Christian?

U.S. evangelist calls for assassination of Chavez

Wow, I didn't think it was possible for an evangelical Christian to be more hawkish than Bush. I guess Pat Robertson proved me wrong. According to Reuters:

"Robertson, the founder of the Christian Coalition and a presidential candidate in 1988, said [Venezuelan President Hugo] Chavez, one of Bush's most vocal critics, was a 'terrific danger' to the United States and intended to become 'the launching pad for communist infiltration [that's, like, sooo 1950s] and Muslim extremism.'

'We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability,' Robertson said during Monday broadcast of his religious 'The 700 Club' program. [Exactly the kind of brilliant foreign policy I would have advocated at age 14 during my Tom Clancy phase.]

'We don't need another $200 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.'"

Maybe Robertson has a different translation of the Bible than I do--One that says, "Love your neighbor as yourself....Unless he's got alot of oil." Or maybe it includes the line "Praise the Lord and pass the ammo" somewhere in the Lord's prayer. I don't know.

Now I'm not saying assassination attempts are necissarily evil. The famous theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer was involved in an attempt on Hitler and with good reason. But just because the guy's a personal friend of Castro doesn't mean he's on the same moral level as a genocidal dictator. (Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau was also a friend of Cuba's dictator.)

Robertson's comment is sure to be all over the media (and the talk of the blogosphere). Just the kind of publicity Christianity needs to improve it's image. At least it's proved that no one has the 'corner' on the 'fundamentalist market'.