I'm jumping back into the game to address what I felt where some unsupportable statements about Pat Robertson in the thread devoted to his recent, despicable remarks advocating the assassination of Hugo Chavez.
While I felt that the heavy-handed ridicule directed towards Robertson was inappropriate, neither did I find the attempts by Faith and randman to style him as some kind of humanitarian and good Christian very truthful, either. So I'd like to share some facts I recently learned that speak to the character and conduct of Pat Robertson, and invite his defenders to respond to the allegations if they wish. Also I'll close with some remarks on why I find the response of the Christian and evangelical communities rather hollow.
The
Wiki article on Pat Robertson alludes to several controversies surrounding his person. Out of deference to evangelical positions on redemption, I'll refrain from judgement on the substantiated reports of his pre-conversion conduct (drinking, sex with prostitutes, etc.)
Embezzlement from his own humanitarian funds
I might as well start with this since I find it the worst. According to columnist Greg Palast:
quote:
Robertson faces a separate investigation by the State of Virginia. In 1994, his charity, 'Operation Blessing', bought airplanes to ferry medical supplies to refugees in Rwanda.
Virginia is now completing an investigation into the diversion of the planes to ferry equipment to a diamond mine in the Congo owned by Robertson. But the president of Robertson Financial, Neil Volder, says Operation Blessing received donations from the clergyman exceeding the planes' worth.
According to one of the pilots hired, ostensibly to fly planes full of medical supplies and personnel to aid Rwandans:
quote:
Robert Hinkle, the chief pilot told reporter Bill Sizemore that of about 40 flights within Zaire during the half-year period he was there, "Only one or at most two" were related to the humanitarian mission of Operation Blessing. The rest were "mining-related."
"We got over there and we had 'Operation Blessing' painted on the tails of the airplanes, Hinkle told the Virginian-Pilot, "but we were doing no humanitarian relief at all. We were just supplying the miners and flying the dredges from Kinshasa out to Tdshikapa."
While Virginia's investigation did turn up enough evidence to charge Operation Blessing with violations of its non-profit status, Virginia's Attorney General Mark Earley declined to prosecute. Earley had recieved a $35,000 campaign contribution from Pat Robertson.
Support for humanitarian abuses
Contrary to Faith's attempts to promote Robertson as a humanitarian and philanthropist, Robertson's business interests support human rights abuses in several African countries. Several times, on his
700 Club program, he has supported African dictators who have committed war crimes, such as Mobutu Sese Seko and Charles Taylor. Here's Robertson advocating on Taylor's behalf on his program, via CBS:
quote:
Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson accused President Bush of undermining a Christian, Baptist president to bring in Muslim rebels by asking Liberian President Charles Taylor, recently indicted for war crimes, to step down.
How dare the president of the United States say to the duly elected president of another country, 'You've got to step down,'" Robertson said Monday on The 700 Club, broadcast from his Christian Broadcasting Network.
So we're undermining a Christian, Baptist president to bring in Muslim rebels to take over the country, he said in the broadcast.
What Robertson did not mention on that program were his $8
million dollars of investments in Liberian gold mines.
Robertson's aforementioned Congolese (then called Zaire) diamond mines? Human rights disasters:
quote:
Diamond Miners are Disproportionately Exposed to HIV/AIDS
Many diamond mining camps enforce all-male, no-family rules. Men contract HIV/AIDS from camp sex-workers, while women married to miners have no access to employment, no income outside of their husbands and no bargaining power for negotiating safe sex, and thus are at extremely high risk of contracting HIV.
Diamond Mine-Owners Violate Indigenous People's Rights
Diamond mines in Australia, Canada, India and many countries in Africa are situated on lands traditionally associated with indigenous peoples. Many of these communities have been displaced, while others remain, often at great cost to their health, livelihoods and traditional cultures.
Slave Laborers Cut and Polish Diamonds
More than one-half of the world's diamonds are processed in India where many of the cutters and polishers are bonded child laborers. Bonded children work to pay off the debts of their relatives, often unsuccessfully. When they reach adulthood their debt is passed on to their younger siblings or to their own children.
Conflict Diamonds Fund Civil Wars in Africa
There is no reliable way to insure that your diamond was not mined or stolen by government or rebel military forces in order to finance civil conflict. Conflict diamonds are traded either for guns or for cash to pay and feed soldiers.
Diamond Wars are Fought Using Child Warriors
Many diamond producing governments and rebel forces use children as soldiers, laborers in military camps, and sex slaves. Child soldiers are given drugs to overcome their fear and reluctance to participate in atrocities.
(This is why Mrs. Crashfrog sports a lab sapphire and not a diamond on her engagement ring. That, and we were really frickin' poor.)
from
No webpage found at provided URL: http://www.fguide.org/Bulletin/conflictdiamonds.htm (supported with references down at the bottom.)
Outrageous calls for violence
We've already discussed his call for assassination (what Jon Stewart has hilariously called the "Patwa"), and his prior suggestion of violence against the State Department has been alluded to. These statements don't represent isolated instances of "wacky" behavior - Robertson is only 75, a little too early to be having "senior moments" - but a continual pattern of calls for violence against persons and groups he percieves as being contrary to his business and political interests. (As his current cash-cow, the Christian Broadcasting Network, caters to conservative evangelicals, these business interests are often, I believe, mistaken for religious dogma. Robertson decries homosexuality not because it's against the Bible, but because it puts money in his pocket.)
The hollow protests of the evangelical community
Both Faith and randman have decried Robertson's recent statements, and for that they should be commended. Indeed, as they have stated, no Christian organization is on the record as supporting Robertson in this regard.
So the fuck what? I find it very disingenuous for Faith, randman, and indeed the entire evangelical community to act as though their responsibility in this matter ends with lip service. The evangelical community has done
nothing to truly extricate themselves financially and politically from Robertson; he continues to be allowed to speak on behalf of evangelicals and profit from their support of his assorted ministries, his CBN channel, his political aspirations and organizations (most notably the various incarnations of the Christian Coalition, which he started), and his attacks on the Federal judiciary.
The pattern is familiar. Robertson shoots his mouth off, Christians condemn him, and then nothing. No calls for ABC to cease broadcasting of the
700 Club. No boycotts of those who advertise in or around that timeslot. No calls for cable companies to drop CBN. No calls for the FBI to rescind the award they gave to him in 1978, the least they could do considering he's called for the mass murder of government officials.
No calls for President Bush to cease meeting with Robertson, something he has done many times in the past.
Faith and Randman, and others, I'm heartened by your vocal repudiations of his comments on this forum, but what next? Don't you think you have a little more to do? How about some letters to your local ABC affiliates and cable providers? How about some letters to your senators asking the FBI to rethink the decision to award him a Department of Justice award in 1978?
For a man who regularly makes terroristic proclamations against democratically elected leaders and innocent civilian personnel, Robertson enjoys remarkable wealth and enviable status among the evangelical Christian community, something they appear very reticent to do something about. Faith and Randman's rejections of his comments are hollow indeed unless they're prepared to take steps to distance their communities from this dangerous and amoral figure.
™ Version 4.2