Let’s Talk About Pat Robertson

When the earthquakes in Haiti happened, and Pat Robertson made his controversial statement, I wanted to blog about it immediately. However, I exercised some self-control. I decided to wait. I didn’t want to react to the situation, there were many people already doing that. I thought it would be better to look at it in hindsight. That is what I’m doing.

If, somehow, you haven’t already heard exactly what he said, click this link. It has both the video and a transcript of exactly what he said.

Now, let’s begin discussing it. First, I think we should at least talk a little bit about the man who Pat Robertson is, so that we can better understand where he’s coming from. I’m not so much going to explain his personal history, I’m hoping that you already know at least some about him. (If you don’t, just search the web. I’m personally a big fan of wikipedia.) I’m just going to highlight a few specific things that are relevant to the situation at hand. I would like to note that I’m not personally willing to bash the man, so that is not my aim. I’m just going to discuss his beliefs.

We need to establish that he believes that disasters, whether natural or man-made, are judgments sent from God. He believed that sinful Americans were to blame for the terrorist attacks on September 11th. He believed that Hurricane Katrina was sent as a judgment on the nation’s policy on abortion. These are just a couple popular examples, I could list more, but I think you get the idea. These are the kinds of things he believes.

This is not a belief that I share. Though, I can see how people believe God might still send natural disasters as a judgment. Yes, it happened many times in the Bible, especially in the Old Testament. I, however, believe that God understands people. He knows the best way to reach us, and I don’t think natural disasters are the best. (I will explain this in a later blog post.) I do admit that it’s possible for God to send judgment in this form, but I personally doubt it.

Also, in general, Robertson is a judgmental person. I don’t necessarily say this in a demeaning way, I’m just stating it as fact. He’s the type of Christian that seems to think his faith allows for him to judge other people, Christians and non-Christians alike. It’s just the way he is. He makes no apologies for this part of himself, he seems to think it’s his duty to refute homosexuality, abortion, and even feminism.

Though I can understand being against things of this sort, I personally think it’s not our job to pass judgment, definitely not to argue that natural disasters and terrorist attacks are sent from God to judge these things.

I also need to touch on his comment itself. This whole Haitian pact with the devil has never been proved to ever had truly existed. It’s really a complicated mess, but there is no evidence to support that the event ever happened. Of course, there isn’t any way to prove that it never occurred, either. But things seem to point towards it just being a rumor that was eventually just accepted as fact. I encourage you to research it and come to your own conclusion.

Here’s my conclusion. Though I totally disagree with Robertson, on just about everything, especially with his action on that day, I can almost understand where he’s coming from. If you subscribe to the theology that God still sends natural disasters as punishment as intensely as Robertson, then it’s only natural for you to come to this conclusion. In addition, if you’re as judgmental as he is, I expect you to think what he did.

But here’s the thing, it was totally uncalled for. The timing was terrible. He was being completely insensitive. I don’t care if you believe what he believes, heck, I don’t even care if what he said is true. When you’re in such a public position, you cannot say things like that.

However, what I saw the hours and days following his comments was almost exactly what I would have wanted. I saw people all over discussing it, and I liked the discussions that I was seeing take place. Christians were standing up saying that Robertson doesn’t represent them, or even the beliefs of most Christians. I even saw some non-Christians mention that they realized that this is not the type of response that they feel coming from a majority of Christians. This was good.

I have expressed how much I disagree with Robertson, but let me discuss one more thing. After he made it famous statement about the pact with the devil, he went on to say that he was hoping for good to come out of it. He said that we need to be praying. He talked about helping the Haitian people, which is exactly what we need to be doing. As Christians I believe that we need to be the first ones to spring up and show our love for them, and we also need to be the last ones still there doing just that. The fact that his heart does seem to want good for them helps in my forgiveness process of what he did. Let’s continue to follow through with what we know we’re supposed to be doing – helping the suffering people and, in doing so, showing God’s real love.

P.S. – My favorite author, Don Miller, posted a blog about Robertson’s comments and I think it captured the perfect essence of what I believe. I encourage you to read it.

Grace | Peace | Love

-Josh

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