An article taken from USA Today updated 8/23/2005 states the following:
Pat Robertson calls for assassination of Hugo Chavez
VIRGINIA BEACH (AP) — Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson suggested on-air that American operatives assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to stop his country from becoming "a launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism."
"We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability," Robertson said Monday on the Christian Broadcast Network's The 700 Club.
"We don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator," he continued. "It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with."
Chavez has emerged as one of the most outspoken critics of President Bush, accusing the United States of conspiring to topple his government and possibly backing plots to assassinate him. U.S. officials have called the accusations ridiculous. (Related story: Venezuela VP slams Robertson)
"You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it," Robertson said. "It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war ... and I don't think any oil shipments will stop."
Robertson, 75, founder of the Christian Coalition of America and a former presidential candidate, accused the United States of failing to act when Chavez was briefly overthrown in 2002.
Electronic pages and a message to a Robertson spokeswoman were not immediately returned Monday evening.
Venezuela is the fifth largest oil exporter and a major supplier of oil to the United States. The CIA estimates that U.S. markets absorb almost 59% of Venezuela's total exports.
Venezuela's government has demanded in the past that the United States crack down on Cuban and Venezuelan "terrorists" in Florida who they say are conspiring against Chavez.
Robertson has made controversial statements in the past. In October 2003, he suggested that the State Department be blown up with a nuclear device. He has also said that feminism encourages women to "kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-08-22-robertson-_x.htm
Other quotes by Pat Robertson:
"Wait a minute, I didn't say 'assassination.' I said our special forces should, quote, '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, but that happens all the time."
--The 700 Club, August 24, 2005
"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."
--The 700 Club, January 14, 1991
"There will never be world 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?"
--The New World Order, p.227
"The mission of the Christian Coalition is simple, to mobilize Christians-- one precinct at a time, one community at a time -- until once again we are the head and not the tail, and at the top rather than the bottom of our political system....the Christian Coalition will be the most powerful political force in America by the end of this decade.. We have enough votes to run this country... and when the people say, 'We've had enough,' we're going to take over!" - Pat Robertson, Mission of The Christian Coalition
Saturday, March 31, 2007
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5 comments:
With Pat Robertson and his ilk (and we have no shortage of them locally), I am quite certain that middle eastern muslims view christians as being just as radical and dangerous as we view them.
what a shame that christians, if you can call them that, like this exist. They distort Jesus and ruin it for the rest of us. And we wonder why the church is losing people. it must be true what they say about one bad apple ruining the whole bunch.
Its been a while since I seen stats, but IIRC the churches that are losing people are the more moderate protestant churches while the more religious conservative ones were gaining people.
Which I think has to do with the sense of certianty and desire of people to have something that is stable and unchanging in this world which has been becoming more and more unstable since the early 1900s.
As for the article, I am not sure its relevance past the point of "Pat Robertson" is crazy, which I figured was established and generally agreed upon long ago by anybody outside of the 700 club.
And for Hugo Chavez himself, he strikes me as the type of guy who is lucky to have an enemy like the US, which can only stay on the horizon and appear to be threatening as if past performance is any guarantee of his social programs he is going to drive his country into the ground.
“One man’s religion is another man’s belly laugh.” – Robert A. Heinlein
Ever since humans stumbled out of the primeval forest and started throwing rocks at the moon, it's had unanswerable questions about its origins, purpose, and the big one: Is there anything after this? The fear of the unknown causes the human animal to cook up something to ease their minds, and so we started with sun gods, and rain gods, then worked our way into the current messianic versions of religion (Christianity, Islam, etc.) along with many transmigrational versions like Hinduism.
But don’t all of these treat their practitioners like house pets? Be a good dog, and you get a treat, get in the garbage, and you get a rolled up paper across the nose. Their actions are based on the reward/punishment scheme (heaven/hell). Isn’t it better to do good for the sake of doing good, rather than doing good because you are afraid of the punishment? I would trust a person more, regardless of religion practiced, if they did the right thing because it was the right thing to do, not because they were scared of going to hell.
Dave Barry said it best when he suggested that if our ancestors could see how we turned out, they would have just said hang it, and stayed in the trees.
I do like one aspect of religion, or at least those who practice it: it keeps them from stealing my stuff!!
Rich Harrison
WWJD...For a Klondike Bar!
"But don’t all of these treat their practitioners like house pets? Be a good dog, and you get a treat, get in the garbage, and you get a rolled up paper across the nose. Their actions are based on the reward/punishment scheme (heaven/hell)."
Off the top of my head any human unsuccessful system of organization runs on the reward/punishment axis that you bring up if you look at it hard enough. Else there be no logical reason for people to adhere to artificial rules of behavior that people come together to give meaning to.
So its not that much of a bad thing, its just a natural human tick when we come together.
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