Rev. Pat Robertson Says America Should Take Out Pres. Chavez of Venezuela!

For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? [Jesus Christ from the gospel according to Mark]

Christian crusader Pat Robertson striking his imperial (Napoleonic) pose…

Televangelist Pat Robertson is a devout proselytizer of Christian fundamentalist dogma which holds that America should have dominion over the whole world. And, he seems prepared to lose his soul in furtherance of this political mission. Therefore, it came as no surprise on Monday when Rev. Robertson issued a fatwa (religious decree of death) against President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.

Fatwas first entered Western consciousness in 1989 when Iranian Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued one against author Salman Rushdie for publishing – what Muslim clerics deemed – blasphemous statements about Islam and the Prophet Muhammad in his book The Satanic Verses. And, back then, most non-Muslims regarded a fatwa as just another rabid feature of the militant religion of Islam (which at the time was most infamous for inspiring the Iranian revolution and the taking of American Hostages).

But Rev. Robertson’s fatwa proves that Christian fundamentalists are (and always have been) every bit as fanatical as their Islamic counterparts. Moreover, given the terror some of them have perpetrated by blowing up abortion clinics and assassinating doctors who perform abortions, it may be only a matter of time before Christian jihadists start strapping bombs to their bodies and going off on suicide missions in the name of Jesus Christ.

To justify his decree, Rev. Robertson proffered the specious and cravenly political argument that “Chavez was trying to make Venezuela a launching pad for Communist infiltration and Muslim extremism all over the continent.” He then prayed for America to take out Chavez follows:

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….We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability….It’s a whole lot cheaper than starting a war…and I don’t think any oil shipments will stop.

It would be comforting if we could dismiss Rev. Robertson as a right-wing nut. Unfortunately, millions of people all over the world listen to his words as if they were divinely inspired. Even more troubling, however, is that America’s $200 billion operation to eliminate Saddam Hussein gives Robertson just cause to believe that – when it comes to getting rid of disagreeable foreign leaders – he has a soul mate in fellow born-again Christian President George W. Bush. (And, why not question wasting all that money when one bullet will do….)

Nevertheless, Christians who know better have a duty to condemn – as indeed blasphemous – his or any Christian’s call for the murder of another (innocent) human being, no matter how politically unsavory that person may be!

The defiant ones – Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro: Oye gringos, do we look worried…

I’ve written a fair amount in recent months about President Chavez. He is a dynamic, provocative and populist leader. And, I actually relish the fact that he gets under the skin of self-righteous Americans. But he’s guilty of nothing that American presidents have not done with impunity for centuries under unilateral proclamations like the Monroe Doctrine, America’s Sphere of Influence and the recently fashioned Bush Doctrine.

More to the point, however, click here for a little insight into America’s secret legacy of assassinating foreign leaders (which no doubt inspired this fatwa) and to see why Chavez has good reason to fear that Rev. Robertson is not the only Christian who wants to kill him. And click here to see why Chavez thrives on his martyrdom and how he plans to emulate his mentor Fidel Castro as a proverbial pain in the backside of America….

Note: The devil in me thinks that it would be delightfully Machiavellian for Bush to order CIA operatives to redouble their efforts to assassinate Chavez and, if they succeed, then arrest Rev. Robertson for inciting his followers to murder. After all, the Rev. is recruiting souls in Latin America the way Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is recruiting jihadists in Iraq….

Whilst on the other shoulder, the repressed Holy Spirit in me thinks that Rev. Robertson just needs a good old fashioned exorcism to get rid of the devil that makes him say so many stupid and unchristian things….

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