Taken from The Age

US evangelist wants Chavez assassinated
August 24, 2005 - 12:06PM


Conservative US evangelist Pat Robertson called for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, saying the leftist leader wanted to turn his country into "the launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism".

The founder of the Christian Coalition said during last night's television broadcast of his religious program, "The 700 Club", that Chavez, one the most vocal critics of President George W Bush, was a "terrific danger" to the United States.

"We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability," Robertson said.

"We don't need another $US200 billion ($A265.22 billion) war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator," he continued. "It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with."

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack condemned Robertson's comments as "inappropriate" and said they were from a private citizen and did not represent the US government position.
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In Caracas, Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel said: "This is a huge hypocrisy to maintain an anti-terrorist line and at the same time have such terrorist statements as these made by Christian preacher Pat Robertson coming from the same country".

"The ball is in the US court now," Rangel told reporters.

The leftist Chavez has often accused the United States of plotting his overthrow or assassination. Alongside his ally Cuban leader Fidel Castro in Havana on Sunday, Chavez scoffed at the idea that he and Castro were destabilising troublemakers in Latin America.

In his broadcast, Robertson said: "You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it.

"It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war ... and I don't think any oil shipments will stop."

A Robertson spokeswoman said he had no further comment at this point.

"Right now Dr Robertson does not have a statement and he's not doing any media interviews," she said.

Venezuela is the world's fifth largest oil exporter and a major supplier to the United States.

This was the most recent example of Robertson's controversial remarks. Criticising the State Department in 2003, he said "maybe we need a very small nuke thrown off on Foggy Bottom to shake things up".

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher had called the remark "despicable".

Robertson once declared that feminism "encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians". He also suggested that activist judges were more of a threat to the United States than terrorists and disagreed with Bush's characterisation of Islam as a religion of peace.

Robertson's "700 Club" reaches an average of 1 million American viewers daily, according to his website.

He ran for the Republican Party's presidential nomination in 1988.

- Reuters

absolutely despicable if you ask me.
western media harps on about Muslims who bay for the death of westerns and here is "one of us" is doing the same thing. i hope the media string him up by his vestments, there is no place for this
i think this also nicely ties in with the other thread about people who shouldn't open thier mouths and make public statements about things they are not qualified to talk on.....

Hahaha, he's gotta be the funniest dude around... He IS a comedian right? I laughed all the way thru that, especially the bit about feminism at the end... That was comedy GOLD!!!!

Rich.

Perhaps it time somebody on the 700 Club take the time to actually explain the bible to Robertson, including the parts

1. Thou shall not kill
2. love thy neighboor
3. Turn the other cheek

Robertson seems to toe a very fine line between his statements and statement made by bin Laden...

I like the guy, hes a good conservative. I dont think we should be going out and lopping off peoples heads when ever we feel like it however.


how about

Eye for an Eye

Originally Posted by mmarsh

Perhaps it time somebody on the 700 Club take the time to actually explain the bible to Robertson, including the parts

1. Thou shall not kill
2. love thy neighboor
3. Turn the other cheek

If those quotes were true all the time, then can you explain to me why there are countless wars ordained by God as well as good amount of violence? Don't even try to spin things in the Bible without telling the whole story.

On another note, I do not agree with what Robertson said. Saying something like that may spell the end to his career.

God doesn't ordain wars (at least not recently). Wars are ordained by man who arrogently claim to be doing God's will. But in reality they are merely justifying their own ambitions. Europe's worst wars 30 years war, 100 years war, the crusades, the inquistion are all examples. If you want a modern day example look no further than the Muslim extremists such as al-Qaeda. They too claim to be doing God's will.

But you missed the point, its not me thats trying to spin Gods words its Robertson. I'm not the one who claims to be a servant of God preaching 'morality' to everyone. I don't believe in preaching hate is ever a good policy. I just try and live in the world God created, just a sinner, warts and all, like everybody else.

As for Robertson, I doubt it. he's said some pretty atrocious things in the past, (my favorite was blaming Liberals for 9/11) but he's good at motivating the political base, so his conservative friends always seem to bail him out. I doubt there will be any real consequence. Not that it matters, most people think he's a loon. I much prefer Bill Graham, I dont always agree, but he's a wonderful man, unlike a certain someone else.

America has more serious things to worry about than an activist minister and a dimwit in Venezuela. His own country will take care of Chavez in due time.

Originally Posted by Missileer

America has more serious things to worry about than an activist minister and a dimwit in Venezuela. His own country will take care of Chavez in due time.

Well, if he nationalites his oil ....

Can we please not refer to him as Christian? He isnt and shouldnt be labled as such. I dont know why TBN still plays him?

Originally Posted by Corocotta

Well, if he nationalites his oil ....

Then, he will draw unwanted attention to himself.