Pat Robertson Needs a Clue
By Anthony | November 14th, 2005 | 10:24 amThe simple fact of Pat Robertson rebuking the citizens of Dover, PA for ousting Intelligent Design-supporting school board members is ridiculous enough, but it turns out that Robertson is even more clueless than I originally thought. In his rebuke, Robertson said, “I’d like to say to the good citizens of Dover: if there is a disaster in your area, don’t turn to God, you just rejected Him from your city.” However, according to Bernadette Reinking, one of the newly-elected school board members, Intelligent Design isn’t going to be kicked out of Dover’s schools, let alone the city, but only eliminated from their science classrooms (from an interview on NPR this morning):
Our group wants to put Intelligent Design in an elective course … We don’t believe that you don’t have to talk about it, we just believe it needs to be in a different part of the curriculum … Every one of [the newly elected school board members] is a Christian, and every one of us believes in God, we don’t have a problem with that. There’s a church on every corner in Dover.”
So even leaving aside the idea of God running some kind of vindictive protection racket, Robertson’s rebuke is way off the mark considering that the new school board is actually in favor of putting ID in the classroom – just not the science classroom.
November 14th, 2005 at 10:16 pm
Hi PS. After the assasinate-that-guy thing and some other recent whack remarks he’s made, including this ID thing, some of us are wondering if Pat maybe has some kind of health problem, and I’m being completely serious here. His comments and his politics are getting way out of hand, and it just doesn’t make sense.
November 14th, 2005 at 10:20 pm
A “health problem” is possible, I suppose. Are these kinds of statements a recent development for him? Did he used to be more rational back in his younger days? I’ve never really paid much attention to him, so I don’t know.
November 16th, 2005 at 1:22 am
I’ve never been a follower of the Pat-man, to be honest. But the “older folks” in my life used to listen to him, and now they all just have the “raised-eyebrow” look whenever his name is mentioned, so I think there’s been some sort of decline…
November 16th, 2005 at 11:39 pm
I just found this great response to Robertson by John Shelby Spong:
http://dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/11/16/18509/384
November 18th, 2005 at 8:29 pm
I remember a line in Willa Cather’s O Pioneers I think where the heroine says of her aging brothers something like “they grow more like themselves every year.” It seems that such is true of Pat Robertson, that there has been some inhibition factor to a side of him that he was once able to suppress that has or is waning. It is sad. Bishop Spong of course represents the left wing of the left wing of the left wing of the heretics club, so one would not expect kind words from him about Pat Robertson, but this little piece takes the cake. They should both retire.