Today, those of us who don’t claim to be devout Christians, nor members of the religious right, can thank God we’re not. We can also thank God that, in his wisdom, he has shown us the truth and the light. He has shown us the error of the ways in one that supposedly speaks for Him.
I’m speaking, of course, of the fact that Pat Robertson has started flapping his gums again in such a manner as to give religion a bad name.
If you haven’t heard, today Mr. Robertson suggested that the severe stroke that threatens the life of Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was a punishment from God for giving back some land to the Palestinians.
There goes Pat Robertson putting words in God’s mouth again.
“For both prophet and priest are profane;” reads Jeremiah 23:11. “Yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, saith the lord.”
As Jesus was quoted saying in Matthew 7:15, “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inward they are ravening wolves.”
All I can say is that if this isn’t what Jesus was warning us against, then Jesus and I aren’t on the same page.
Back in November I blogged about another of Pat Robertson’s foibles. You don’t remember? I guess it’s because I never pushed the button to put it on my blogsite. Here it is.
On Tuesday, the residents of Dover, PA, voted out members of their school board who had championed the teaching of “intelligent design” over the teaching of evolution. This prompted televangelist Pat Robertson to declare the residents of Dover had voted God out of their city. Robertson suggested if disaster were to befall those residents, they shouldn’t look to God for help.
Coincidently, also on Tuesday, the Kansas Board of Education approved new standards that celebrate the teaching of intelligent design. The theory of intelligent design assumes that the world is so complex it could only have been created by a higher power. The Board of Education went on record earlier this year as saying that evolution “is an unpredictable and unguided natural process that has no discernible direction or goal. It also assumes life arose from an unguided natural process.”
The day after Christmas last year, a tsunami created havoc in Asia. Late this summer, hurricane Katrina ravaged the gulf coast. Earlier this week a killer tornado tore through parts of Indiana and Kentucky. A common thread running through all three was that they fit the definition of an unguided natural process.
When an earthquake and resulting tsunami killed tens of thousands in Lisbon in 1755, the French philosopher, Voltaire, asked what kind of God would allow such a thing to happen? Perhaps the answer is that these were all natural phenomena, and that God didn’t have anything to do with them. If that is the case, then the residents of Dover are safe from Robertson’s veiled threat.
According to Genesis, chapter three, man’s original sin was to eat fruit from the forbidden tree that looked good, tasted good and made one wise. Adam and Eve’s first sin, therefore, was the pursuit of knowledge. When God found out, he told them they were on their own, as would be their descendents, the whole of mankind. As such, we are all predestined to continue the quest for knowledge. Neither Pat Robertson nor the Kansas Board of Education can reverse that, try as they may. Intelligent design may make us all feel more comfortable, but evolution offers a more rational explanation, even if it isn’t pretty; even if it isn’t flattering and doesn’t make us feel warm and fuzzy.
Voltaire also said, “If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.”
Voltaire was one frog who could turn a clever phrase.
If Voltaire were alive today it is likely that he and Pat Robertson would not be in total agreement. As a matter of fact, Robertson’s abrasive comments would probably make them enemies. Voltaire is also credited with the following quotation. Both Voltaire and Robertson are considered men of God, but likely it would be Voltaire’s prayer that was answered.
“I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: ‘O Lord make my enemies ridiculous.’ And God granted it.”
The Lord, it seems, works in mysterious ways. If Pat Robertson speaks for the Lord, then it would confirm the old fellow’s ways are more mysterious than we mortals are capable of understanding. However, if the Lord chose a spokesman, I would hope he would pick one who wasn’t shooting off his mouth all the time, or opening his mouth in order to insert his foot.
At least, that’s the way it looks, here in Jimbo’s world.
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