Pat Robertson Officially a Kook

Pat Robertson is now officially a kook. I didn't come to this conclusion -- or choose the word "kook, for that matter -- hastily. I'm the kind of person who likes to give people the benefit of the doubt (to a fault, some would say). No, there have been a great many events that brought me, finally, to this conclusion. As for the term "kook", I was trying to find the nicest way to describe the man. The next closest term in the feature space was "nut job".

I've always found the man somewhat objectionable, having never been able to get past his politics of exclusion. Then one night I was watching television at the home of a relative and saw him take aim at Hugo Chavez. On his program, The 700 Club, Robertson suggested that American operatives take Chavez out. A partial transcript is available at VHeadline.com. Robertson stated that "if he thinks we’re trying to assassinate him, I think we really ought to go ahead and do it." And moments later: "We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability." He later tried to clarify his position on his own web site, where he makes a very qualified (non)apology. He did eventually apologized (see BBC, CNN, and other coverage).

After last Tuesday's elections, when the citizens of Dover, Pennsylvania voted out eight of the nine members of their school board -- only eight were up for re-election -- who had been trying to introduce a statement on Intelligent Design into science classrooms, Robertson suggested rather vaguely that those same citizens should interpret anything bad that happens in the future as God's wrath for their electoral sins. He said, in fact, "If there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God. You just rejected him from your city." He went on to say, "And don't wonder why He hasn't helped you when problems begin, if they begin. I'm not saying they will, but if they do, just remember, you just voted God out of your city. And if that's the case, don't ask for His help because he might not be there". (Sources: CNN and everybody else) If I may summarize: There may or may not be a disaster, but if there is, god may or may not help you.

Nutty, babe. Nutty.

Pat Robertson's Wikipedia entry currently (13 November 2005) holds references to both of these topics and lots more.