Christ's Mouthpiece Speaks!

Pat Robertson was on Paula Zahn's CNN program last night. He had some pretty outrageous things to say, as usual, including the claim that he warned President Bush there would be casualties in the war in Iraq, and that Bush responded with confidence that he did not believe there would be any.

"And I warned him about this war. I had deep misgivings about this war, deep misgivings. And I was trying to say, 'Mr. President, you had better prepare the American people for casualties.' "

Robertson said the president then told him, "Oh, no, we're not going to have any casualties."

Robertson goes on to express again, in case other Christians haven't heard him when he has said it the hundred previous times, that "the blessing of heaven is on Bush."

The unmitigated arrogance of people who claim, without doubt or reservation, to know and understand God's will always astounds me. I think that as individuals, we certainly can come to an understanding of God's will for our own life. However, to claim to know that "God's blessing" is on a political leader, and then to routinely say as much to others of Faith, is an incredible presumption.

Robertson goes on to offer some more choice tid-bits for the damned heathen like myself to get bent about. Robertson says about the Iraq war, for example, "I mean, the Lord told me it was going to be A, a disaster, and B, messy," Robertson said. "I warned him about casualties."

Let me see if I understand this correctly, Robertson, a Christian minister, knew the war was going to be a disaster, and that there would be many casualties. And yet he let Bush go ahead with the war with his tacit approval. And now he still supports Bush? Come on.

One is tempted to go back to the Bible, specifically the Old Testament, and demonstrate to Robertson that when a leader has turned a war into a "messy disaster," it has been because God's blessing has not been upon that leader.

Somehow I don't think Robertson reads his Bible much these days, at least not with the open heart that is necessary for truly hearing God's Word. God's prophets are almost invariably critics of the status quo who speak uncomfortable truth to power, rather than affirmers of the King's will. The United States itself is a country founded on the principle that there is no Divine Right of Kings. Yet here we have a minister claiming that George Bush is indeed divinely appointed. That viewpoint is by no means confined to Robertson, either.

In Ron Suskind's fascinating New York Times article Without A Doubt, he relates how he often heard Christian supporters express the belief that Bush was appointed by God to lead the country. One such supporter at a rally in Poplar Bluffs, Missouri, told Suskind, "I believe he's an instrument of God, but I have to be careful about what I say, you know, in public." Suskind asks, "Is there anyone in America who feels that John Kerry is an instrument of God?"