Not for the first time in recent months, elements on the Republican Party’s religious wing are causing it embarrassment.
In this case, it’s (once again) Pat Robertson, who, while noting that Ariel Sharon is quite a nice fellow, blamed his recent cerebral hemorrhage on his plans to split the Holy Land by pulling Israel back from Gaza and West Bank.
“You read the Bible: This is my land, and for any prime minister of Israel who decides he’s going to carve it up and give it away, God says no, this is mine.”
Yikes. Y’know, if God were really going to take that big an interest over who was doing stuff with the Holy Land, I’d expect to see a wave of cerebral hemorrhages sweep across the freakin’ area (and points in all directions, as far as that goes). To single out Sharon seems more than a bit arbitrary. (For that matter, it seems a bit late, since the Gaza withdrawal was a few months ago, or early, since the West Bank barrier is incomplete.)
I don’t know why I spend so much time kvetching about Pat Robertson, except to paraphrase the Beeb and say, “Not for the first time in recent months, elements of American Christianity’s political wing are causing it embarrassment” …
I actually saw his rant about that. It was, quite honestly, somewhat frightening to watch. It also left me somewhat disturbed and wondering if he really actually means all the things he saws or if he things that is what his ‘tele-parishioners’ want to hear him say.
Are we the only nation in the world that embarasses itself regularly because we have religious figures that own their own tv channels and say things that make the rest of us in the nation cringe as we know it’ll get repeated around the world again and again by news broadcasters?
Because, honestly, someone living over in Distractistan ( where our next war against terror will be fought, just to keep everyone distracted from the latest congressional scandal ) has no idea which party or peoples in America it is that Pat Robertson represents. To him it is just another American authority figure or some sort. I really have to wonder if people in foreign countries have enough interest in America to know just how much of a minority Robertson represents.
Most probably don’t, and, yes, I’m sure he provide plenty of fodder for folks who want to see an ugly side of America to point at.