Showing posts sorted by date for query pat robertson. Sort by relevance Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by date for query pat robertson. Sort by relevance Show all posts

Thursday, June 15, 2023

Where Is He Now?


Were you to go down the right-hand side panel of this blog, you would see that Pat Robertson appears in 30 past posts. That I did not acknowledge his recent passing is attributable more to the fact that I've been busy lately rather than to a loss of interest in the crazed old evangelical, who exerted an outsized influence on the American political landscape.

We trust his arrival at his final destination went off without a hitch. 

Although I do not have time to list abuses of his evangelical authority over the years, you can click here if interested. His real master must be proud of him. In any event, a letter in today's Star gives one a real measure of the man, a diabolical mischief-maker who will not be missed by any sane and balanced individuals who still live amongst us:

Pat Robertson was an evangelical minister out for himself



Pat Robertson united evangelical Christians and pushed them into conservative politics, June 9

Ben Finley mentions some political scandals in his sparing reflection on Pat Robertson’s life. However, Finley notes that his enterprises included “Operation Blessing, an international humanitarian organization” without expanding on its reprehensible activities.

I am not surprised; very few people became aware of its work, except for those who saw the film “Mission Congo.”

The documentary screened as part of TIFF 2013. Shortly afterward it was almost impossible to find. I contacted the producers and directors to see if I could get a copy, using the information TIFF had provided, but could not reach them. For two years there seemed to be nothing. Best I could guess was Robertson’s lawyers had done a good job of keeping it out of public view. Eventually it came to Amazon U.S., but not Canada.

The film documented Robertson taking advantage of a huge, squalid camp near Goma, home to almost one million refugees. On his religious broadcasts he asked for contributions to send medicine and medical personnel to help the suffering. Seems like genuine Christian humanitarian work, right?

However, what the film demonstrated was: he used pictures of Doctors Without Boards workers to promote the fundraising, without their approval, making it look like Operation Blessing was providing the staff; sent boxes of Tylenol which the staff there found not so useful; used the money raised to purchase a light plane; and flew to the camp for a photo op where he shook hands with Théoneste Bagosora, the man who had helped lead the Rwandan genocide in collaboration with the Interhamwe and was later convicted by the international court in Arusha.

All of this would have been bad enough, but the real fraud came with how that new plane was used. It carried dredgers to Robertson’s diamond mine concessions in other parts of the Congo — concessions he had obtained with the alleged help of corrupt Congolese officials. The documentary included interviews with American donors who, having given from their meagre savings, felt completely duped.

So, let’s remember him for who he really was. Not someone who sold all to help the poor, but someone who milked the poor, ignored the true needs of others, and enriched himself.

Paul A. Wilson, Toronto

Somehow, I doubt that the good pastor is resting in peace.



Wednesday, November 24, 2021

You Can't Get One Past Her

Admittedly, it has been a while since I have turned my thoughts to crazed evangelicals. Ever since Pat Robertson left the scene, no doubt having retired to better await the rapture, it just hasn't been the same.

Nonetheless, although not necessarily a worthy successor to Pastor Pat, preacher Sharon Gilbert proves she is ready, willing, and most able, should the call come:

End Times preacher Sharon Gilbert says that an alien imitated her husband, and then it tried to have sex with her, and then it claimed to be Xerxes, and then Jesus got involved, and then the alien turned out to be a reptile with a posse of gargoyles.


Wednesday, September 12, 2018

Nearer My God To Thee

While Donald Trump was yesterday holding forth on Hurricane Florence in a manner that might make even a fourth-grader cringe (“They haven't seen anything like what's coming at us in 25, 30 years, maybe ever. It's tremendously big and tremendously wet. Tremendous amounts of water," Trump said in the Oval Office), the grandfather of crazed evangelicals everywhere was offering reassurances to his flock.

In a remarkable act of hubris, old pastor Pat Robertson suggested that he will save all good white Virginian Christians and the Christian Broadcasting Network in Virginia from impending doom:
“I don’t want that thing to come in,” Robertson said. “I don’t want it to hurt Regent, I don’t wait it to hurt CBN, I don’t want it to tear up the beautiful campus, I don’t want it to tear these trees down, I don’t want to see any damage, I don’t want a bunch of glass flowing, and I don’t want [damage] all over this area that is counting on us to pray for them.”

Robertson then commanded Florence, in the name of Jesus, to change its path away from land and to spin off into the Atlantic ocean.

We declare in the name of the Lord that you shall go no farther, you shall do no damage in this area,” he said. “We declare a shield of protection all over Tidewater and we declare a shield of protection over those innocent people in the path of this hurricane. In Jesus’ holy name, be out to sea!”
Unless you are gifted with a cast-iron constitution, I don't suggest you watch the full 3:25 minutes of the good pastor's exhortation:




Sunday, November 19, 2017

That's Quite The Product Placement

As a keen observer of the crazed evangelicals who seem a permanent fixture/blight on the American television landscape, I hereby nominate ex-felon Jim Bakker as the most crazed media evangelical in the U.S. today, a worthy replacement for the increasingly doddering Pat Robertson.

I offer in evidence the following to support my nomination. You will note that as certifiable as he is, he is also quite the wily promoter:



And I do hope readers will appreciate the considerable risk I am taking by focusing on this demented 'emissary':

Monday, October 10, 2016

It's Official: Trump Won The Debate

So declares America's favourite crazed evangelical, Pat Robertson. Presumably, his assessment came from on high.

Sunday, July 12, 2015

A Pat Robertson Rival

Does Todd Starnes have what it takes to unseat Pastor Pat for most unhinged evangelical? You decide:



Can you give me a big Amen?

Sunday, May 31, 2015

For Those Of You Who Missed Sunday Services Today ....

You can derive some inspiration from the always risible but earnest Pat Robertson, about whom I like to periodically post for the benefit of everyone's spiritual renewal. BYW, this moment is brought to you by The Mound of Sound, who obviously sensed my recent spiritual dryness when he alerted me to this.

Watch as Pastor Pat suggests a solution to an elderly acolyte's financial problems, a solution which, curiously, does not involve ending her tithing to the church:

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

And Speaking Of Fanatics

While right-wing religious zealots like Pat Robertson and Gordon Klingenschmitt are the two crazed evangelicals I most frequently highlight in my blog, we would all be very naive to believe we lack home grown examples of the corrupting influence the bully pulpit can bestow. Here in Ontario, for example, the 'Rev.' Charles McVety is a leading exemplar of such madness.

Yesterday, McVety was in his glory at a rally held outside of the Ontario legislature to protest the revamped Ontario sex-ed curriculum which, despite widespread consultation, doesn't sit well with some.

Many of the protesters were new Canadians, some obviously from very conservative societies in which sex is not openly discussed nor countenanced. While they have every right to protest, of course, they and everyone else have to understand that living in a society such as ours entails ongoing compromises; there is always a tension between individual sentiments and the state's laws, but that is one of the things that makes a healthy democracy dynamic.

Parenthetically I must confess, however, that when some of the protesters aver that they will remove their kids from school over the issue, I don't know where they will go other than to be schooled at home. Some said they would send them to private schools, but they seem unaware of the fact that private schools are not exempted from fulfilling curriculum requirements either.

Against this background, there are the self-aggrandizers like McVety who only add fuel to the fire in order to promote their peculiar religious doctrines of hatred, exclusion and condemnation. Deeply homophobic, the crazed evangelical sees dark motives behind the new curriculum, given that Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne is gay. In a thinly veiled allusion to Wynne, he talks, as you will see, of her not having a right to 'force [her] idea of sexuality' on two million children.

Fortunately, enjoying a majority, the Ontario government has no intention of caving in to such extremists.

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Monday, March 9, 2015

But Can He Heal Himself?

That well-known metaphysician to the fundamentalist Christian soul, 'Doctor' Pat Robertson, prescribes some strong medicine to combat an infectious workplace agent:

Monday, March 2, 2015

Why Would You Be Enslaved To A Vegetable?

Vegetable, get behind me! So intones Pastor Pat Robertson in one of his finest hours. Watch and be saved, brothers and sisters!

Monday, January 5, 2015

Pastor Pat On 'The Blessings Of Discipline'

Many will doubtlessly be reassured by Pastor Pat Robertson's ongoing enthusiasm for biblical discipline, although they might be wondering if it is appropriate for him to darkly allude to the sorts of things that happen to young men in prison:

Friday, December 26, 2014

Giving The Devil His Due

I sometimes worry that I do not give sufficient coverage to my favourite crazed evangelical, Pat Robertson. A quick review of this year's posts shows that I offered a mere nine stories on God's anointed one during 2014. In the interests of staying on the 'right' side of God, or at least the smiting version so favoured by the Rev. Pat, I will end 2014 with this year's tenth post.

The good folks at Addicting Info and RightWing Watch offer the following video of Rev. Robertson's predictions for this past year. It is apparently his practice to 'go up into the mountains' (perhaps for line-of-sight communications with Yahweh?) to get the word about how each year will unfold. I suspect that Robertson's god is Republican, given what He predicted; then again, He might have simply been having a bit of sport with the increasingly addled evangelical; of course, another possibility is that the transmission lines were impeded by the archenemy of us all, the Great Deceiver.

In any case, I shall leave it to you to assess Robertson's prognostications. For a cheat cheat evaluation, you can always click here.

Thursday, May 15, 2014

Love 'Em, But Don't Accept Their 'Lifestyle'

Thus speaketh that irascible and crazy old televangelist, Pat Robertson.

Pat Robertson: ‘Love’ your lesbian family member by refusing to accept her (via Raw Story )

On Thursday, televangelist Pat Robertson counseled a 700 Club viewer that the most Christian way for her to behave toward a lesbian in her family is to refuse to be her niece’s “enabler,” and to refuse to give her blessing to her niece’s relationships…

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

I Have Missed Him

But he's back! My favourite crazed evangelical, and I hope yours, Pat Robertson, is once again making 'newsworthy' statements. Watch below as this preacher of the preposterous, this evangelical of the extreme, holds forth on yet another topic from his prodigious repertoire of 'expertise'.

Friday, February 7, 2014

On A Lighter Note, Even Pat Robertson Is Embarrassed

It is always a delight when even the crazed religious right begins to splinter. Watch the video below, a five-minute compilation of Bill Nye's recent 'debate' with creationist Ken Ham on evolution, followed by Pat Robertson's reaction to Ham.