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08/24/2005: Vitriolic Double Standards...
Here’s some good background on Ole Bible Thumper Pat Robertson from The Cunning Realist in " Convenient Christian":”…But Robertson's comments are particularly shameful and hypocritical in light of an episode in his recent past.
Until being forced to abdicate in 2003, Charles Taylor was Liberia's Saddam Hussein. Having seized power as a warlord and then winning a farcical election, Taylor was infamous for his brutality and corruption. He essentially ran Liberia as his own personal cash register, and eventually was indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity by a UN-backed tribunal. In the summer of 2003, with hundreds of thousands of Liberians dead in a civil war and its embassy in the country under siege, the U.S. finally intervened and demanded that Taylor step down.
Pat Robertson wasn't happy about that. From a WaPo article in 2003:
Charles Taylor, the Liberian president who has been indicted by an international court for crimes against humanity, has few remaining supporters in the United States. But one prominent American who has stuck with the West African leader is religious broadcaster and Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson.
In recent broadcasts of his cable TV show "The 700 Club," watched by an estimated 1 million households, Robertson has defended Taylor as a fellow Baptist and Liberia's "freely elected" leader. The "horrible bloodbath" taking place in Liberia, he has repeatedly said, is the fault of the State Department.
What Robertson, 73, has not discussed in these broadcasts is his financial interest in Liberia. In an interview yesterday, he said he has "written off in my own mind" an $8 million investment in a gold mining venture that he made four years ago under an agreement with Taylor's government.
Yet, he added: "Hope springs eternal. Once the dust has cleared on this thing, chances are there will be some investors from someplace who want to invest. If I could find some people to sell it to, I'd be more than delighted."
A few more quotes as reported by CBS News at the same time:
"How dare the president of the United States say to the duly elected president of another country, 'You've got to step down,'" Robertson said Monday on "The 700 Club," broadcast from his Christian Broadcasting Network.
"It's one thing to say, we will give you money if you step down and we will give you troops if you step down, but just to order him to step down? He doesn't work for us."
How about that last gem in light of his comments about assassinating Chavez?
[Emphasis is by Cunning Realist.]
And Media Matters for America is urging ABC Family to stop showing Pat Robertson's The 700 Club. ABC Family shows The 700 Club three times a day."Robertson, 700 Club host and founder of the Christian Coalition of America, has a history of vitriolic and false statements, as Media Matters has pointed out.
In addition to urging the assassination of a foreign leader, Robertson has blamed gays for divorce, abortion, and September 11, said that a gay-oriented event would bring about "terrorist bombs ... earthquakes, tornadoes, and possibly a meteor," and stated that liberal judges are a bigger threat to society than Al Qaeda.
"Robertson's vitriol is not appropriate for children, or for anyone else, for that matter. His calls for the killing of a foreign leader certainly do not belong on a television channel that purports to offer family-friendly programming," said Media Matters for America President and CEO David Brock."
Courtesy of US News Wire.
Karen on 08.24.05 @ 06:24 AM CST
