… if Pat Robertson spewed 1% of the garbage he does, while on Saudi Arabian soil, he’d lose his head.
Bonus: I once had a gig in the same building as where (some of ) ABC Family is/was located. I recognized one of their executives on an elevator (only us two) and asked what’s up with the 700 Club timeslot - why do they keep it? He said they were contractually required to keep it and he’d like nothing more to be rid of it. I’m being a bit unclear about the specific place and person, for reasons, but the pained look of exasperation that included his responses made a lasting impression.
I didn’t know about the time slot specifically, but it is public knowledge that the 700 club still exists because of contractual obligation based on the contracts around the sale of Family Channel to Fox.
Robertson’s lawyers did a pretty amazing job for their horrible client, and the networks that bought the Family Channel with all those burdens are idiots.
Because ABC Family, now Freeform was originally Robertson’s Christian Broadcast Network (CBN). Robertson sold it to Disney, but one of the conditions of the sale was the existence of a time slot for 700 Club.
I’m a not-christian so easily confused here. In my ignorance, I presume that aiding one’s enemy and doing so for material gain are both seriously contrary to the teachings of the christian religion. What am I getting wrong here? OTOH, the religion includes a prosperity gospel which teaches that unrestricted greed and materialism are godly, that apparently contrary to religious teachings, there can be huge material rewards in the here + now, no need for waiting for an afterlife or whatever.
Nothing. Plenty of Christians embrace this. People like Pat Robertson are part of the dominionist movement, which seeks to create a national theocracy and to act as a global imperial power. They use christian doctrine when it suits them and purposefully misinterpreted when it suits them.
I had not thought of this before, but I think that part of their strategy is to get non-Christians to understand THEM as the only “proper” christians, in part because it makes non-Christians more inclined to mistrust ALL christians, which furthers their agenda of creating divisions in American society that they can then exploit and use to their advantage…
Doing anything for material gain is contrary to Christ’s teachings, despite what the prosperity gospel people say. Early Christianity was basically anarcho-communist.
Divide and conquer works almost every time, that’s why so many groups adopt it as a strategy.
If that isn’t their plan I suspect if is something remarkably close to it.
This seems like a good place to put in a plug for Chris Hedges’ book American Fascists.
As a graduate of Harvard Divinity School, Hedges has an interesting perspective on the theological underpinnings of xtian fundamentalism. He connects dots between religion, psychology, sociology and political science, and paints an unsettling picture of the country we are becoming. Well worth your time.
Later, Falwell dismissed the furore around the candidate’s “grab them by the pussy” comments, saying: “We’re never going to have a perfect candidate unless Jesus Christ is on the ballot.”
Healing the sick and lame, for free?! Undeserving people getting loaves and fishes? Tolerance, and you’d better be very sure before casting that stone? Maybe even churches paying taxes.
They’d spin the cognitive dissonance on a dime and be campaigning for B.L. Zeebub, even if he is a bit lefty.
