Arianna Huffington joined The Nation’s Ari Melber and former evangelist Frank Schaeffer on The Joy Behar Show Thursday. The panel weighed in on evangelist Pat Robertson’s claims that the earthquake in Haiti is the result of that country’s “pact with the devil.”

Arianna  Huffington thinks Robertson is giving religion a bad name. “For anybody of faith, even if you’re not God, Pat Robertson is giving religion a terribly bad name, again and again. Remember, this is not the first time. Remember after 9/11, when he blamed 9/11 on the ACLU, and People For The American Way, and gay people. So there’s a pattern here of blaming every disaster on something other than what actually happened.”

h/t http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-tv/arianna-pat-robertson-giv_b_424097.html

1. To learn how you can help the people of Haiti, visit:  www.adra.org/Haiti

In 1999, comedian George Carlin wrote, “Religion has actually convinced people that there’s an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever ’til the end of time! But He loves you.”

I thought about Carlin’s statement as I watched a clip of Pat Robertson blaming this week’s earthquake in Haiti on a mythical pact that the people of Haiti supposedly made with the Devil in order to become independent of France over two centuries ago. ““[E]ver since they have been cursed by one thing after the other, desperately poor,” Robertson said.

Unfortunately, this was not the first time that Pat Robertson or other preachers acting under the guise of Christianity twisted history and theology in order to explain various tragic events. Soon after the 9/11 attacks, Jerry Falwell had this to say, “I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way — all of them who have tried to secularize America — I point the finger in their face and say ‘you helped this happen.’”

After the December 26, 2004 Indonesian tsunami, John MacLeod, a minister in the First Presbyterian Church of Scotland, wrote, “Some of the places most affected by this tsunami attracted pleasure-seekers from all over the world. It has to be noted that the wave arrived on the Lord’s Day, the day that God has set apart to be observed the world over by a holy resting from all employments and recreations that are lawful on other days.”

After a massive tragedy, it is human nature to try to find out why it happened. The victims must have done something wrong, after all, isn’t everything pre-ordained by God?

This finger pointing was an approach that Christ Himself repeatedly rejected, whether it had to do with blaming a man’s parents for blindness, the experience of violent oppression, or even a natural disaster. In Luke 13:1-5 (NIV), we read the following exchange:

“Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”

There is no magic formula for avoiding tragedy. Instead, we need to focus on our own lives before we start placing blame on others. “”Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:3). It doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t eventually point out your brother’s eye goober, but be sure that you don’t hit him in the face with the big stick in your eye when you turn to look at him.

It is so easy to fall into the trap of perverting the good news of Jesus Christ by making Him look like an arbitrary tyrant intent on destroying people who have offended Him. Many people struggle through their faith or leave altogether when they can’t explain why bad things happen to good people or why a “loving” God would willingly torture people throughout eternity.

Jonathan Edwards terrified a generation of New Englanders when he preached in 1741, “The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked: his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire. . . . You hang by a slender thread, with the flames of divine wrath flashing about it, and ready every moment to singe it, and burn it asunder” (Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God).

Theology along these lines, not found in the Bible, would explain why so many American Christians actively support torture or a preliminary attack on Iran. It explains the push for the death penalty against homosexuals in Uganda. It provided the framework for the Inquisition and cleansing of “heresy” throughout the middle ages. If God is just, and is our example, then why shouldn’t Christians seek to do His dirty work on earth? If forces of evil are going to be tortured in hell, why not send them there early and prevent them from leading the innocent astray?

This doctrine of eternal torture in hell violates principles that most decent human beings hold themselves to – it involves disproportionate punishment and invokes the cognitive dissonance of eternal bliss with the knowledge that another is undergoing eternal torment.

If God was like this, George Carlin’s sense of dark irony would be well-placed. The universe would have two sides, a bright living room where angels float on clouds, and a basement so evil that it would exceed the worst that Satan himself could conceive.

But is that really the character of God? No.

One of the biggest contributions that Seventh-day Adventism has made to Christianity is the rediscovery of the Biblical doctrine that hell is not eternal torment. There are many complete explanations of the Biblical research behind this position online (click here for a good place to start). Essentially Adventists believe that “the wicked . . . shall be destroyed forever” (Psalm 92:7), and that those who accept Christ can, “according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness” (2 Peter 3:13).

So what does this have to do with religious liberty? Many of the strongest challenges to freedom of conscience and religious liberty on a global basis come from those who do not understand the reality of the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and instead make Him out to be a tyrant. They consider themselves His deputies.

Only when Christians begin to understand the truth of the gospel can they begin to see how important it is to tell the truth the consistency of His character and the all sufficient power of His love. “If you abide in my word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free,’” (John 8:31,32).

To learn how you can help the people of Haiti, visit:  www.adra.org/Haiti

Do you agree? Disagree?  Post your comments below.

Reprinted with Permission.

Scott Ritsema
CIVICS NEWS.com
January 5, 2008

Pat Robertson, one of those Christian spokesmen that makes Christians cringe every time he opens his mouth, has struck again. At least he’s not calling for violence…this time. Strangely, though, this time around he is endorsing Obama and Obama’s coming socialist policies. Kurt Nimmo at Infowars reports:

On December 23, the “conservative” preacher Pat Robertson told CNN’s Suzanne Malveaux that he was pleased as punch with the election of Barack Obama. “I am remarkably pleased with Obama. I had grave misgivings about him. But so help me, he’s come in forcefully, intelligently. He’s picked a middle of the road cabinet. And so far, if he continues down this course, he has the makings of a great president,” said Robertson.

Yes, Obama’s cabinet is so “middle-of-the-road” that Dick Cheney (??!) is pleased with it. Obama’s cabinet is anything but middle-of-the-road.

Robertson expects a “great presidency” out of Obama. What will this look like, exactly? Well, Robertson has the inside track, because God supposedly told him the following:

“People will welcome socialism in order to relieve their pain. Nothing will stand in the way of a plan by Obama to restructure the economy in the same fashion as the New Deal in the ’30s.”

In case the reader is tempted to conclude that God actually spoke to Pat Robertson, consider the last time he made a prediction about the future: Early 2007, when he predicted that there would be massive terrorist attacks before the end of the year. From USA Today:

In what has become an annual tradition of prognostications, religious broadcaster Pat Robertson said Tuesday God has told him that a terrorist attack on the United States would result in “mass killing” late in 2007.

“I’m not necessarily saying it’s going to be nuclear,” he said during his news-and-talk television show “The 700 Club” on the Christian Broadcasting Network. “The Lord didn’t say nuclear. But I do believe it will be something like that.”

Robertson said God told him during a recent prayer retreat that major cities and possibly millions of people will be affected by the attack, which should take place sometime after September.

For Robertson to turn on his conservative roots and to endorse Obama and socialism is not surprising, given the fact that he has joined hands with the left-leaning Al Sharpton in a commercial endorsing the mainstream media’s view of the “climate crisis.” “We can solve” this “climate crisis,” the commercial states. Robertson tells us that “it’s the right thing to do.”

Additionally, in 2001, Pat Robertson defended China’s one-child policy where forced abortions and infanticide run rampant. According to Pat, the Communist government is “doing what it has to do.”

Endorsing Obama and his socialist policies. Calling for “solving the climate crisis.” Defending China’s one-child policy. Is this a Christian conservative?

9/11

Seven years have passed since the planes hit the World Trade Center. Here is an unvarnished scrapbook of events that took place on that day and how these events led to a war in the Middle East and what happened there.

The Attack – After the first plane hit one of the towers, this cameraman set up his home video camera on a balcony 1 block from the world trade centers and left the room to let it record unknowing a 2nd plane would hit and he would catch it on tape.

A few religious leaders reacted to 9/11 in unusual ways. Included towards the end is a section where Bush takes a passage from the Gospel of John and revises it, so that the light of Christ becomes the light of America. Here are excerpts of comments by Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, and others.

That evening, the singer Sting held a concert in Tuscany, Italy. Here he is singing “Fragile”.

A YouTuber made this video clip with pictures of some of the people who died on September 11, 2001. The song is “I Can Only Imagine” by Mercy Me.

9/11 Tribute – “How to Save a Life” by The Fray

The U.S. then went to war – “Daddy Where You Going?” Performed by Brian Wardwell. Written by Tommy Joe Myers and Jim Flynn.

“Half My Heart Back in Tennessee” A soldier sings to his family from Camp Victory in Iraq – Country Music Video by Army Captain Chris Atkins, a Combat Stress Mental Health officer, filmed at Camp Victory, Iraq on November 10, 2007 in front of Saddam’s Old Palace and current HQ of FORSCOM and General Petreus. Chris lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee with his wife of 9 years, Miranda, and daughters Hannah, 8 and Grace, 5. They just found out they will have a third child due 5 days before Chris returns stateside in late May. This song is a love song from a soldier in Love during a time of war.

There were protests – Let it Be

There were more protests  - Eminem “Mosh”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quTwzpM3qnM 

Congress was concerned - Senator Joe Biden on the War in 2007

Beginning Monday 9-01-08 until 11-05-08, the documentary film No End In Sight will be released in it’s entirety on YouTube by Director and Producer Charles Ferguson.

http://www.youtube.com/user/noendinsight