Faith, Beer, and Other Things That Interest Geoff

You know, honestly, until Muslim clerics stop getting caught doing things like laundering RPG money, they really can't bitch too much about the whole terrorist association thing. My problem has always been Christians' reluctancy to do the same every time people like Pat Robertson offer tacit approval of bombing abortion clinics.

Hwang
 

I'm not aware of any Christian group, beyond fringe wacked-out groups (but I doubt the reality of their faith anyway), who implicitly condones abortion clinic bombings. Actually, I hear denoucements about those episodes frequently, especially since it is mentioned a lot. And I mean a lot.
 

Um... okay, let me repeat myself. Pat Robertson tacitly condones the bombings on his show. He addressed the issue in an episode I saw once. A letter came in asking him about bombing abortion clinics. His response was to say that these people are killers (he was refering to the doctors). When you are violent, he stated, it breeds violence. That was the entirety of his statement. He never once even mentioned the bombers. Never made any comment that could even be MISconstrued as condemning the bombings.

Pat Robertson is hardly a fringe element of the Christian right. He has the ear of the President on virtually a daily basis. He and his cronies, who don't even disagree on what to get for dinner, have held the ear of the President since his 2000 campaign. Frank Grahmn, son of Billy and a rather shockingly staunch anti-semite, I believe even presided over Bush's inauguration. Bob Jones, of Bob Jones University fame, is a close friend of the President. These people are all part of the same-think pack.

But frankly, even if you don't agree with the latter part of that, the fact remains that Pat Robertson, for one, has tacitly supported abortion clinic bombings.

I mean this quesiton not as an insult, but out of genuine curiosity. When you make statements like Christian leaders, except for those on the fringes, never support bombings, is this based on assumptions founded on your own religious beliefs or something more concrete than that?

I ask because I find it somewhat... interesting that so many Republicans spout, at times word for word, the party script. It is one of the great admirations I have for the Republican party that they can be so well organized. But I do have to wonder, when you speak the party line, are you assuming that the research behind it has already been done, or is there addtional research that people like you do?

Hwang