Pat Robertson suggested this past Monday that the President of
Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, be assassinated by operatives of the United States
government! Though his comments are newsworthy because of his following in
the 700 Club and his political stature and role in the political religious
right, his comments however are out of synch with everything that has been
handed down to us from the teachings of Jesus Christ. What I am suggesting
here is that Pat Robertson and individuals of his ilk are not practicing or
preaching Christ but have become adherents of a political movement in this
nation that attempts to use Christianity towards their own narrow political
ends. I believe that there is a role for Christianity in the events of the
world, but the teachings of Christ leads us to love one another, strain and
stretch to understand each other, and dare to know each other enough that
we come to an understanding of one another and from that create a world
that is not built on might and winning but on understanding and
unity. Clearly the comments of Robertson defy the framework we find in the
gospels of Jesus Christ.
Some may argue that Christ existed in another time and did not have an
understanding of the kind of world we exist in today. But any follower of
Jesus knows that as he was human and he was also fully God, and therefore
his understanding of the world, humankind and our needs were not captive to
a time but applies to all time! Knowing this I do not see anywhere in the
gospels of Christ that he condones, suggests or advocates murder or
political assassination! Instead Jesus reminds us to beware of Pharisees,
and Robertson, Dobson and others have become the Pharisees of our
contemporary world!
What do we find in the Good News of Christ? We find love is expressed
continually and unceasingly. The gospels admonish us to do unto others, as
you would have them do unto you. We finds words in the gospels that define
the mission of Christians as the elevation of the poor, freedom for those
who are oppressed, salvation for the lost, and hope for the
hopeless. Jesus says come unto me all of you who are weak and heavy laden
and I will give you rest. He does not say come to me those who are looking
for political expediency and I will show you who to and how to assassinate!
Sure there has been trouble in Venezuela, and some will suggest that it
is communism struggling to raise it head. Others will suggest that the
poor of Venezuela have been poor too long in a nation that is the 5th
largest oil producer in the world. Some will suggest that too much of the
resources have been in the hands of too few, and that the poor of the land
have found hope in a political leader, Hugo Chavez. I would not suggest
that Chavez is a saint, for no person is perfect, but I do know that Chavez
was elected even while the greatest power in the world, the United States
government, did everything possible to thwart his election. This is hardly
the neighborliness that Jesus Christ calls us to emulate.
I am continually amazed at how so many preachers have ceased to preach
Christ, or to proclaim him out of the rich simplicity of his teachings and
have resorted to a kind of theology that is not gospel based but is based
on a narrow point of view that keeps the powerful powerful and the poor poor!
Therefore, it is impossible to justify the comments of Pat
Robertson. His comments are not of the gospel he claims to preach, nor of
the teachings of Christ that any Christian claims to love. Instead what
Robertson has to say is based on a paradigm from the most conservative
voices in this country, and those voices have no God except themselves and
no soul except their selfish point of view!
Reverend Graylan Scott Hagler is National President, Ministers for Racial,
Social and Economic Justice and Senior Minister, Plymouth Congregational
United Church of Christ Washington, D.C.
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