Pat Robertson shows again why the Christian Right is such a laughingstock

There are black pastors and Christians who oppose gay marriage too. I don't know how Denzel Washington votes but I recently received an email on the conservative grapevine about his funding a hospital for the troops. One of my favorite conservatives though he's sometimes a bit over the top is Alan Keyes. Michelle Malkin is a member of a racial minority and Dinesh D'Souza too, both strong conservative voices.

It was a stupid nutjob of a rub, and Dean is classified as a nutjob even among Democrats.

Well I really don't want to open a huge can of worms here and there's already been at least one thread on this subject anyway, but I have to say that not ALL of the Christian Community condemns Pat Robertson for his remarks about the meaning of natural disasters as God's judgment.So as not to be misunderstood, let me emphasize in bold letters that I agree with you about the assassination remark. There IS consensus that his call to assassinate Chavez was irresponsible and it has been roundly condemned by every Christian I'm aware of. However, the Biblical view of the sovereignty of God is that NOTHING WHATEVER happens without Him and that includes every kind of disaster, and that all terrible things that happen in this world are on account of sin -- not specific sins as it is pretty much impossible to know the specific cause of any particular event, just sin in general, ever since the Fall in Eden. The practice of idolatrous religions may be a very good reason to suppose that they are the cause of a particular disaster in a region known for those practices however, but our job is to give aid and comfort to all sufferers of such disasters nevertheless as we all are sinners. The Book of Job for instance teaches both God's sovereignty in human suffering and the moral requirement of comforting the afflicted. I for one believe that America is due for some unpleasant times because of our abandonment of our Christian roots. So I have to support Robertson on that point of doctrine. In general he represents a branch of the church that I don't identify with but he is right about this.This message has been edited by Faith, 08-24-2005 08:15 PM

I was clear that it doesn't always mean there is a specific sin for a specific suffering. I meant it in the general sense that "the wages of sin is death" and death entered the world with the sin of Adam and Eve and has increased since then. Death includes every kind of death including disease and disaster, and all of us suffer it throughout our lives, having inherited it from who knows where and having no way to explain why one of us has one kind of suffering and someone else a different kind. But generally speaking we do inherit sin and its consequences, from distant ancestors even, as implied in the statement about the sins of the fathers coming down to the third and fourth generations. But in individual cases you can't ever say that someone is suffering for a particular sin. There is no way to know, and Jesus said God's glory in healing the man was the point. Also, there is a Pharisaical tendency to abuse people for their sins that Jesus always wanted to quell among the people, as He came not to save the righteous but sinners, so in a sense he is simply refusing to explain the man's blindness at all, only using it as an opportunity to demonstrate the grace of God.This message has been edited by Faith, 08-25-2005 12:40 AM

They don't have any legitimate claims. They could have had a state years ago but their leaders refused it. It was the Arab states in attacking Israel who called for them to leave Israel and then made sure they stayed in refugee status. They were given Jordan originally. Why didn't they take it? Why doesn't anybody ever bring that up? They have no legitimate claims but nevertheless the world sides with them and bullies Israel to give in more and more to their ILlegitimate claims. They murder innocent citizens against all the accepted ethics of the world up until now, yet they are defended as having no choice, when all they ever had to do was stop murdering and agree to having a Palestinian state which Israel has already agreed to. Meanwhile Israel's reasonable retaliations in the form of going after specific terrorists is condemned. There is no political explanation that makes sense of the Palestinian madness or the world's siding with them against Israel which is the victim. They are victims too, but not of Israel, of their own Arab brethren who are using them as pawns in the war against Israel. It is beyond comprehension unless you know something about Islam's specific commands to take the world for Allah and specific targeting of Jews and Christians.