Pat Robertson: Wash Your Mouth Out, Then Shut It...Please

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Pat Robertson is a well known and influential southern Baptist mouthpiece. Based on what I know of him, I'd like to suggest that he's also an asshole. There is a small possibility that he's old and delusional, and for that he could be excused, but his track record shows that age likely isn't a factor.

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Haiti, the country and the people, has been hurting for a long time. The recent earthquake was just another kick to Haiti's crotch, but by whom? If you listened to what Pat Robertson said on national television, then you might believe that Haiti was simply being smited for its 'pact with the devil'.

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In my opinion, Haiti was unlucky enough to be located over a fault line in the earth's crust. I doubt that other earthquake ravaged places had 'pacts with the devil', places like China, Iran and California. What about tsunamis or hurricanes. Did Katrina wash New Orleans clean? What about tornadoes that seem to have an appetite for the bible belt? How does Pat explain when people, who send greenbacks to his Christian corporations, get their trailers and torsoes ripped apart by tornadoes. Maybe those unfortunates made a 'pact with the devil' themselves...the devil they know. The devil they watch on tv.

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What a ludicrous statement that Pat Robertson made. Ludicrous and hurtful. I have to be careful not to slip into Pat's snake skin loafers.

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We all say things occasionally that we don't mean, sadly some of them get uttered on national television. No one is perfect...I'm living proof. So are you. The test of any man or woman's mettle is what they do once they've made a mistake.

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Pat Robertson has a chance to make amends. Now is the time. He should recant his statement and apologize to the people of Haiti. It's unlikely since he really believes what he says to be true. His god works a bit differently from the god of others, it would appear.

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Perhaps Pat doesn't really believe what he's saying. Perhaps he's just appealing to the charitable red necks of society who approve of their loving god smiting the poor, the different, the non-democratic, the less than Christian. Maybe that's the business model that works for his corporations. Regardless, I find his words to be despicable, even devilish.

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At least Jerry Falwell (1933-2007), another flamboyant tele-vandal-ists, had the good sense to attack the Teletubbies, and not a country that was on the ground bleeding. Jack Van Impe, the talking bible, concentrates his hate on the evil European Union, among others.

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Gawd, what a strange world we live in. It's little wonder that I don't watch television, go to church or take my Teletubby dolls out in public.