Pat Robertson's Foot-In-Mouth disease

Well, surprise, surprise! Thanks to Kathy, over at Cake Eater Chronicles, I hear that Israel refuses to do business with Pat Robertson.

Robertson is leading a group of evangelicals who have pledged to raise $50 million to build a large Christian tourism center in Israel's northern Galilee region, where tradition says Jesus lived and taught.

But Avi Hartuv, a spokesman for Tourism Minister Avraham Hirschson, said Israeli officials were furious with Robertson, a Christian broadcaster. A day after Sharon's Jan. 4 stroke, Robertson said the prime minister was being punished for "dividing God's land," -- a reference to last summer's pullout from the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements.

"We can't accept this kind of statement," Hartuv said.

He said the Christian Heritage Center project was now in question, though he left the door open to develop it with others.

...

The project was a sign of strengthened ties in recent years between Israel and evangelical Christian groups that support the Jewish state.

Israel was considering leasing the land to the Christians for free. Hirschson predicted it would draw up to 1 million pilgrims annually who would spend $1.5 billion in Israel and support about 40,000 jobs.

See? I told you so. The Christian Heritage Center would be great for tourism, but Pat Robertson's big mouth and lack of tact have put a lovely monkey wrench into the works. CBN has many ministries: Operation Blessing, World Reach, and (*gasp*) Bless Israel among them. I wonder what impact Robertson's insensitive comment will have on them?

Sure, Robertson has apologized, but the damage has been done. I am still of the opinion that he should also apologize

• in person, or by a personal letter, to Mr. Sharon and his family
• to viewers of the 700 Club
• to supporters of his ministries
• to Christians in general

He should then step down as a leader at CBN, and be useful in quiet and inconspicuous acts of contrition and service.

Comments

[David]

1.

Well, what you said and a public spanking. Since he wants to act like a brat, regardless his age he ought to be spanked like one. Physically.

(And he should be glad, given past silly pronouncements, that the OT injunction to kill false prophets is no longer in effect.)

Then again, as my Baptist preacher grandfather once said,

"If God could speak to His prophet through the mouth of an ass, it just doesn't take much to be a preacher." (Meaning, as he later explained, all it really takes is obedience and humility--which comments like Robertson's about Sharon illustrate he's not all that long on... )

[Ranten N. Raven]

2.

Pzt pretends to speak for God but really doesn't. If you speak for God, there is a proper form you are supposed to follow. It's there in many of the books of the Old Testament. Prophets used words like these: "THUS SAYS THE LORD..." and "THIS IS WHAT THE LORD SAYS..." and "THE LORD SAID...."

If the WORD of the LORD were upon thy lips, then apologies would neither be needed nor appropriate. If the WORD of the LORD is not upon your lips, then thou should shut thy mouth. If the WORD of the LORD is not upon thy lips and thou presumes to utter words attributed to HIM, then woe be upon you. It would be better for you if a millstone were put around your neck and you were cast into the ocean.

Aren't false prophets supposed to be stoned?