from http://www.robertscheer.com
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LORD KNOWS WHAT ROBERTSON WANTS
When televangelist gloated about a Bush 'blowout' delivered by God,
perhaps it was a heaven-sent warning
January 6, 2004 -- At first, before I saw the light, I didn't believe
that God actually told Pat Robertson that George W. Bush would sweep the
November election. Why, for heaven's sake, would a divine power
described in Scripture as supremely wise and just employ a self-indulgent,
partisan hack with a history of bigotry and greed as his spinmeister?
We all know that Robertson is a longtime supporter of Bush and that the
president has adhered to the reverend's right-wing agenda, but would
Robertson dare use the Lord's name in vain for partisan politics? Would
he rip off God's clout just to boost his candidate's chances?
No, I don't believe Robertson, fearing eternity in hell, would be so
bold, so I take him at his word: "I think George Bush is going to win in
a walk. I really believe I'm hearing from the Lord that it's going to
be a blowout election in 2004," he told his television flock, citing
several days of prayer at the end of 2003. "The Lord has just blessed him.
I mean, he could make terrible mistakes and comes out of it. It doesn't
make any difference what he does, good or bad; God picks him up because
he's a man of prayer, and God's blessing him."
The Lord, it is said, works in mysterious ways, so Robertson's report
that God has picked a presidential winner before the first primary may
not be altogether crazy. After all, one of the tenets of the Protestant
revolution, which has devolved in some quarters into Robertson's brand
of cynical televangelism, was that we all were capable of hearing
voices of the divine.
Divine or not, Robertson heard some voices. And the explanation for why
God might have chosen to speak up in favor of a president who has made
such a hash of our economy and foreign policy came to me in a dream.
The Almighty, a booming voice told me, was using Robertson to warn the
electorate, while there is still time, that a disaster was in the offing.
Yes, he was saying the election could be a blowout, but he wasn't
saying that was a good thing.
Robertson missed the point, the voice said.
I couldn't get it all, being half asleep, but what I heard was
something about the Roman Empire and the sacrifice of his only son.
That's it, I said, bolting awake. Of course, the Lord is aghast at the
imperial ambitions of the neoconservatives. After all, hadn't he sent
Christ to warn about the greed, elitism, jingoism, commercial decadence
and other indulgences that were endemic in a world distorted by the
arrogance of the Roman Empire? A world in which the money-changers were
worshiped and the poor were exploited, a world in which the military was
lavished with resources while the peacemakers were scorned?
The Romans were arguably the most economically and militarily advanced
force the world had ever known. But in their hubris as the world's sole
superpower, they came to believe that might made right in their fight
to conquer the "barbarians" who surrounded them. Those who criticized
the Romans' ultimate reliance on brute force and false argument were
dismissed, with references to the exalted goals of the empire -- to advance
Roman civilization and impose a lasting peace -- goals that now have an
eerie echo.
That must be the essence of the warning that the Lord sent down through
the admittedly imperfect vessel of Robertson. Perfect, however, for the
purpose of alarming us to Robertson's fawning enthusiasm for Bush, for
no one has better exemplified betrayal of the Christian commitment to
peace and free will.
It was Robertson, after all, who sought to turn the war against
terrorism into a religious war against those he defined as infidels. Had he
lived in Christ's time, he probably would have been the Roman emperor's
groupie: "I see a blowout in the year 37 for Tiberius." He certainly
would have been thrown out of the temple for cozying up to dictators, such
as his dealings with former Liberian President Charles Taylor in his
quest for riches in a gold-mining venture in that nation.
Fortunately, the citizens of our republic have not surrendered all of
their rights to the needs of our burgeoning empire. But rest assured
that a "blowout" victory for an administration that has stripped away so
much of our liberty and saddled us with ever-expanding burdens of empire
would only feed the monster of imperial ambition that has even God so
worried.
Copyright © 2004 Robert Scheer
Claudia D. Dikinis
http://starcats.com
Political & Personal Astrology for a New Millennium
If America is safer since the invasion of Iraq and the capture of Saddam Hussein, why did Bush raise the threat level to orange over the holidays? It seems threats come from Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, NOT Hussein's baathist insurgents. Doh!! -- Claudia Dikinis 12/29/03
