Pat Robertson: Jesus wants you to assassinate Hugo Chavez

The billionaire Rev. Pat Robertson—Yale Law School grad, former Republican presidential contender, founder of the Christian Coalition of America and the Christian Broadcasting Network, and host of the “Christian” talk show “The 700 Club”—has declared that under a “doctrine of assassination” US agents should assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez…

“I don’t know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we’re trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it. It’s a whole lot cheaper than starting a war,” Robertson said. “And I don’t think any oil shipments will stop. But this man is a terrific danger and the United … This is in our sphere of influence, so we can’t let this happen.” On Monday, Robertson said on the Christian Broadcast Network’s “The 700 Club”: “We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability.”

“We don’t need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator,” he continued. “It’s a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with.” His comments came on the same day that Hugo Chavez traveled to Cuba to meet with Fidel Castro.

If you didn’t realize it before, religious extremism is out of control in the USA and while most Americans don’t believe it, Christian extremism is potentially much more harmful to the world than Isalmic extremism.

In October 2003, Robertson suggested that the US State Department should be blown up with a nuclear device. (BTW, he was not arrested as a potential terrorist for saying: “If I could just get a nuclear device inside Foggy Bottom, I think that’s the answer.”)

At the Republican National Convention in 1992, Robertson said that that feminism encourages women to “kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.”

He agreed with “Moral Majority” founder and Southern Baptist preacher Jerry Falwell that the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks were caused by “pagans, abortionists, feminists, gays, lesbians, the ACLU and the People for the American Way.”

In light of his past comments, the suggestion that the US should assasinate the democratically elected leader of one of the world’s major oil suppliers is not that suprising. The failed coup in Venezuela was backed by the US, so Robertson is merely voicing the current thinking of the Bush Administration?

Here’s a sampling of other public opinions Rev. Robertson has expressed:

“There is no such thing as separation of church and state in the Constitution. It is a lie of the Left and we are not going to take it anymore.” (November 1993 during an address to the American Center for Law and Justice)

“That [separation of church and state] was never in the Constitution, however much the liberals laugh at me for saying it, they know good and well it was never in the Constitution! Such language only appeared in the constitution of the communist Soviet Union.” (The 700 Club, Jan 22, 1995)

“If anybody understood what Hindus really believe, there would be no doubt that they have no business administering government policies in a country that favors freedom and equality. … Can you imagine having the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as defense minister, or Mahatma Gandhi as minister of health, education, and welfare? The Hindu and Buddhist idea of karma and the Muslim idea of kismet, or fate condemn the poor and the disabled to their suffering. … It’s the will of Allah. These beliefs are nothing but abject fatalism, and they would devastate the social gains this nation has made if they were ever put into practice.” (The New World Order, page 219) [Sounds a lot like the US to me.]

“Presbyterians are the spirit of the Antichrist.” (The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, p. 85)

“The public education movement has also been an anti-Christian movement… We can change education in America if you put Christian principles in and Christian pedagogy in. In three years, you would totally revolutionize education in America.” (The 700 Club, September 27, 1993)

“Satan is a tool of God’s love in the sense that he forces us to see God’s loving patience.” (Answers to 200 of Life’s most Probing Questions)

“If the widespread practice of homosexuality will bring about the destruction of your nation, if it will bring about terrorist bombs, if it’ll bring about earthquakes, tornadoes and possibly a meteor, it isn’t necessarily something we ought to open our arms to.” (The 700 Club, June 8, 1998)

“Many of those people involved with Adolf Hitler were Satanists, many of them were homosexuals – the two things seem to go together.” (The 700 Club, January 21, 1993)

By his own words Robertson is clearly a warmonger, promoter of religious intolerance, and hate among other things. In Caracas, pro-Chavez legislator Desire Santos Amaral accused Robertson of shedding his Christian values.

“This man cannot be a true Christian. He’s a fascist,” Santos said. “This is part of the policies of aggression from the right wing in the North against our revolution.” Well, think I’d have to agree with that.
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Aug 23, 12:21 PM EDT
Televangelist Pat Robertson Calls for Assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez

By SUE LINDSEY
Associated Press Writer

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) — Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson has suggested that American agents assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to stop his country from becoming “a launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism.”

An official of a theological watchdog group on Tuesday criticized Robertson’s statement as “chilling.”

“We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability,” Robertson said Monday on the Christian Broadcast Network’s “The 700 Club.”

“We don’t need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator,” he continued. “It’s a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with.”

Chavez has emerged as one of the most outspoken critics of President Bush, accusing the United States of conspiring to topple his government and possibly backing plots to assassinate him. U.S. officials have called the accusations ridiculous.

“You know, I don’t know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we’re trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it,” Robertson said. “It’s a whole lot cheaper than starting a war … and I don’t think any oil shipments will stop.”

On Tuesday, critics objected to Robertson’s statements.

“It’s absolutely chilling to hear a religious leader call for the murder of any political leader, no matter how much he disagrees with such a leader’s policies or practices,” said the Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

David Brock, president of Media Matters, a liberal media watchdog group, said the remarks should discredit Robertson as a spokesman for the religious right.

Robertson, 75, founder of the Christian Coalition of America and a former presidential candidate, accused the United States of failing to act when Chavez was briefly overthrown in 2002.

A Robertson spokeswoman, Angell Watts, said he would not do interviews Tuesday and had no statement elaborating on his remarks.

A call seeking comment from the U.S. State Department was not immediately returned Tuesday.

Chavez was believed to be in Cuba, but his whereabouts were unknown and no media access was announced.

In Caracas, pro-Chavez legislator Desire Santos Amaral accused Robertson of shedding his Christian values.

“This man cannot be a true Christian. He’s a fascist,” Santos said. “This is part of the policies of aggression from the right wing in the North against our revolution.”

Santos said she thinks U.S.-Venezuelan relations could still improve but comments by “charlatans and fascists” like Robertson only get in the way.

Venezuela is the fifth largest oil exporter and a major supplier of oil to the United States. The CIA estimates that U.S. markets absorb almost 59 percent of Venezuela’s total exports.

Venezuela’s government has demanded in the past that the United States crack down on Cuban and Venezuelan “terrorists” in Florida who they say are conspiring against Chavez.

Robertson has made controversial statements in the past. In October 2003, he suggested that the State Department be blown up with a nuclear device. He has also said that feminism encourages women to “kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.”

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