Hate is Never having to Say You’re Sorry
Pat Robertson Dies, never Apologizing to Anyone he Attacked or Slandered
Well. Pat Robertson is dead. I will not speak ill of him, I will let his words speak for themselves. As Hannibal Lecter said: “Words are living things. They have personality, point of view, agenda.”
As far as him I will pray for his soul and for his family and I do not rejoice in his death, despite my rather low opinion of his words and actions in life, which are listed here in his words. However, today I have to echo the words of Clarence Darrow: “I have never taken anybody's life, but I have often read obituary notices with considerable satisfaction.”
Robertson used his large platform and outsized political influence to dehumanize innocent people and accelerate their persecution. The sad thing when shown to be wrong, he never apologized, ever. Some highlights:
He once described all people who aren’t Christians as “termites.”
“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.”
He constantly promoted the lie of Christians being persecuted in the United States like the Jews were in Germany. This lie has mobilized Christians as aggrieved victims when in fact more often than not, they are the ones persecuting minorities. Note his words:
“It is happening all over again. It is the Democratic Congress, the liberal-based media and the homosexuals who want to destroy the Christians. Wholesale abuse and discrimination and the worst bigotry directed toward any group in America today. More terrible than anything suffered by any minority in history.”
He spent his career encouraging Islamophobia and described Hindus as “demonic.” Note these words:
“We're importing Hinduism into America. The whole thought of your karma, of meditation, of the fact that there's no end of life and there's this endless wheel of life, this is all Hinduism. Chanting too. Many of those chants are to Hindu Gods — Vishnu, Hare Krishna. The origin of it is all demonic. We can't let that stuff come into America. We've got the best defense, if you will — a good offense.”
He blamed the victims of natural disasters and terrorism for what happened to them. In March 2012 he said that 39 people killed, and others injured or rendered homeless in the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys who were devastated by unseasonable tornadoes and storms could have avoided them “if they had prayed more.”
Though Pat spoke of his support for Israel he made comments that could certainly be considered antisemitic. He called Mikey Weinstein, the had of the Military Religious Freedom foundation “a little Jew.”
He said: “With all due respect to those dear people, my friend, God Almighty does not hear the prayer of a Jew.”
And this: “The Antichrist is probably a Jew alive in Israel today.”
His views about Christians that believed differently than he did were on display on his 700 Club show on January 14th, 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.”
He claimed LGBTQ people cause hurricanes, earthquakes, and tornadoes.
He subscribed to the belief that 9/11 was caused by feminists, queer people, and the ACLU, among others.
In 2010, the day after a horrific earthquake struck Haiti and killed an estimated 160,000 people, he went on The 700 Club and said that Haitians are to blame, claiming they made a deal with the Devil during their revolt against slavery in 1791. The full quote is here:
“They were under the heel of the French, you know Napoleon the third and whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said ‘We will serve you if you will get us free from the prince.’ True story. And so the devil said, ‘Ok it’s a deal.’ And they kicked the French out. The Haitians revolted and got something themselves free. But ever since they have been cursed by one thing after another….”
He despised rights for women and hated feminists, here are just a few of his misogyny:
“Feminism is a socialist, anti-family, political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.”
He did not think that women were intellectually gifted or talented then men:
“The key in terms of mental ability is chess. There’s never been a woman Grand Master chess player. Once you get one, then I’ll buy some of the feminism.”
He believed that women should not be in positions of authority over men:
“Women should listen and learn quietly and submissively. I do not let women teach men or have authority over them.”
“I know this is painful for the ladies to hear, but if you get married, you have accepted the headship of a man, your husband. Christ is the head of the household and the husband is the head of the wife, and that’s the way it is, period.”
And to a woman suffering from her husband’s infidelity:
“Males have a tendency to wander a little bit. And what you want to do is make a home so wonderful he doesn’t want to wander.”
At the height of the AIDS crisis when many churches were condemning and demonizing gays, shunning and refusing to help AIDS victims he said:
“Homosexuals want to come into churches and disrupt church services and throw blood all around and try to give people AIDS and spit in the face of ministers.”
He remarked: “I know one man who was impotent who gave AIDS to his wife and the only thing they did was kiss.”
He was among the first nationally know leaders of the Christian Nationalist movement. He believed that Christians were to rule the nation and the world:
“There will never be peace until God's house and God's people are given their rightful place of leadership at the top of the world. How can there be peace when drunkards, drug dealers, communists, atheists, New Age worshipers of Satan, secular humanists, oppressive dictators, greedy money changers, revolutionary assassins, adulterers, and homosexuals are on top. .... There is absolutely no way that government can operate successfully unless led by godly men and women operating under the laws of the God of Jacob.”
He hated the Establishment clause of the First Amendment:
“They have kept us in submission because they have talked about separation of church and state. There is no such thing in the Constitution. It's a lie of the left, and we're not going to take it anymore.”
He hated the fact that the Constitution did not restrict the rights of believers of non- Christian religions:
“After the Christian majority takes control, pluralism will be seen as immoral and evil and the state will not permit anybody to practice it.”
He believed that unrestricted voting would harm the “minority” of white people, something that those who rolled back the civil and voting rights of Blacks after Reconstruction and during Jim Crow:
“I think 'one man, one vote,' just unrestricted democracy, would not be wise. There needs to be some kind of protection for the minority which the white people represent now, a minority, and they need and have a right to demand a protection of their rights.”
With regard to Critical Race Theory (CRT) he said: "That the people of color have been oppressed by the white people, and that white people begin to be racist by the time they're 2 or 3 months old, and that therefore the people of color have to rise up and overtake their oppressors.” “And then, having gotten the whip handle - if I can use the term - then to instruct their white neighbors how to behave. Now, that's Critical Race Theory. " "This is the way the communists take over; they try to destroy the children," Robertson went on. "It is a monstrous evil."
He peddled in fear mongering and conspiracy theories, especially those that targeted the LGBTQ community:
“You know what they do in San Francisco? Some in the gay community there, they want to get people. So if they got the stuff they’ll have a ring, you shake hands and the ring’s got a little thing where you cut your finger. Really. It’s that kind of vicious stuff, which would be the equivalent of murder.”
In a remark that angered his Kenyan supporters: “You might get AIDS in Kenya, people have AIDS, you've got to be careful. I mean, the towels could have AIDS."
He attacked and made false accusations about tens of thousands of educators and academics:
“There are thirty to forty thousand left-wing professors in the United States who are racists, murderers, sexual deviants and supporters of Al-Qaeda.”
He claimed LGBTQ people cause hurricanes, earthquakes, and tornadoes.
He subscribed to the belief that 9/11 was caused by feminists, queer people, and the ACLU, among others. Shortly after the attack he had his friend Jerry Falwell on the 700 Club. Falwell said:
“[T]he pagans and the abortionists and the feminists and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way — all of them who have tried to secularize America," Falwell continued, "I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this happen.'" Robertson responded: “Well, I totally concur.” He later walked back his concurrence to blame the terrorists, but he never walked away from his basic premise that God had “removed his hedge of protection from the United States.” He repeated it a number of times before he died regarding expanding civil rights for gays.
He never apologized for these incidents. He never attempted to make amends.
Thus, I leave it there.
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I am not as kind as you, Padre, so I will say it ... he was a bigoted, hateful bastard and I'm glad he's dead. Sadly, though, the poison that he spread for his 90+ years lives on in those who followed him, who believed those hateful words he spewed.
Though the quotes you listed were copious, the man in question received all-too-much
air-play while he lived. I would have preferred not to read them before bedtime.
With any luck, I will awake, and devote myself to counter each and every one of his
sick thoughts in the morning. Starting the day with Yoga! That should help heal my
wounded spirit and tone my aging body!