The Rev. Pat Robertson once again stirred the pot, this time with his comments regarding possible causes of the Haiti earthquake. As he has done before, he has made a pronouncement about the cause for a natural disaster--namely that sin has triggered punishment.
I found myself struck by the anger directed back at him across the blogosphere, however. In most cases, when an individual makes a ridiculous or bizarre statement, we may gape a bit and then turn our heads making some form of "screw loose" gesture, so why the vitriol here?
Of course, in the midst of this horrific tragedy there is a decided "blame the victim" quality to his comments. For those with lost loved ones in the rubble, his comments are beyond appalling--like standing at the casket with the parents of a deceased adolescent and commenting on his lack of judgment and poor driving skills.
I also wonder if there is something deeper occurring though. Many without a personal connection to the tragedy are equally enraged. I am thinking that it boils down to problems with our Christian theology and his comments drift too close to our own theological confusion and doubt. We, therefore, want to punish him for making us uncomfortable. Our anger will vindicate our own faith. "See how not gay I am by beating up this fag?"
Pat Robertson clearly believes in an all powerful deity who regularly and consistently intervenes with life on the planet. If one is righteous and good with God, then one can pray for divine intervention into the chaos of our lives and be answered. If one is not righteous, if one is sinful, than one can expect punishment.
His faith allows for no doubt whatsoever. Something horrible has happened, there must be a reason for it. God's decision to stand back and let the suffering occur or (worse yet) send down the divine power that destroys cities in a single blow must be the fault of the victims.
Many of us were raised on this kind of God or a very similar God. Most of us were taught to pray to God for assistance, intervention. Many of us were taught to believe in God's creation.
Suffering of any scale is problematic - whether suffering a migraine all the way up to the devastation in Port-au-Prince. "What have I done to deserve this?" "Why is God allowing this to happen?" I think that emotionally many of us drift into this line of thinking against the best efforts of our rational brains.
The disconnect between the metaphysical and the empirical. We try to maintain a sense of balance between our belief in God and our trust in Science. Suffering throws us off balance. Pat Robertson reminds us that we are off balance and we hate him for it.
In our anger and hurt we want to shake our fists and curse God and that is uncomfortable. We want to blame someone, something for the pain and our rational/empirical sides - our left brain - keeps matter-of-factly stating, in best Spock Vulcan - "Don't be illogical, it was merely a shift in tectonic plates of the Earth in combination with shoddy building construction as a result of a devastated economy." But our right brain still insists on assigning blame and the only being left then is God...and that hurts.
Pat Robertson's ridiculous pronouncement refuses to blame God and so he must blame the victim. In his sad theology we see glimpses of our own doubt and we want to eradicate that doubt and so we angrily denounce him. We tell him to Shut The F*ck Up! We call him names - decry his ignorance and his cruelty. Perhaps, though, as has been suggested, the best response to him and his ilk is to ignore them - gape a bit, turn our heads, and make some sort of "screw loose" gesture.
Peace.
I found myself struck by the anger directed back at him across the blogosphere, however. In most cases, when an individual makes a ridiculous or bizarre statement, we may gape a bit and then turn our heads making some form of "screw loose" gesture, so why the vitriol here?
Of course, in the midst of this horrific tragedy there is a decided "blame the victim" quality to his comments. For those with lost loved ones in the rubble, his comments are beyond appalling--like standing at the casket with the parents of a deceased adolescent and commenting on his lack of judgment and poor driving skills.
I also wonder if there is something deeper occurring though. Many without a personal connection to the tragedy are equally enraged. I am thinking that it boils down to problems with our Christian theology and his comments drift too close to our own theological confusion and doubt. We, therefore, want to punish him for making us uncomfortable. Our anger will vindicate our own faith. "See how not gay I am by beating up this fag?"
Pat Robertson clearly believes in an all powerful deity who regularly and consistently intervenes with life on the planet. If one is righteous and good with God, then one can pray for divine intervention into the chaos of our lives and be answered. If one is not righteous, if one is sinful, than one can expect punishment.
His faith allows for no doubt whatsoever. Something horrible has happened, there must be a reason for it. God's decision to stand back and let the suffering occur or (worse yet) send down the divine power that destroys cities in a single blow must be the fault of the victims.
Many of us were raised on this kind of God or a very similar God. Most of us were taught to pray to God for assistance, intervention. Many of us were taught to believe in God's creation.
Suffering of any scale is problematic - whether suffering a migraine all the way up to the devastation in Port-au-Prince. "What have I done to deserve this?" "Why is God allowing this to happen?" I think that emotionally many of us drift into this line of thinking against the best efforts of our rational brains.
The disconnect between the metaphysical and the empirical. We try to maintain a sense of balance between our belief in God and our trust in Science. Suffering throws us off balance. Pat Robertson reminds us that we are off balance and we hate him for it.
In our anger and hurt we want to shake our fists and curse God and that is uncomfortable. We want to blame someone, something for the pain and our rational/empirical sides - our left brain - keeps matter-of-factly stating, in best Spock Vulcan - "Don't be illogical, it was merely a shift in tectonic plates of the Earth in combination with shoddy building construction as a result of a devastated economy." But our right brain still insists on assigning blame and the only being left then is God...and that hurts.
Pat Robertson's ridiculous pronouncement refuses to blame God and so he must blame the victim. In his sad theology we see glimpses of our own doubt and we want to eradicate that doubt and so we angrily denounce him. We tell him to Shut The F*ck Up! We call him names - decry his ignorance and his cruelty. Perhaps, though, as has been suggested, the best response to him and his ilk is to ignore them - gape a bit, turn our heads, and make some sort of "screw loose" gesture.
Peace.
10 comments:
I'd be happy to ignore him if the Media Industrial Complex would stop presenting him as a "Major Face of Christianity"...
I get uncomfortable not about God or theodicy. I've made my peace with all of that. I get uncomfortable because people associate me with Pat Robertson merely because we both claim the same God. Now THAT I mind!
Well, Doxy, rest assured I will NEVER associate you with Pat Robertson. You must also remember that he has his own network for starters. All references to him and his comments (and there were legion) came from the Internet (for me - a man without television)so I cannot fault the Media Industrial Complex.
And you don't count the Internet as part of the Media Industrial Complex? ;-)
I guess not when it is the multitude of reposts of YouTube video clips by the unwashed masses. :-)
I saw the news first on Pam's House Blend, where the usual Christian-haters came crawling out of the woodwork to note that THIS is exactly what we can expect of people who believe in their Vicious Sky God (I'm paraphrasing....)
That's why we can't ignore Pat, as much as I'd like to. He represents Christianity to far too many people...
I, like the above commenters, am mostly appalled that I get lumped in with him when many think about Christians. More to the point, I am angry with him about hisstatements because he alienates people from God rather than spreading the good news of love and forgiveness. He singlehandedly turns many away from peace (not only in his followers, but among those who are questioning or have no faith that are turned off by his nonsense) with his hate-filled screeds and in turn decreases the amount of love, compassion, forgiveness and empathy needed to help bring the kingdom of God down to earth.
That's why he makes me angry, though I know I probably shouldn't be.
Wouldn't our anger be better channeled then in revealing the real message of God? We cannot shut down Pat Robertson - to think that an individual would turn away because of Pat Robertson seems to suggest a very weak and feeble faith to begin with.
Also, anger that is due to the rabid anti-theists is more properly directed at them, isn't it?
As a non-believer, I was not offended by Robertson in a religious way, but in a human way. I did not spew venom on-line, but I reacted with annoyance and disbelief that I often feel when I see powerful, insensitive, people speak or behave in a way that hurts the and less fortunate, those who need compassion. His words did nothing to console the devastated families or provide aid to the injured or the families of the dead. At least irate bloggers, etc, directed and diffused their anger at Robertson in an appropriate manner, by speaking out on a public forum, rather than forming a mob.
Thanks...
The picture and your caption say it all.
A bullet will "shut him down", and eventually that may happen, ..sooner than later!!
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