If you're like me, you're not exactly surprised by Pat Robertson's recent muddled comments about how the recent earthquake in Haiti is somehow a result of a "pact with the devil" the Haitians made to overthrow Napoleon III "or whatever." What is sort of surprising is just how many people are actually really outraged by this statement. Doesn't there come a point when you just stop listening to someone who constantly says stuff like this? Shouldn't we just stop listening?
Seriously, this guy is the same guy who:
1. Blamed the near destruction of a major coastal city by a hurricane on abortion.
2. Insinuated that a small town that rejected intelligent design might get struck with a tornado.
3. Warned a major coastal resort town to stop supporting homosexuals or face natural disasters.
4. Blamed the death of a popular Israeli leader on trying to split apart God's l
and.5. Called for the assassination of a political leader in a foriegn country.
6. Insisted working on the Sabbath is an offense punishable by death.
7. Supported the massacre of every living thing in a city so the city could be taken over by God's chosen people.
8. Thought God told him to sacrifice his son, almost did, but then rejoiced when God took the whole thing back. (Gordon Robertson later went on to fill in for his father as host the 700 Club!)
9. Offered his virginal daughters up to be gang raped by a bunch of crazed homosexuals to protect the anuses of some visiting angels.
10. Blamed the fiery destruction of an entire city on the city's refusal to turn away from homosexual behavior.
Wait, isn't that last one an old Bible story? Aren't numbers 5-10 actually stories straight from the Old Testament?
Why, yes. Yes, they are. In fact, all ten of those (I think you have to agree) despicable statements and attitudes could come straight from the Old Testament. The writers of the Old Testament (at least some of them) and (several versions of) the God depicted in the Old Testament would totally agree with everything on that list.
So here's my real point: I've seen and heard a lot of Christians denouncing Pat Robertson as a sad old man who believes in a vengeful, spiteful, jealous, and unjust God, implying that their God is none of these things. But, unless these folks denounce (most of the depictions of) the Old Testament God, how can they possibly say their God is any better?
Many Christians will denounce this Old Testament God and, maybe not in so many words, claim these essentially are just stories and didn't really happen. Fine. Good. Many of the stories in the Old Testament are quite valuable, and I'll refrain from asking about the value of some of the other, more hateful, violent, and perverted stories (like the one where a drunk old man's horny daughters seduce him) here. (See what I did there?)
Other Christians will claim the Old Testament is an accurate portrayal of God, but that Jesus ushered in a "new covenant" that allows God to treat us more decently (you know, without so much, bloodshed, rape, and hatred of women). I find this completely unsatisfying. I find very little difference between a God who was once vengeful and violent but reformed and a God who is unrepentantly vengeful and violent. This isn't some teenager who accidentally killed a store clerk and found religion in the big house here. This is God. He's supposed to be perfect from the start, right? Right?
I guess you could also say that we just don't understand the God of the Old Testament, which is undeniably true, but maybe we just don't understand Pat Robertson either. Maybe there's some mysterious truth behind his statements that make them OK. Maybe they make some cosmic sense. Or maybe they're just batshit crazy.
There are lots of Christians denouncing what Pat Robertson has said. Tons. All of them probably. But many of the most prominent ones would absolutely defend the truth found behind some of the similar acts found in the Old Testament.
Franklin Graham, very conservative son of the very conservative Billy Graham, for example, says he doesn't agree with Robertson, and he's admirably trying to help the people of Haiti, but would he feel the same about the people of Sodom and Gomorrah? Or Jericho? Was it right for God to destroy almost everybody in the whole world in one flood? I can't imagine Graham saying God made mistakes here or that these things didn't happen.
Pastor Robert Jeffress of the Fist Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas presents a typically puzzling view in the clip above: "It is absolute arrogance to try to interpret any of God's actions as a judgment against this person or that person. We can only go as far as the Bible goes, and the Bible is clear. God says, 'I am the God who creates calamity and causes well-being.'"
Sounds good, right? Wrong. Let's forget, for a moment, the fact that Jeffress is presumably referring to the earthquake as "God's actions," and take up this notion that we can only go as far as the Bible goes. If we can only go as far as the Bible goes, then we can, in fact, try to interpret God's actions as judgment against people. The Old Testament does it all the time. It's true that the Bible warns us against interpreting God's attitude, but it's contradicting itself when it does this (as you might expect a text written by hundreds of people over thousands of years to do).
But let's go back to that notion that God caused the earthquake. Jeffress doesn't just imply that God caused the earthquake (he only insists that we can't interpret his violently shaking the earth in a location uniquely unprepared for it as a sign of his anger), he straight up says that God is responsible! His God "creates calamity and causes well-being." How is this comforting? And how is it any better than what Robertson said? The notion that God is responsible for the deaths of all these people is disturbing. I don't care if he did it because he's angry or if he did it so Christians can show how "good" they are (as I've heard some suggest, perhaps without thinking). I don't care if this was one big unfortunate case of God not being able to control his farts or something. I don't think I'm being presumptuous when I say that God should be able to control his bodily functions. I don't care why God caused this calamity; if God's responsible, then God, the God of the universe, the one and only supreme being, is at very least responsible for manslaughter. It doesn't make it better to know that he didn't mean it or that he wasn't angry. It's a pretty shitty notion all around.
So you know what? Stop already. All of you. Pat Robertson, stop saying stupid crazy old man shit, and Christians, if you can't grow the balls to call your Old Testament God a fantasy, don't criticize someone who uses that same God...that God you believe in...to interpret the events around him. Just don't say anything. You don't have to. Help if you can. Stop trying to explain things you can't. I don't even need to hear you say you can't explain it. So stop.
Thanks in advance.
