Pat Robertson re: Ariel Sharon

what a genius

also:

vid of it here

background for anybody who ever wondered why batshit american fundie types get all het up over Israel

m.

says stuff this like this, apologizes, then does it again (remember 9/11 and the lesbians?)

x100

why??

can anyone parse this?

interestingly, robertson has made common cause with the israeli right over this issue. robertson &co. because they believe if the holy land remains in jewish hands it will smooth the way for the apocalypse (in which most jews will burn but whatever). israeli right obv for other more immediate reasons (=$$$)

even sharon has been an honored guest at american xian fundamentalist meetings

(helping out AIPAC)

I think he means that Rabin's death was tragic, but that doesn't change the fact that it was god's vengeance. Or not, I don't know. It probably makes more sense in context.

next step: full-blown messianic delusion (stopping hiding your LIGHT under a bushel Pat!)

What the eff?

robertson and crew probably have different goals tho.

i just think the notion that israel is a literal land is wrong-headed. what do i know tho? i just think the israelis would have a lot more tranquility living in Florida or something. again, another silly opinion yet...
m.

they are motivated by money and politial influence to make common cause with the american christian right

sorry if i was unclear

But the notion that Iraq or Saudi Arabia are "literal lands" is not?

I'm actually pro-Israel, but this is a very intelligent statement.
The Israelites are awash in a sea of enemies, founded and unfounded,
and it's clear that this intensely painful war will continue
indefinitely. What were they THINKING, moving back to Palestine?
It may have a certain poetry, but in the end it was belligerent
and foolhardy. I believe that the Israelis are, by and large,
genuinely interested in coming to a peaceful reconciliation (as
opposed to the fanatical Muslims in the region, who will never
stop killing no matter how many conciliationsare made), but that's
so hopeleslly romantic and unrealistic.

i guess my thinking is that:

a) the jews were dispersed once (aka the diaspora) and survived many, many generations with their culture being dispersed.

b) the temple was destroyed nearly 2000 years ago with the jews forced to be redispersed a bit later. isn't any notion of a former national entity based upon a stretch of land is a bit out there? how many generations existed outside of israel?

but what do i know?

i'm only jewish by blood and it's been muttified to such an extent that i probably don't understand the real issues anymore. my loyalties to a nation of israel are mutated by christian doctrine that says we're all israel basically. the covenant is with anybody anywhere they happen to be.

but what's done is done right? it's a nation formally bound to a land now. i hope the best for everyone involved.

pat robertson is just a moron. he divides my christian version of israel all the freakin time.

m.

But I think the biblical homeland element is/was only a very small part of Zionism -- if anything there are probably more of those religious nuts NOW than there were at the founding of Israel.

Though knowing him he could turn that to his own advantage: "God has sent me a wake-up call, a reminder that my time is short, and I must work even harder to spread his word."

rabin's death is tragic + it is god's vengeance = robertson thinks god is an evil bastard

So if you tweak the word "vengeance" this isn't inconsistent: it's not uncommon for the logic to be that something is tragic (your baby died) but part of god's plan (mysterious ways, etc.), the idea being that God's purposes aren't transparent to us. Which is of course the whole creepily un-Christian thing about Robertson always coming back to this kind of shit-talk -- it presumes that God's purposes are transparent to him, and that God's motivations must be in line with his own political agenda.

(Also he keeps pretending that he's following along the line of scripture, but one thing he may have failed to notice is that Old Testament prophets -- the only people who ever got license to go around claiming natural disasters were god's doing -- had the EXPRESSED ORAL CONSENT OF GOD for those little missions. Does Pat claim himself as a prophet?)

US TV evangelist Pat Robertson has apologised for saying Israeli leader Ariel Sharon's stroke was divine retribution for leaving the Gaza Strip.

Mr Robertson wrote to Mr Sharon's son Omri to say he now realised his remarks were "inappropriate and insensitive".

He asked for forgiveness, but there is no suggestion the Israeli authorities will overturn a decision to block a tourism deal with the preacher.

it's not that bad, but it's still creepy when a great uncle starts speaking in tongues and talking about angelic hosts of destruction.

"um, yeah Glenn, can you pass the potato salad?"

m.

ROBERTSON: Studies that I have read indicate that having babies is a sign of a faith in the future. You know, unless you believe in the future, you're not going to take the trouble of raising a child, educating a child, doing something. If there is no future, why do it? Well, unless you believe in God, there's really no future. And when you go back to the existentialism of Jean-Paul Sartre, the whole idea of this desperate nightmare we are in -- you know, that we are in this prison, and it has no hope, no exit. That kind of philosophy has permeated the intellectual thinking of Europe, and hopefully it doesn't come here. But nevertheless, ladies and gentlemen, Europe is right now in the midst of racial suicide because of the declining birth rate. And they just can't get it together. Why? There's no hope.

For some reason, you don't get batshit american fundies namedropping(and/or misquoting) continental philosophers all that often... One does wonder if this is somehow connected to that "deliberate childlessness" thing.

Thankfully the existentialist threat has not yet penetrated our borders. But we must remain vigilant.

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