Reverend Pat Robertson Calls for Assassination of Venezuela’s President

Conservative evangelist Pat Robertson claims to be a Christian, but his most recent pronouncement on world affairs suggests that he is definitely not. God gave Moses 10 Commandments, which included an injunction against killing – “Thou shalt not kill” is pretty clear. Jesus bar Joseph of Nazareth may have changed much of Judaism, but nowhere did he undo that particular law. Yet, the “Reverend” Robertson thinks it would be a good idea for the US to kill Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Here is exactly what he said on his “700 Club” broadcast: "You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him [Chavez], I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it.”

The Kensington Review holds no brief for President Chavez, who like most populists who have wrecked Latin American countries as well as other nations around the world, screw up their people for a generation or two in the name of some vague idea of justice. A year ago, this journal noted that he won a recall vote because he stole the election. He has made sure that GDP has shrunk and that the windfall from rising oil prices has been consumed rather than invested in the name of the people. He’s a fraud and a clown, just like Castro and Peron.

But is it the job of the US government to kill him? Perhaps. Assassination is a time-honored tool of statecraft. In general though, governments don’t go in for killing the enemy’s leaders because that might give the enemy the idea that it’s OK to kill leaders – including the first person singular. Interestingly, Field Marshall Donald von Rumsfeld said, “"Certainly it's against the law. Our department doesn't do that type of thing.” Yet, one doubts Reverend Robertson will be indicted over this.

The Nazarene also said, “Render unto Caesar what is due Caesar and render unto God what is due God.” Which if nothing else, suggests that the two realms of spiritual and political are distinct. It may be acceptable for a state to engage in assassination in the amoral world of realpolitik or there may be good realpolitik reasons not to do so. However, it is not something a Christian should probably condone no matter what the benefits. Assassination goes beyond hating the sin to hating the sinner as well.

And this is the main problem the secular thinkers in America have with the religious, mostly on the right. This suggestion that one can be a Christian leader and philosopher while at the same time engaging in clearly non-Christian, even anti-Christian argument smacks of hypocrisy and calls into question the speaker’s commitment to the creed in the first place. It is an insult to Christianity for Reverend Robertson to claim that creed as his own while clearly advocating actions contrary to its core beliefs -- the Jews of Christ's time had a word for that, "pharisee."


© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
Produced using Fedora Linux.

Home