Showing posts sorted by relevance for query pat robertson. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query pat robertson. Sort by date Show all posts

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Speaking as a prophet


It's back to Pat again. Here are his official comments on the mass killing that he forecast onthe 700 Club earlier this month. Consider this excerpt from his comments:

...Well, the other thing I felt was that evil men, evil people, are going to try to do evil things to us and to others during the last part of this year. I don’t know whether it’ll be in the fall or September or later on, but it’ll be the second half, somehow, of 2007. There will be some very serious terrorist attacks. The evil people will come after this country. And there’s a possibility that—not a possibly, a definite certainty that chaos is going to rule, and the Lord said that the politicians will not have any solutions for it. There’s just going to be chaos. And, of course, we saw chaos in the Gulf after Katrina. The politicians had no answers.

TERRY MEEUWSEN: I think that that rang resonant in everyone’s heart, as they looked at it and realized that when something big happens . . . .

PAT ROBERTSON: We’re not ready.

TERRY MEEUWSEN: . . . . there’s no solution.

PAT ROBERTSON: It’s going to happen. And I’m not saying necessarily nuclear. The Lord didn’t say “nuclear,” but I do believe it’ll be something like that that’ll be a mass killing, possibly millions of people, major cities injured. I hope I’m wrong, and I hope people will pray and that won’t happen.

Let me get this straight. Pat "hopes he is wrong" and he "felt" these things? He claims that God told him this message. If we stick with orthodox Christian thinking, God is never wrong. So, when Pat's previous messages from God didn't happen, what was the problem?

Either God is wrong or Pat isn't listening to God very well.

If I were purporting to speak for God, I would make VERY sure that I had the details down. In the Old Testament, a prophet who was wrong was typically branded a false prophet and earned a one-way tripto the stoning pit outside of town. I'm not advocating that for Pat. But I would ask anyone with their own satellite and television network to think carefully about what they say GOD TOLD THEM especially when previous pronouncements have not come true. It diminishes God when people say they are speaking for Him and are not accurate. We already have a credibility problem with many people. This does not help.

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Don't buy stocks in insurance companies


Another new year, another profoundly ignorant comment from Pat Robertson. It seems that Pat is our generation's Jeremiah, or prophet of doom. God has told Pat that we will experience a "mass killing" from terrorists late in this year. Why he told Pat and no one else, well that is between God and Pat.

You know my love for the inane things that come out of Pat's mouth. No doubt there will be a "clarification" in the next few days of what he meant, like he did after he called on the U.S. government to assassinate Hugo Chavez.

Will someone either take his microphone away or shoot down his satellite? Please?

Friday, November 11, 2005

Launching the Pat Patrol

Back in the 1990's sports fans around the country engaged in the "Wayne Watch" - a vigil to see when Detroit Lion's coach Wayne Fontes would be fired. It became an ESPN staple as the flamboyant Fontes rode the roller coaster that is Lions football.

I'm starting the Pat Patrol. Our purpose is to catalog the seemingly endless series of inane remarks that flow from the mouth of Pat Robertson. The secular media loves Pat, because he is a great source of inflammatory remarks and material for late-night comedians.

His latest pronouncement is a doozy. He is telling the people of Dover, PA not to call on God if a calamity comes their way, because they rejected school board members who favored the introduction of intelligent design. What God is he talking about?

Even in the Old Testament Prophets where Israel was getting pummeled for their idolatry and neglect of God's laws, God made it clear that he wanted them back. Sure there were consequences, but there was always some hope of redemption after repentance. Pat didn't seem to leave much room for repentance and redemption in his comments.

Intelligent design is a watered-down Deistic theory that nature is too intricate to be left to chance. The Designer is as vague as the Higher Power in AA meetings. It's a start, but it is only a small step. Why on earth would a Christian call down fire and brimstone for a half-measure at best? If we are going to toast some people, let's at least make it a real hill to die on. Not a molehill as this one is.

I reiterate my call to take away Pat's microphone before he speaks again.

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Pat Robertson has done it again

Pat Robertson and Joe Biden suffer from the same disease - terminal foot in mouth - because more often than not they end up regretting opening their mouths to speak in public.

This one just makes me cringe and shake my head at the same time.



So dating a woman who has adopted children internationally is akin to taking on the United Nations?  Will someone at CBN please tell the emperor that he has no clothes?  And then take his microphone away?

As Kenny Rogers said, you have "know when to walk away..."

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Foot in mouth disease

Day 2 of the Pat Robertson digesting his foot saga is upon us.

Now, the leader of the Christian Coalition (that name makes me wince because of his propensity to step in a pile) says he was misquoted yesterday about advocating the assassination of Hugo Chavez, the democratically elected president of Venezuela.

Robertson claims he meant kidnap or something other than kill Mr. Chavez. Hmmm. Here is the quote and I'll let you decide:

"You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we are trying to assassinate him, we should go ahead and do it," Robertson said Monday. "It's a whole lot easier than starting a war, and I don't think any oil shipments will stop."

Gee, I can't imagine why anyone would think Robertson had it in for Chavez after that statement. Clearly The Associated Press made the whole story up out of whole cloth.

Someone take his microphone away before he brings more embarrassment on himself and further damages the cause of Christ.

Saturday, May 27, 2006

Signs of the Apocalypse


It's official. The end is near. Don't buy any green bananas. The world is about to end.

How do I know this, you ask?

It's simple if you read the signs.

First, read this story. It seems that if you are short and commit felonies against children in Nebraska, you get probation. The lack of height is sufficient reason to avoid a jail sentence in that great state. I thought it was crazy when Debra Lafave got 3 years of house arrest for molesting a young boy. But she is pretty, and pretty people can't be sent to jail. Now short people can't go either. I guess only regular schlubs go to jail for molesting kids.

Second, as of May 26, 2006 the Detroit Tigers have the best record in baseball. I can't even begin to describe how ridiculous this sounds to a long-suffering fan. You had to be there for the last 13 years. You just had to be there.

Third, Pat Robertson has leg-pressed 2000 pounds, or so he says. You know my love for the goofy stuff that comes out of Pat's mouth. This one is a doozy. This ranks up with Chia-head Kim Jung-Il, who has made a series of similarly preposterous claims over the years. It seems that both of them have left reality and have entered another plane of existence. Let's pray that they stop making public pronouncements.

Otherwise, the world will come to an end. Very soon.

Monday, January 09, 2006

It only took 6 days

God created the world in 6 days. Pat Robertson took six days into the new year to utter another profoundly ignorant remark. This time God is smiting Ariel Sharon for "dividing God's land" by seeking peace with the Palestinians. Pat never ceases to amaze me with the inanities that come out of his mouth. But judging a man in critical condition for seeking peace and trying to restor a homeland to the Palestinians seems a bit un-Christian to me.

Will someone take his microphone away? Please?

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Stop him before he talks again

Will someone please take Pat Robertson's microphone away? What on earth was going through his head when he advocated the U.S. Government assassinating the leader of Venezuela? Click here for the story if you missed it.

How is it a good idea for a Christian minister to advocate the cold-blooded murder of another individual? It's one thing to kill someone in combat, e.g. Saddam Hussein's sons Uday and Qusay. There at least they chose to fight and die as a result of their actions. But to advocate murder is beyond the pale.

We need to denounce this kind of idiocy in the strongest possible terms. It is not Biblical and it does nothing to advance the Kingdom of God.

Pat, please retire. Now!

Saturday, March 17, 2007

You have to be kidding me!

Check out the article below on the ostentatious house recently purchased as a parsonage. If this doesn't give the church of Jesus Christ a black eye, I will be surprised. The prosperity Gospel crowd drives me crazy with stunts like this.



Detroit World Outreach Church considers its purchase of this mansion proof of God's blessing.

No taxes on $4M parsonage

Northville Township loses $40,000 annually after church buys home.

Doug Guthrie / The Detroit News

NORTHVILLE TOWNSHIP -- A Redford Township church that believes wealth is God's reward is raising eyebrows for buying its pastor a $3.65 million mansion and taking it off the tax rolls.

This month, township officials grudgingly conceded they had no choice but to remove the 11,000-square-foot home overlooking Maybury State Park from its assessment rolls, losing $40,000 annually in taxes.

They concluded the plush pad is a parsonage, but that hasn't quelled debate among township officials and neighbors about whether Christian charity extends to the Detroit World Outreach Church's purchase in September of the home for Pastor Ben Gibert and his wife and co-pastor, Charisse Gibert.

"I also have faith in God, but I don't expect to live in such opulence," said Evgenia Asimakis, a single mother of two who lives nearby and has trouble paying her property taxes.

Her neighbor, Gary Wall, is blunter: "You don't need a multimillion-dollar place to see God. He'll take a lot less."

Detroit World Outreach Church isn't apologizing. In fact, members say the mansion is proof God has blessed them.

The 4,000-member church is part of a growing movement that preaches prosperity. Also known as "health and wealth" theology, the ideology preaches that God wants followers to do well, be healthy and have rewards -- such as the $50,000 Cadillac Escalade the church bought the Giberts, who have four children.

Ben Gibert said God surrounds the faithful with beautiful things.

One of the leaders of his church agrees. "God's empowerment is to make you have an abundant life," said Elder Marvin Wilder, a lawyer and general counsel for the church.

"In this country we value rock stars, movie stars and athletes. They can have a lavish lifestyle, and a pastor who restores lives that were broken shouldn't? When our value system elevates a man who can put a ball in a hole and not a man who does God's work, something is wrong."

Born in the 1950s, prosperity theology has a strong following among some fundamentalist and nondenominational churches. It's gained popularity among mega-church ministries of such well-known national pastors as Joel Osteen, T.D. Jakes and Pat Robertson.

Even so, most Christian denominations disparage the belief as consumerism run amok, said David G. Myers, professor of psychology at Hope College in Holland who has written about the movement.

"Are people really any happier for that sort of self-indulgent spending? The answer is clearly no," Myers said.

Wilder said the four-bedroom mansion "isn't flamboyant" and is compensation for Ben Gibert leaving his job as a high-paying automotive executive with DaimlerChrysler's minivan division after the sudden death in 2005 of church founder Bishop Jack Cameron Wallace.

Wallace dropped dead in Zimbabwe doing what Wilder said was the church's work. Wallace, 47, was an accomplished weight lifter and co-founder of Prosperity Nutrition Inc., which sold performance enhancement supplements, such as creatine, online.

Wilder said Gibert saved the church whose membership, once at 10,000, had fallen by more than half. Its services still are carried on a host of television channels throughout the Midwest.

"We know that it will cost the township some tax revenue, but every church in the state gets property tax exemption," Wilder said. "Having a parsonage is a historical precedent. Ours happens to be worth $3.6 million."

The mansion sits on 12 acres and behind a quarter-mile-long driveway and a tall, electronically controlled gate. That's necessary because the church has spoken out against homosexuality and Islamic violence, Wilder said. Wallace once had a live bullet delivered in the offering plate, Wilder said.

Gibert, who left a 7,000-square-foot home in Franklin for the mansion, agreed security is a concern.

"I am an African-American man who became pastor of a multi-ethnic church. Some people don't agree with that," he said. "I have not received death threats, but people have followed my children to school."

Thelma Kubitskey, the township's finance director, said officials weren't thrilled, but had to remove the house from the tax rolls. Tax-free status can be granted to church-owned residences if clergy live there, even if they're not in the same communities as the churches.

"If the church is willing to pay for the house, it's fine with me," said neighbor Janice Gutowski, whose $800,000 home is dominated by the Giberts' house and lawns.

"Churches don't pay taxes, so the rules should be the same for everyone."

Township Clerk Sue Hillebrand complained that Northville schools can ill afford to lose more revenue. She said she's amazed by the church's generosity.

"They could buy a very, very nice home out here for half a million," she said. "Can you imagine how many miracles you could perform, how many people you could help with the $3 million left over?"

You can reach Doug Guthrie at (734) 462-2674 or dguthrie@detnews.com.


Prosperity Gospel
Prosperity theology -- also known as health and wealth -- has its supporters and detractors, both of whom point to the Bible to make their case:
Supporters:

  • Deuteronomy 8:18: God "giveth thee powers to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant for he sware unto thy fathers."
  • Mark 11:24 -- "Therefore I say unto you, what things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them."
  • John 10:10 -- "Then Jesus said ... I have come so that they (His disciples) may have life, and have it more abundantly."
    Critics:
  • Matthew 19:24 -- "And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
  • Matthew 6:19-21 -- "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal."
  • Luke 18:22 -- "Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven."
    Sources: Detroit News research, Religionlink.org
  • Saturday, January 27, 2007

    The Doomsday Train


    No, this doesn't involve Pat Robertson.

    But it does fit nicely with our world today. Let's take stock of where we are.

    Iran and North Korea are pursuing nuclear weapons. Iran has a leader with a questionable grip on reality. He keeps saying that Israel and the United States will soon cease to exist.

    The CIA just ran a sting operation and netted bomb-grade uranium in the Republic of Georgia. It seems that Russia is having a hard time controlling the old Soviet weapons. If my memory serves me correctly, Iran and Russia share a border. And Russia has been supplying weapons to Iran.

    Oh, and the Mayan calendar ends in 2012 with some sort of doomsday prophecy.

    It would be very easy to throw our hands up in the air, declare the world a lost cause and wait for the rapture (and pray that it came before the tribulation- which is a debatable issue). But that is not what our Lord called us to do in Matthew 28:

    19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

    We don't know when the end of the age is. And many people in past times have thought the end was imminent. I'm no prophecy scholar but I do know it could happen tomorrow, next year, next century. Only the LORD himself knows. Take the words of Joshua 1:9 to heart and be strong courageous, for the Lord will be with us wherever we go.

    We don't have to run over anyone's toes getting away. God is with us.


    Thursday, January 11, 2007

    Portents of doom


    No this isn't about Pat Robertson.

    It seems we have a new comet in the neighborhood. And this one, if it lives up to expectations, may be brighter than the Hale-Bopp comet in the late 1990s. Let's pray that no doomsday cult attaches themselves to this one.

    This reminds me of the discussion on Epiphany earlier this week. The magi were astronomers and astrologers who studied the heavens for signs. Comets were often portents of doom, and caused great fear in the people. We kind of laugh at their superstitions, but there is some reality to their fear. Things do fall out of the sky.

    Just last week a family in N.J found an iron meteorite in their bathroom, along with holes in the ceiling and roof. And the photo I have attached would cause great fear for people who didn't understand the difference between a comet and the shooting stars that we know as meteorites

    The heavens are a magical and beautiful place. But there are also many loose objects flying around out there. I have not doubt that the ancients knew of impacts, had seen and heard them, and feared that the God of the Universe was punishing them.

    We understand a little better than them what is going on. But we still are powerless to interfere with the sovereignty of the God who made the universe.

    Maybe a little fear should accompany our awe at the celestial light show he puts on for us.