Robertson’s like-minded cohorts

January 6, 2006

I don’t intend to belabor the point of TV preacher Pat Robertson’s latest lunacy, but the Washington Post’s Alan Cooperman touched on a good point today that warrants additional attention.

The television evangelist Pat Robertson and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may not agree on much, but both suggested yesterday that the severe illness of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was deserved. Both men’s comments were immediately condemned by religious leaders.

At first blush, one might assume that fundamentalist Christians and fundamentalist Muslims would have trouble finding common ground. Those assumptions are wrong; they have more in common than either would like to admit.

Yesterday, in response to Sharon’s struggle to survive, Robertson and Ahmadinejad were on the same page — taking apparent pleasure in the suffering of the Israeli prime minister — but this isn’t uncommon. In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, Robertson and fellow TV preacher Jerry Falwell said America was to blame for the attacks. Oddly enough, many of the more radical voices in the Arab world were saying the same thing. They all seem to see the same sins of the American culture, and when tragedy strikes, they all say, “See? God’s on my side.”

Indeed, it goes further. When the Bush administration sends delegations to United Nations conferences and other international gatherings to work on issues ranging from children’s health to women’s rights and global family planning, the White House routinely taps activists from religious right groups to represent the administration’s interests. Do they work alongside U.S. allies in Canada and Europe? Of course not; the Canadians and Europeans take a progressive approach to these issues.

No, far-right Christian activists quickly team up with countries like Sudan, Syria, Libya, and Pakistan, because they agree with the fundamentalist worldview that undermines women’s rights while limiting access to abortion and family planning. The fundamentalists from both faith traditions team up and make one big dysfunctional family.

Yesterday, Robertson echoed the most hate-filled voices of the Arab world by saying Sharon deserves to suffer. The only surprise is that it doesn’t happen more often.

Kinda ironic since all the clones on the right keep saying that the people on the left are the “blame america” problem.

  • Fundamentalist Christians and fundamentalist Muslims have a great deal in common. In fact, they are the same people. Only the specific details of abstract beliefs differ. In attitudes and behaviors, on the very basic levels, they are virtually the same people.

  • The only differences between fundamentalist Xtianity and fundamentalist Islam are differences of terminology. As a ol’ software architect from way back, I say put an integration broker in the middle, with a messaging backbone and local transformation capabilities, and you’re done!

  • CB,
    You’re right about the strikingly similar actions of the Islamic and Christian fundamentalists, but we need to bear in mind that their motives for applauding Sharon’s illness are 180 degrees different if we want an accurate sense of what’s going on.

    The Arabs applaud because Israel stole their land and smashed their armies, and Sharon in particular was a source of much misery to them.

    The fundies here applaud because they’ve been bought by ultra-nationalist Israeli lobby groups, who view Sharon as a sell-out for not being utterly unyielding to the Arabs. Otherwise, one would have to wonder why a US televangelist would have an opinion about a politician from a country that their flock probably couldn’t even find on a map.

    Both motives are based on greed of some sort, but I don’t think we’ll be seeing the two sides teaming up anytime soon.

  • The difference between a fundamentalist christian and a fundamentalist muslim is same as the difference between an alcoholic that sees pink elephants and a alcoholic that sees blue spiders.

  • I’d be real careful about crossing Preachifying Pat, if I were you. After all, he does have direct access to the ears of God and George Bush.

  • This thought deserves a lot more attention. The similarities between American conservatives and Islamic and other extremists is astounding. Both claim God is on their side, both advocate violence and militaristic conflict to defeat the other, both want to turn their country into a theocratic state (or in Iran’s case, have already done so, and intend to keep it that way.) Both are repressive, repressive of dissent, religious freedom, women’s rights, gay rights, minority rights, and of speech. The list could go on and on. And the ironic part is that the nuts on the American right who share so many common beliefs with the radical militant Islamists, they try to associate the Islamists with us on the left, who want to be free from both these insane factions.

    Perhaps we should start calling him Mullah Robertson.

  • Islamic absolutists versus American Christian fundamentalists. It’s a similar situation to the Nazis versus the Soviets.

    Goals are different, but methods are very similar. Gestapo/NKVD. Nationalization/Collectivisation. Suspension of Elections.

    Personally I am very wary of anybody who brings God into political issues. But Bush does it all the times. The more interesting comparison would be the Republic of Iran and the United States of America.

  • Rian,
    Actually some folks have already started calling ol’ Pat that!

    Guys, I wouldn’t worry too much about the US turning into a theocracy. Remember CB’s post a few days ago showing the rather pathetic capitulation of the Christian Coalition when the GOP declined to pursue what the fundies had been screaming all along as being their “non-negotiable” agenda. These guys are just tools, and one doesn’t share power with tools.

  • Mr. Flibble: “Otherwise, one would have to wonder why a US televangelist would have an opinion about a politician from a country that their flock probably couldn’t even find on a map.”

    I believe that would because the Rapture can not happen without a united Land of Isreal and if Sharon got his way, there would be a damn good chance Mullah Robertson would have to DIE to go to heaven, something he clearly is not prepared to do.

  • Lance,
    That’s the excuse he’d give his sheep, anyway. (Except for that bit about not particularly wanting to die off before the rapture).

    Of course, one may well wonder whether God is all He’s cracked up to be if He is powerless to effect a rapture except within areas under Israeli political jurisdiction, but then my disgust with this nonsense is one reason why I’m no longer a Christer.

  • Mr. Flibble,

    I’m pretty convinced that Mullah Robertson believes in the Rapture and wants very much for it to happen in his lifetime, if for no other reason than the opportunity to look down on all us sinners suffering in the time of tribulations.

    What gets me about the right-wing Jewish lobbies in this country is their apparant disregard of the fact that Pat expects at least 75% of them to go to hell, to straight to hell, and do not pass paradise. Don’t this people KNOW what disdain he really has for them and their religion?

  • Lance,
    You’re probably right on both counts (though I’m much too cynical about those who make it to the national spotlight–one has to be quite ruthless to get to that level). As for your latter point, it’s a good one. The Zionist lobby wouldn’t support our fundies if they didn’t think they got a good return, so it would seem to follow that the fundies’ contempt for the Jews is either so much smokescreen or else the lobbyists think that its ineffectual.

    The strange partnerships we see sure makes following politics fun, don’t it?

  • I disagree. I’m pretty sure that the conservative christian right in America actually WANTS to ignite a religious war in the holy land (or fan its flames, in the present case) so they can speed up Armageddon. They don’t actually have to die to go to heaven as long as the rapture hits before they bite it.

  • Rian,
    Remember that the fundies rolled over like good doggies when the GOP told them not to hold their breaths waiting for them to actually pass any fundie policy agenda items (this from CB’s post yesterday).

    There’s a lot of rhetoric coming from those folks, but the best way to evaluate what they REALLY believe is by what they do.

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