Other than Bush, who gives Pat Robertson money?

March 22, 2006

I’ve long been troubled by the lucrative federal grants the Bush administration has directed to a charity run by TV preacher Pat Robertson. But what about the voluntary contributions from everyday Americans who enjoy The 700 Club? Would you believe that donations to Robertson have grown considerably in recent years? Inexplicably, they have.

Pat Robertson’s television ministry continues to ride a wave of ever-mounting contributions, which have almost doubled in less than a decade.

Donors gave $160 million to Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network, according to tax statements for the year ending in March 2005, an increase of 21 percent from the previous year. Contributions to CBN have increased steadily since 1997, when it received $84 million, filings with the Internal Revenue Service show.

Donations from viewers and supporters account for most of the network’s overall revenue of $236 million.

Since 1997, Robertson has grown increasingly disconnected from reality, predicting meteor attacks, blaming Americans for 9/11, praying for the deaths of Supreme Court justices, advocating assassinations of heads-of-state, and so on. Over that same period of time, Robertson’s fans have increased their voluntary contributions. Wow.

I’d like to think these poor fools give their money to a crazed TV preacher despite his insane remarks, but given the increase and the timing, it seems they give Robertson money because of his lunacy, not in spite of it.

Who are these people? What on earth are they thinking?

They are people who live in a state of near-panic that God is going to smite them if they don’t obey the Prophets.

They aren’t stupid, although it’s easy to dismiss them as such. They live in a state of perpetual fear that’s been programmed into them since childhood. Their belief is predicated on the idea that God demands syncophantic, simpering, non-critical worshipers, just like all parents do…

I can save you from all of that if you send me a dollar.

  • I’d be interested in knowing if each of these donations was a “one-time gift” as opposed to a subscription deal where payments are made automatically. I would assume that one-time gifts would rise and fall based upon Robertson’s lunacy – but if it’s a situation where Robinson gets to make regular monthly charges against someone’s credit card or bank account then it actually frees him from constraints because he’ll always have a donation base regardless of how over the edge he goes.

  • Clearly once again you have show just how out of touch with the Real American you are. How low do you have to sink to personally attack Pat Roberson and his followers. It’s down right unpatriotic. Jesus the one true savior is the only salvation from coming rapture and the Sith Lord.

  • Eric, you got that so wrong,

    The Rapture is the salvation from the Time of Tribulations. If you are really really good, you get to go to heaven and skip out on all the fun of the End Times.

    As for me, the Time of Tribulations sound like great fun. I wish God would take Pat and Jerry and George W. up right now, and leave us here on a world without IDIOTS.

  • Theocrat Reactionaries want to create a world with one religion that tells everybody what to do.

    According to the Rapturists, during the End Times the Anti-Christ will create a world with one religion that tells everybody what to do.

    ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

    Hmm!

  • My question is have the number of people donating increased or can the gain be attributed to a rising amount donated by roughly a fixed number of individuals? Put another way, are we dealing with increasing number of frighten and stupid people or an increasingly frighten but relatively fixed number of stupid people?

  • It’s funny that Mullah Robertson hasn’t told us why God is so mad at Texas that he sent wildfires there or how Kansas deserved the tornados for whatever the hell it is they did.

  • My question is have the number of people donating increased or can the gain be attributed to a rising amount donated by roughly a fixed number of individuals? Put another way, are we dealing with increasing number of frighten and stupid people or an increasingly frighten but relatively fixed number of stupid people?
    =

    My question is, has the number of people donating increased or can the gain be attributed to the individulal amounts donated rising? Put another way, are we dealing with an increasing number of frightened and stupid people or an increasingly frightened but relatively fixed number of stupid people?

    I did that just so CB wouldn’t feel bad about his editing on his first post. Really, I did.

  • And what kind of religion sends someone like the Dalai Lama to hell because he doesn’t believe in the Father, the Son and Casper the friendly ghost, but let’s a freak like Robertson go to heaven?

  • Incidentally, all of you apostate heretics will suffer at the hands of The Flying Spaghetti Monster.

    So there.

  • “What were they thinking?”

    Since the 1980s, the Christers have refined their propaganda and delivery methods to a degree unheard of in previous centuries. They know from experience and (dare I say it) science exactly what buttons to push. And they repeatedly exploit any circumstance as irrefutable evidence that they are correct–but at the same time, nothing falsifies their point of view. Unfortunately, their followers don’t understand rhetorical tricks and critical reasoning, so they truly are lambs among wolves.

  • The rise in donations is actually just another good empirical indicator of the dumbing down and increasing insanity of the TV-addled American public. Polls showing off-the-chart (in comparison with other nations) numbers of people who believe in angels and devils and religion and creationism and opposition to abortion and gay rights provide confirmatory evidence.

  • Way back in the 1980s, a future world figure named Bono said it best: “The God I believe in isn’t short of cash…”

  • Let’s think about this for a moment.
    1) 1997 was when we started seeing the 2000 Bug and the doomsayers spoketh while scaring the crap out of those whose understanding of computers is limited to the on/off button.
    2) That was about the same time that the LEFT BEHIND SERIES appeared on the bookshelves (actually 1995.) The books didn’t really start showing up on the bestseller lists till the late 90s. Who buys them? Well, a lot of the same folks who treat the 700 Club like a news program rather than the comedy it is. History repeatedly has shown that doomsayers rake in dough like there’s no tomorrow (something about a sucker born every minute.)
    Read this little essay about the books:
    http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2005/12/what_the_left_b.html
    3) Sept 11, 2001. It affected a lot of folks who turned to “god” and those who spoketh with forked tongue and sweet words and appealed to their bloodlust to smiteth thy enemies (like Pat) It’s not like Pat uses 9/11 as a bat to pound the masses to give their money to him. If they’re already afraid of life, ignorant of the world, then afraid of a software glitch, then wanting a rapture and then suddenly we have crazies from the Middle East piloting planes into the Twin Towers, well, we got ourselves an easy pledge drive.
    4) It’s not like cooking the books and money laundering is not limited to ENRON or drug lords. Doesn’t he own a few diamond mines in various African nations? Or those “anti” cancer shakes? (“hmmm, sacreligious…”)

  • To quote a Great American, H.L. Mencken:

    “Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.”

    Further proof of my theory that there are two kinds of hairless bipeds on the planet: “homo.sapiens.sapiens.” and “homo.sap.sucker.”

  • CB asks: Who are these people? What on earth are they thinking?

    My answer goes to both religion and science:

    The obvious answer is that they are not thinking at all, which is a shame. God didn’t give humans analytical brains to *not* think… that is an extreme waste of a valuable gift. People who don’t analyze and come to their own conclusions are dishonoring God IMO.

    I’m sure most of these folks are embracing fear, and fear is a powerful motivator, one that bush, Robertson and the R’s have invoked repeatedly to get what they want. More and more people also feel powerless, and want a powerful person such as bush or Robertson to represent them. Unfortunately, followers appear to be stuck in an Old Testament (vengeful God)/post 9-11 mindset.

    The administration, the R’s and Robertson are exploiting the most primitive part of a human brain, the reptilian.

    From http://reptile.users2.50megs.com/research/r101999b.html:
    “The basic ruling emotions of love, hate, fear, lust, and contentment emanate from this first stage [reptilian] of the brain… When we are out of control with rage, it is our reptilian brain overriding our rational brain components… While the more modern, sophisticated parts of the brain get to do all the really complex day-to-day thinking, it is still the antiquated reptilian part that rules the roost. Politicians, preachers, and ad men know this, and always aim their words at our emotions, not at our intellect to get their message across. The scary thing about the reptilian brain is that it has no concept of good or evil. It simply demands action of some kind. It will not tolerate a void of inactivity. If it can not find an outlet for creative action, it will push relentlessly for destructive action, and if neither is possible it then begins pressuring for self-destruction.”

    Some other reading:
    http://www.terrybragg.com/Article_Reptilianbrain.htm
    http://www.crystalinks.com/reptilianbrain.html

    and how Dick “I shot a man in the face” Cheney has used this (just one example):
    http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0817-13.htm

    Hannah, progressive Christian & scientist, how does that grab you?

  • Can you imagine what Robertson’s heaven would be like?
    24 hours a day of wall to wall association with self-satisfied, mentally unstable, closed -minded pious idiots like Pat Robertson for all eternity?
    I’d much rather be in Pat’s version of hell.

  • Breed, people.

    These idiots are taking over the country. Thye have huge families, and indoctrinate their kids with their bullshit, telling little children that people go to hell for not believing in their invisible friend Jesus.

    Breed!!!

  • Eric,

    How is not believing in what the 700 Club sells unpatriotic? It has zero to do with patriotism, and saying it’s related is precisely why this “who is a patriot” ‘debate’ gets off track.

  • Um, Eric…did you know that Pat Robertson “IS” the Sith Lord?

    ***Darth Marion—Dark Lord of the Sith—insert the heavy breathing soundtrack of your choice here***

    As for the 700 Club “faithful”…look at all the people who spend their money on things like the National Enquirer…The Star…Fox News…Bill O’Reilly coffee mugs (just looking at the guy makes me want something a bit more powerful than coffee. Grain alcohol comes to mind…). Or, maybe they’re all following the lyrics of the song: “And they’re buy-uy-ing a stair-air-way to hea-ea-ven….”

    The world is chock-full of people who will buy a $1,400.00 vacuum cleaner, just because some guy gave them a free can of air freshener. It’s full of people who will take the word of “swift-boaters” as gospel truth—even after that “truth” is exposed as a bald-faced lie. It’s over-run with folks who will repeat all sorts of rubbish as fact—just because Kid George says so.

    The Rapture, as I understand it, is the point in time when all the “believers” will disappear from this earth. I’m not so certain about the “disappearing” thing, but I imagine they’ll “start drinking Kool Aid” (a la Jim Jones) when their fantasy-world cracks beyond the point of repair. At least real estate will be more affordable then, and the lines should be a good bit shorter at the amusement parks….

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