Pat Robertson has blamed the victims themselves for the 9–11 attacks, Hurricane Katrina, Ariel Sharon’s severe stroke, Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination, and he has even suggested that the CIA should assassinate Hugo Chavez.
Now, he is at it again. I know that other diaries have reported on this. However, I have a Christian perspective I would like to share about this evil, evil man, and highlight the words of a compassionate Keith Olbermann in response to Robertson's remarks.
On the 700 Club, Pat Robertson said in response to the Haiti earthquake:
Something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it. They were under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon the third, or whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, we will serve you if you will get us free from the French. True story. And so, the devil said, okay it’s a deal.
And they kicked the French out. You know, the Haitians revolted and got themselves free. But ever since they have been cursed by one thing after the other. Desperately poor. That island of Hispaniola is one island. It is cut down the middle on the one side is Haiti the other is the Dominican Republic. Dominican Republic is prosperous, healthy, full of resorts, etc. Haiti is in desperate poverty. Same island. They need to have and we need to pray for them a great turning to God and out of this tragedy I’m optimistic something good may come.
One might ask how Pat Robertson knows the mind of God. Doesn’t his Bible say that a man can’t know the mind of God? In the Christian Bible, Romans 11:33–34, NIV, says (emphasis mine):
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out!
"Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?"
Apparently, Pat Robertson believes that he himself is capable of searching out God’s judgments, and he alone has known the mind of the Lord.
I can tell you this, that Pat Robertson’s words are not inspired by God. We are to have compassion on the downtrodden, the needy, the poor, and those who are victims of natural disasters. That is just the obligation that we, as part of the human race, have toward our afflicted brothers and sisters. As Christians, we are called to do so much more.
If Pat Robertson was convinced that Haiti was in danger of some catastrophe because of God’s wrath, why did he not set out to preach to Haiti, like some modern day prophet, a Jonah, walking the streets of Nineveh? Isn’t even saving one life worth that? Isn’t saving a hundred thousand lives worth that?
No, Pat Robertson is living in brain-addled luxury with his multi-million dollar mansion and his horses, and raking in money for contributions to Haiti which may or may not go to the actual victims, since he has raised money for relief efforts in the past, only to divert the money to help pay for his diamond mines. From Wikipedia (emphasis mine):
Operation Blessing airplanes were reportedly being used for Pat Robertson's personal mining venture. In 1997, two of Operation Blessing's pilots, Robert Hinkle and Tahir Brohi, told the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot newspaper that Operation Blessing planes were diverted to support Pat Robertson's diamond mining ventures instead of doing relief work in Zaire. At the time, Robertson had become a close friend of Zaire’s dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko and had tried to lift the ban on Mobutu’s visa to the US. A Robertson spokesperson said that the planes used were unsuitable for relief work.
An investigation by the Virginia Attorney General’s office concluded that Operation Blessing "willfully induced contributions from the public through the use of misleading statements..." Robertson reimbursed US$400,000 to the charity and agreed to tighten its bookkeeping.
Wikipedia - Operation Blessing Scandals
Now, Keith Olbermann is not exactly a religious zealot, but he has not forgotten his humanity. This man that doubts the existence of God is far more compassionate and concerned for the victims of the Haiti earthquake than the allegedly "Christian" Pat Robertson. It may surprise both Olbermann and Robertson to learn that Keith is much closer to Jesus in thought, word, and deed than the superficially religious, stalwartly materialistic, and devoted capitalist, Pat Robertson.
Keith responded the way that any real Christian, or any real human being would toward a man who had made a pact with the devil. He responded to Pat Robertson, a man who would feign to know God's thoughts, and therefore not only ridicule both God and Christianity, but would rub salt in the wounds of the families of those who lost loved ones in the terrible Haiti earthquake.
Pat Robertson should know that the Bible says a tree is known by its fruit. Pat’s fruit reeks of sulfur and brimstone. His words mock those that have suffered, through no fault of their own, and these words of Robertson's have become, by their utterance, the chief sign of Robertson's own personal hell of decay, misery, and meaninglessness.
The Raw Story covered Keith Olbermann's reply to the devilish Pat Robertson (emphasis mine):
But Olbermann saved his most scathing comments for Pat Robertson, the televangelist who said on Wednesday that Haiti's suffering was the result of a "deal with the devil" that Haitian rebels made when fighting French colonial rule...
"Sir, because of your tone-deafness and your delight in human misery and your dripping, self-satisfied, holier-than-thou senile crap, I'm likelier to believe now that you are the devil," Olbermann told Robertson...
"Mr. Robertson, Mr. Limbaugh, your lives are not worth those of the lowest, meanest, poorest of those victims still lying under that rubble in Haiti tonight. You serve no good, you serve no God. You inspire only stupidity and hatred, and I would wish you to hell. But knowing how empty your souls must be for you to be able to say such things in a time of such pain, I suspect the vacant, purposeless lives you both live now are hell enough already."
To that statement of Keith Olbermann, I say, "Amen".