Is It Just Assassins This Time, Pat, Or Do They Get A Hurricane Too?

Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius. --Abbot Arnold Amaury, attributed.

From Majikthise:


Pat Robertson warned the citizens of Dover that they'd better not expect help from God after letting him down on the whole intelligent design thing.

You can watch the video of it. Well, maybe you can. I couldn't get it to work. It would be amusing to think that this is just the wind that blows from an isolated, increasingly crazy man, but too many people spend too much money to keep him on the air, and too many people in halls of right wing power are either too frightened or too mesmerized by him (actually, it's not an either-or choice. It could be, and probably is, both) for me to think of this as anything other than horrifically dangerous. For a man as quick to excoriate Hollywood films for the potential social effects of their violence and carnality, Robertson is awfully free with language that could drive his more unbalanced suppliants to kill their neighbors.

Week after week Robertson sits on the set of the 700 Club, sounding like Barney Fife getting an anal probe, calling down the wrath of God and the faithful on anyone who dares to ask an impertinent question or defy the Book of Leviticus. Surely if the God of Robertson is willing to wipe out half the population of Florida because Disney gives the partners of gay employees spousal benefits, surely that same God could spare a sincere believer a heretic of his own to kill?

Roberston would be interested to know who else has subscribed to this brand of theology:


LECKTOR
When you were so depressed after
you shot Mr. Garrett Jacob Hobbs to
death, it wasn't the act that got
you down. Didn't you really feel
so bad because killing him felt so
good?
(ironic)
And why shouldn't it feel good?! It
must feel good to God. God does it
all the time!

Graham laughs. Then he starts to listen closely. There is
something here for him:

GRAHAM
I don't believe in God.

LECKTOR
You should, Will. God's terrific!
(beat)
He dropped a church roof on thirty-
four of His worshippers in Texas last
Wednesday night. Just as they were
grovelling to Him and singing a hymn.
Don't you think that felt good?
(beat)
He wouldn't begrudge you two measly
murders.

GRAHAM
Why does it feel good?

LECKTOR
It feels good because: if you do as
God does, enough times, you become
as God is: powerful...

Will Graham thinks about this.

LECKTOR
(fading)
God's a champ! He got a hundred and
sixty Philippines in one plane crash
two months ago... Remember the big
earthquake in Italy last spring...?

--Michael Mann Manhunter

I needn't have gone to fiction for my example. Many of Robertson's theological ancestors have subscribed to the God-as-righteous-serial-killer thesis. The blood stains everyone from St. Jerome to Luther to Torquemada to Jim Jones to Charles Manson. Lector explains the appeal of such a God most straightforwardly, though. It's a God that speaks to our darkest impulses and cruelest tendencies. It's a God that would endorse the use of the rack, the pear, the chair, or the wheel. Use these, the God would say, and become an instrument of My holy will. This holds great appeal to those so confused, damaged, or frustrated by the modern world that their ultimate hope is for their tormentors--the gay, the secular, the liberal, the feminist--to suffer God's merciful, yet sadistic and bloody, vengeance. And if they can pitch in and help, they can not only feel closer to God, they can become as He is.

It must feel so wonderful to be Pat Robertson. Every time a gay person drowns in a flood, Robertson knows that his belief allows him to share in the glorious power that broke the levy or eroded the river bank. And if a believer happened to drown with the homosexual, well, God will sort that out, won't He? And what's more, God and Roberston are willing to invite you to share their power with them (for a price). Such generocity! Such selflessness! Some religions are dumb enough to stop at offering succor for the afflicted, but with Robertson you get the full package of benefits for your money--the might to call plague and burning and horror on all the world's heretics.

Why would you want that power, you ask?

Because as a Christian, you love your enemies.