Conservative U.S. evangelist Pat Robertson speaks in Washington in this June 11, 1997 file photo. Robertson apologised on Wednesday for calling for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, saying he spoke in frustration earlier in the week.
Mark Dawes, Staff Reporter
UNITED STATES religious broadcaster Pat Robertson on The 700 Clud programme of the Christian Broadcasting Network on Monday called on the United States to assassinate Hugo Chavez, the democratically elected president of Venezuela.
A furore resulted. Initially, Robertson said his comments were misinterpreted. Then a day later he gave an apology ... Well sort of.
Robertson posted this apology on his website (www.patrobertson.com). He said: "Is it right to call for assassination? No, and I apologise for that statement. I spoke in frustration that we should accommodate the man who thinks the U.S. is out to kill him.
"Col. Chavez has found common cause with terrorists such as the noted assassin Carlos the Jackal, has visited Iran reportedly to gain access to nuclear tech-nology, and has referred to Saddam Hussein and Fidel Castro as his comrades. Col. Chavez also intends to fund the violent overthrow of democratically-elected governments throughout South America, beginning with neighbouring Colombia.
THREAT OF A DICTATOR
"We are in the midst of a war that is draining vast amounts of our treasure and is costing the blood of our armed forces. I am a person who believes in peace, but not peace at any price. However, I said before the war in Iraq began that the wisest course would be to wage war against Saddam Hussein, not the whole nation of Iraq. When faced with the threat of a comparable dictator in our own hemisphere, would it not be wiser to wage war against one person rather than finding ourselves down the road locked in a bitter struggle with a whole nation?
"The brilliant Protestant theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who lived under the hellish conditions of Nazi Germany, is reported to have said: 'If I see a madman driving a car into a group of innocent bystanders, then I can't, as a Christian, simply wait for the catastrophe and then comfort the wounded and bury the dead. I must try to wrestle the steering wheel out of the hands of the driver.'
"On the strength of this reasoning, Bonhoeffer decided to lend his support to those in Germany who had joined together in an attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Bonhoeffer was imprisoned and killed by the Nazis, but his example deserves our respect and consideration today."
According to his website, Robertson, who was born in Lexington, Virginia, has ancestry which spread through the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate, includes Benjamin Harrison, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and governor of Virginia, and two United States presidents, William Henry Harrison and Benjamin Harrison. Robertson also shares ancestry with Winston Churchill.
According to his website, Robertson graduated from Washington and Lee University in 1950 with a bachelor of arts degree. In 1948 he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve. Robertson served as the assistant adjutant of the First Marine Division in combat in Korea. He was promoted to first lieutenant in 1952 upon his return to the United States. Robertson received a juris doctor degree from Yale University Law School in 1955 and a Master of Divinity degree from New York Theological Seminary in 1959.
In 1960, he founded the Christian Broadcasting Network the first Christian television network established in the United States. Today CBN is one of the world's largest television ministries and produces programming seen in 200 nations and heard in 70 languages. CBN's flagship programme, The 700 Club, which Mr. Robertson hosts, is one of the longest-running religious television shows and reaches an average of one million American viewers daily.
Robertson also attained fame in 1988 when he was an unsuccessful contender for the Republican Party's nomination for the presidency of the United States.
AGAINST ASSASSINATION
Robertson's vitriol against Chavez was not his first such outburst against public figures. Christianity Today on its weblog posted on Wednesday said, "It's especially odd for Robertson now to claim he's against assassination when he has repeatedly called for the assassinations of other heads of state." The website (www.christianitytoday.com) then attributes a few quotes to Robertson.
These include:
1999 "But isn't it better to do something like that, to take out Milosevic, to take out Saddam Hussein, rather than to spend billions of dollars on a war that harms innocent civilians and destroys the infrastructure of a country?"
And in 2004, Robertson reiterated his support for assassinating Saddam Hussein. "Our forces are going to war, and we support them," he said. "But if I had been doing it, I think I would have much preferred the assassination route."
Both political and Christian leaders in the United States and elsewhere have been unanimous in their condemnation of Robertson's Chavez comments. Christian apologist, Os Guiness, said, "Jesus called for nothing like this, and Pat Robertson sounded more like one of the radical imams," he told ABC's World News Tonight.
Bobby Welch, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, one of the largest denominations in the United States, said his organisation "does not support or endorse public statements concerning assassinations of persons, even if they are despicable despots of foreign countries ... The Christian's responsibility is to pray for our leaders as well as (for) the extremists around the world.
The Rev. Dr. Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, in his blog last Tuesday said: "With so much at stake, Pat Robertson bears responsibility to retract, rethink, repent, and restate his position on this issue. Otherwise, what could have been a temporary lapse of judgment can become an enduring obstacle to the Gospel ...
Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, while being critical of Robertson's statements told the Los Angeles Times that the broadcaster's comments could endanger Protestant missionaries in Venezuela. "If this dictator starts to think of evangelicals as people who are gunning for him, that could be difficult for missionaries there."
The Rev. Richard Cizik, vice-president of the National Association of Evangelicals, said he and "most evangelical leaders" would disassociate themselves from such "unfortunate and particularly irresponsible" comments.
COMPLICATES CIRCUMSTANCES
"It complicates circumstances for foreign missionaries and Christian aid workers overseas who are already perceived, wrongly, especially by leftists and other leaders, as collaborators with U.S. intelligence agencies," Mr. Cizik added.
But the New York Times on Wednesday reported that "other conservative Christian organisations remained silent, with leaders at the Traditional Values Coalition, the Family Research Council and the Christian Coalition saying they were too busy to comment."
If Robertson's 700 Club programme were to lose viewership following his Chavez comments, that is not likely to be enough to get him off the air, says the Christianity Today weblog.
Robertson has not needed viewers for almost a decade as he has secured contractual arrangements with the ABC network that requires that The 700 Club is broadcast at least three times a day. If the show has zero viewership, the network would not be able to pull the programme from the air, says Christianity Today.
