I know I’m a day late on this, but it’s still worth talking about.
As you may have heard, our friend Pat Robertson — televangelist, political activist, and war criminal business partner — began a “21-day prayer offensive” this week, asking God to remove three Supreme Court justices so Bush can appoint fresh right-wingers to the high court and overturn rulings on issues such as gay rights and school prayer.
It began last week with a letter to supporters announcing the creation of “Operation Supreme Court Freedom,” in which Robertson asked his followers to “cry out to our Lord to change the Court.” He noted in his letter that one “justice is 83 years old, another has cancer, and another has a heart condition.”
He followed the letter up with additional calls for Supreme Court changes on his “700 Club” television program this week. “We ask for miracles in regard to the Supreme Court,” he said Monday.
Now I’m not exactly sure which three justices Robertson was talking about. John Paul Stevens, a Ford appointee who generally takes a liberal judicial line, is 83. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, another consistent left-leaning justice, had colon cancer surgery almost four years ago, but is believed to be healthy now. Which one has a “heart condition”?
Regardless, Robertson is taking heat over this and deservedly so. He never came right out and said he hopes God hurts three justices, but the implication is awfully strong. After all, by noting the age and health problems of justices he doesn’t like, and suggesting that he’d like to see these three “removed,” Robertson was certainly dancing around a line of decency that supposed religious leaders are supposed to avoid.
As The American Prospect’s blog put it, Robertson “doesn’t exactly say ‘smote,’ but you sort of get the idea.”
At the risk of going into too much theological detail, praying for harm to come to these justices is consistent with Robertson’s religious worldview. In case you were wondering why Christians would pray that God “remove” three Supreme Court justices, and you’re thinking that prayers usually ask God to help, not hurt, people, Robertson may have been talking about something called “imprecatory” prayers.
According to some fundamentalists, imprecatory prayers are roughly defined as “curses,” or a request from God for awful things to befall the person prayed upon. While most denominations reject this kind of thing, Robertson is of the opinion that people can pray for bad things to happen to their enemies, even Supreme Court justices.
As blogger TBogg put it, it’s as if Robertson believes, “God is my hitman.”