[Bizarro World]

Pat's Blind Faith

It's not so much that Pat Robertson called for Hugo Chavez's assassination. It's not even so much that he called for it even while clinging to the tattered cloth he tries to wear. It's that, when confronted with his own comments, Robertson lied. (It actually ought to matter that a preacher man is calling for blood and lawbreaking, but I'm not naive enough to imagine it's so. The religious right's culture of life has always feasted on the blood of the sinner, be he political opponent or criminal. Only those capable of slightly subtle theology will see the contradiction, and they do not support Robertson's brand of Leviticus logic.)

This is the nature of fundamentalist faithful, and it's what makes them so dangerous. Having chosen blind faith--and chosen it as an act of moral superiority--no one in Robertson's flock (including Pat himself) can repudiate him. The nature of the faith is that it does not repudiate: it's sole raison d'etre is its own survival in the face of uncomfortable facts. This blindness is celebrated as a virtue and nurtured as the act of true divinity.

So then, despite a videotape record of his call for assassination, Robertson denied it:

"Wait a minute, I didn't say 'assassination.' I said our special forces should 'take him out,' and 'take him out' can be a number of things, including kidnapping."

At some point, liberals are going to have to find the courage to call this what it is and confront it. It's neither democracy nor religion, and it's a cancer on America. Maybe Robertson's flock won't hold him to a higher standard (or any), but liberals can.