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Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Will "real" Christians speak out about this?
Posted by Jill | 6:41 AM

I've been appalled at the unwillingness of mainstream Christian leaders and Washington politicians who use their Christianity to get votes to speak out against the hatemongers and bombthrowers in their midst.

From President Bush on down, NOT ONE Christian leader has spoken out against the insane, foul ravings of Rev. Fred Phelps, who this summer is demonstrating at funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq, telling mourners that their loved ones' deaths are caused by the U.S. "tolerance for homosexuality. Given that every time the increasingly marginal Lewis Farrakhan opens his mouth, these same so-called Christians call on liberals to refute him, their silence on Phelps and his ilk can only be interpreted as agreement.

Today, a SLIGHTLY more mainstream Christian nutball, Pat Robertson, calls for assassination of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez:

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."


Let's see if anyone speaks out about this. Somehow I don't think we'll see the First Christian, George W. Bush, say a word. (If you hear of other Christian leaders denouncing these statements, please reply in the comments and I'll post them as updates.)

UPDATE: Well, once again, we've heard NOTHING from mainstream Christians (for a change), but my local paper cites a few welcome rebuttals from SOME the Christofascist Zombie Brigade, who seem to understand that he's making them look even worse:

Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson's suggestion that U.S. agents assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez sparked numerous condemnations that stretched Tuesday from the Venezuelan vice president to a Robertson friend in Bergen County.

"I'm just disheartened by this," said Bill Thomson, a Washington Township resident and state director of the Christian Coalition, the national organization founded by Robertson. "I love him, he is my friend. But from a religious point of view, I find this unacceptable."

[snip]

Another influential New Jersey evangelical also condemned the statement.

"That's something we do not support," said John Tomicki, executive director of the Trenton-based League of American Families. "We should not be in the business of advancing a suggestion to take out a national leader."

[snip]

Some of the nation's largest and outspoken evangelical organizations were silent on the remark. By Tuesday evening, Focus on the Family hadn't issued a statement, and the Christian Coalition and American Family Association made no mention of the remark on their Internet sites.

However, the National Clergy Council, a Washington-based network of conservative Christian clergy members condemned the remarks.

"I have always held Pat Robertson in the highest esteem, but his remarks today about Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez were at best indiscreet and probably crossed a serious moral and ethical line," said the Rev. Rob Schenck, president of the council. "Reverend Robertson must immediately apologize, retract his statement and clarify what the Bible and Christianity teaches about the permissibility of taking human life outside of law."


Of course, Focus on the Family, the Christian Coalition and the American Family Association are the largest players in the American Taliban, and their silence on this, much like their silence on the Rev. Fred Phelps, speaks volums.

And the silence from mainstream Christian denominations is once again disheartening.

As for the Administration, the Chief Zombie is silent, but two Administration figures did speak:

"Our department doesn't do that kind of thing," Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said at a Pentagon news conference. "It's against the law. He's a private citizen. Private citizens say all kinds of things all the time."

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack called Robertson's remarks "inappropriate."


Of course Rumsfeld saying we don't assassinate because it's against the law is pretty laughable, given the Administration's record on adhering to international law.

But I said I'd post rebuttals, and there they are.
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