Pat Robertson, still hearing voices

February 13, 2006

I haven’t mentioned any of TV preacher Pat Robertson’s recent insanity — I was tempted last week, when Robertson talked about Europe committing “racial suicide” — because I don’t want to overdo it, but I’m compelled, again, to point out just how unhinged the man really is.

Marvin Olasky profiled Robertson in the latest issue of World, a conservative Christian magazine, and explored how (and why) Robertson hangs on. Of particular interest to me, however, was Robertson’s explanation for how God communicates with him. Directly.

At the heart of some of [Robertson’s] disputes with other Christians is a theological difference. All evangelicals believe that God answers prayer (although often not as we in our fallenness might choose) and speaks to us through the Bible. Mr. Robertson, like some other charismatics, believes that God speaks to him directly “all the time.” […]

Mr. Robertson explains, “It’s not conceited. We ask for leading … God did speak to me directly concerning this university, and it was real simple. He said, ‘I want you to buy the land and build a school for My glory.’ … This is the heritage of every Christian believer. If some people haven’t had that blessing, I’m sorry, but I have.” […]

Asked how he’s certain that it’s God speaking to him, Mr. Robertson proclaimed, “The apostle Paul said, the peace of God be an umpire in your heart. Well, the peace of God is the way God speaks to us. That peace lifts when we’re doing something wrong. … Over the years, and I’ve walked with God for years and years and years and years, you get your senses exercised.”

Remember, when you talk to God, it’s prayer. When God talks to you, it’s schizophrenia.

Every time I mention Robertson, I get emails insisting that he’s just some clown who no longer matters. His hayday has long since passed and pointing out Robertson’s patheticness is hardly worth the bother. Obviously, I disagree.

First, we’re still talking about a man with about a million viewers a day, many of whom contribute to his cause and nearly all of whom take his political marching orders seriously.

Second, we’re also talking about a man whose religious ministries collect millions of tax dollars from the Bush administration. Hysterical ranters on street corners usually don’t get the luxury of lucrative federal contracts.

And third, Robertson remains a key ally of powerful GOP officials. The president has appeared at two Robertson-hosted Christian Coalition events and Bush even met with Robertson in early 2003 to discuss the war in Iraq. For that matter, tune into the 700 Club on any given day and you’ll see high-ranking officials from the Bush administration chatting about today’s biggest issues.

For that matter, after Tom DeLay was forced from his leadership post, whom did he immediately turn to? Who else? Pat Robertson.

Robertson is, to be sure, mad as a hatter. But as long as he’s a major GOP player, highlighting his lunacy is worth the trouble.

From the quote mines:

Q. “When did you realize that you were God?”
A. “While praying. I realized I was talking to myself.”

— The 14th Earl of Gurney (Peter O’Toole), who has the delusion that he is Jesus Christ in The Ruling Class

  • You can’t possibly pay too much attention to the Right Reverend Pat. After all, he’s a Wacko with a million mentally suspect Admirers. One of whom, is the President of the United States.

  • My Frist-like diagnosis is Robertson is suffering from stage 3 syphilis, lunacy being a commom symptom.

    Rumors of his frequenting brothels during the Korean war have always been out there, and stage 3 syphilis can take 40 years to manifest…

    In short, my professional opinion is Robertson is a demented pervert.

  • As a nonbeliever, I am trying to stay from using the G-word because in a framing sense, using the G-word only reinforces that concept. I have thought about using the term “Alpha Male,” but it doesn’t seem to fit. So I am now using the term “supernatural” in place of the G-word. It sort of changes the concept from that of a deity who possesses human characteristics to a nonentity with no discernible characteristics. In that vein, I would say that Robertson was hearing voices from the supernatural. Schizophrenic indeed.

  • Pat Robertson is only mad as a hatter if he actually hears voices, and isn’t just saying God talks to him in order to, say, add value to his business enterprises and enhance his political status. To call him crazy is to attribute a sincerity to him which I don’t believe he possesses.

  • Pat hears voices
    Bush hears Pat and believes in Pat’s voices
    One is crazy and the other is our commander in chief.

  • Everyone in the blogs know about Robertson’s investment in gold mines in Liberia. Mr. Christian was (is?) doing business with the notorious Charles Taylor, the former Liberian “president” now living carefree in, I think, Nigeria. Taylor was the gangster who took children and made them soldiers.

    What no one on the blogs seems to be investigating is what exactly Robertson’s “charity”, Operation Blessing, is doing around the world. God knows what that frigging lunatic is up to and he is operating in the parts of the world where people do not have much say in their governments or have much of a free press.

    http://www.ob.org/where_we_work/index.asp

    A couple of weeks after Katrina, I phoned the State Dept. in Washington from my job on a Friday afternoon. I was curious about how the $500 million and the $100 million donated by Kuwait and Qatar, respectively, for Katrina relief was spent. I was quite surprised and pleased to be connected to a real live foreign service agent who explained that the money went to FEMA which then funneled most of it to the Red Cross.

    I was so taken aback to be speaking to someone who answered my questions in an open and forthright manner, I forgot to ask who got the rest of the money donated by so many different countries. LOL – even Hugo and Fidel got honorable mentions on the State Dept.’s thank-you web page.

    The foreign service agent was pretty interesting to talk to. He told me that he was part of a 20-man task force put together to handle foreign donations to Katrina relief. I was lucky and just happened to call on the last day of the task force’s operations. He told me he had been stationed in Iraq and some other countries (but I forget which ones). Try calling the State Dept. if you have questions about foreign countries – my guess is that someone will be happy to help you.

    Getting back to Robertson and Operation Blessing – I think I read that he already has gotten millions in run-of-the-mill federal funding. Operation Blessing, as all of us here remember, was third on the list of suggested Katrina charities for awhile on the FEMA website. My guess is that Operation Blessing picks up a share of the foreign donations from FEMA, too.

    Can you imagine if the Kuwaitis and the Qatarians found out that their hard-earned money was going to some right wing Christian headcase who talks to God?

  • OK, I don’t know the Bible as well as I should, but this can’t be right…

    Mr. Robertson proclaimed, “The apostle Paul said, the peace of God be an umpire in your heart….”

    I had no idea baseball was played in Biblical times.

  • “OK, I don’t know the Bible as well as I should, but this can’t be right…

    Mr. Robertson proclaimed, “The apostle Paul said, the peace of God be an umpire in your heart….”

    I had no idea baseball was played in Biblical times.” — KTinOhio

    Since Saul/Paul did not speak English, whatever word he used would have to be translated. Of course, I’m not sure the editors of the King James Bible (which I would assume Robertson thinks is the only valid translation) probably didn’t have the word umpire either.

    Letter from Paul to the Colossians 3:15 (King James Version)
    “And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.”

    See, just a bad retranslation. Apparantly King James’ editors aren’t good enough for Pat.

  • Talking with God seems to fall into a recognizable pattern; those who claim this extraordinary communication skill often require others to give them money. Pat Robertson needed millions in donations from others to establish his university.
    I’m one of those rare atheists who has read the Bible, and I recommend that it be a common practice for those who hope to understand that which they oppose. The book of Exodus is an excellent example. A literal interpretation reveals the following; first, that Moses did not lead the Israelites out of slavery, as widely believed. He only changed their ownership, from the Pharoah to the Levites. Read Ex. chapter 21.
    Second, the communication with Jahweh that Moses claimed without being subject to verification was very lucrative. Each of the princes of the twelve tribes (exclucing the Levites, who were effectively a 13th tribe) was required to provide offerings of precious metals, valuable spices, silks, linens, building materials, and labour to establish the tabernacle. Then, after the heinous slaughter that occurs in Ex. chapter 32, the tithe is established. Thereafter, every member of the newly established Israelite nation is required to pay 1/10th of their income to the Levites. Not a bad deal.
    Clearly, these levies were compulsory, not voluntary. Kind of like the benefits that the US federal government is funneling into the Religious Right through the faith-based initiatives programs. God doesn’t take no for an answer.

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