking human life outside of law.” Precisely my point. Yet another Christian leader, Rev. Richard Cizik of the National Association of Evangelicals, stated in an interview that he and “most evangelical leaders” would disassociate themselves from such “unfortunate and particularly irresponsible” comments.
Of course, since this issue has dug under the Republican party’s skin a little, some conservative groups, such as the Traditional Values Coalition, the Family Research Council, and the Christian Coalition have declined to comment, using the ‘too busy’ excuse. The Democrats, however, were found to be widely available for comment. Rev. Jesse Jackson called for an investigation by the Federal Communications Commission (didn’t the FCC look at the Janet/SB thing? Mmmm, yes, they did.). Media Matters for America went a little further, sending a letter urging the ABC Family network to stop carrying Mr. Robertson’s program. And another group, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, actually “asked President Bush to repudiate Mr. Roberson personally.” Talk about extremes. He did say a lot, maybe too much (we are entitled to freedom of speech, after all), but he’s not the spokesperson for the U.S.’s foreign policy (refer to picture above if confused as to why).
ABC Family did say today that the network was “contractually obligated to air ‘The 700 Club’ and has no editorial control over views expressed by the hosts or guests.” So, sorry MMA. But, the statement added “ABC Family strongly rejects the views expressed by Pat Robertson in the Aug. 22 telecast of the program.” Robertson, you just got a thumbs down!
Click to view Robertson’s remarks. Via NY Times.
update: Robertson apologized.:”Robertson apologizes”:http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/08/24/robertson.chavez/index.html?section=cnn_topstories
I didn’t say ‘assassination.’ I said our special forces should ‘take him out.’ And ‘take him out’ can be a number of things, including kidnapping; there are a number of ways to take out a dictator from power besides killing him. I was misinterpreted by the AP [Associated Press], but that happens all the time.
Yeah, you, uhh, almost got me.
Hurricane Katrina has been vicious, drowning out the cities of New Orleans, Mobile, & Gulfport, as well as nearly the rest of that region. More than 50 people were killed.
or :-(, are recognized by Google Talk and will turn blue.
Tonight I decided to address the problem that is my bike. It’s an 8 year old (I think) Magna something or other. Originally, it was a 10-speed, but after I decided to learn tricks, it wouldn’t shift at all, limiting me to 3rd gear all the time. I’m older now, and sometimes wiser… so I attacked. Turns out I had a nice gash through my back tire (a screw or nail, I’m sure) and a good-sized cut in my tube, so off to Wal-Mart I went… mistake #1. 30 minutes later, I drove the 3/4 of a mile back home to put the new tube on the bike. Success!
After much ado, it’s here.:”Russell Shaw of ZDNet has the scoop”:http://blogs.zdnet.com/ip-telephony/?p=614.. 