As if the suggestion to assasinate Chavez wasn't enough, last night Pat Robertson said that Arabs and Muslims are
burdened by their genetic heritage:
A day after calling for the U.S, assassination of Chavez, Robertson speculated about biblical roots for Islamic terrorism.
Arabs and Muslims view themselves as descendants of Abraham's son Ishmael.
On Tuesday's broadcast of "The 700 Club," Robertson said, "The Bible talks about Ishmael as being 'a wild ass.' He's just uncontrollable, and it's almost like this seed of rebellion and uncontrolled anger has, you know, filtered into these people."
The founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network added that Islamic terrorists seem to be motivated by "a spirit of murder."
Robertson didn't mention the controversy caused by his call Monday for assassination. But CBN said he stands by his statement.
To me, this is like saying that all Jews are (insert stereotype here) because the Bible says so.
Keep talking Pat.
Pat Robertson is really a gift. The silence of the Religious Right in repudiating his comments is only compounded by his nutcake declaration that Islamics and Arabs are genetically predisposed to uncontrollable rage. Like children, they need a sheperd to guide them to righteousness, isn't that right Pat? I'm sure this comment of his will draw much less media attention, but it really should. It casts a bright light on the extreme damage that can be caused by literal interpretation of the Bible and <fingers crossed> will further isolate the evangelical fundamentalists from moderate Christians like the Terri Schiavo episode did </fingers crossed>.
The local wingnuts were talking about this on the radio this morning. Amazing, caller after caller refused to castigate Robertson but rather tried to explain to the host the Biblical context of Robertson's statements. I was surprised by the host (typically a wingnut ally) who asked were was the outcry from other religious right leadership, like Dobson and Tony Perkins. He even asked the question "Who would Jesus assasinate?" I was the last caller of the hour (oh, how I wish I could have been first!). When I got on I asked why Dobson and Perkins hadn't distanced themselves from Robertson. I said that these people were the American version of the Taliban, issuing fatwas against any one who dissented from their views, like judges, husbands, gays, and democratically elected leaders of other countries. The host was dumbfounded; I'm sure that this was the first time that the term American Taliban had ever been broadcast on their radio station.