Delightful Christian Bigot, Pat Robertson

Yeah, it's been awhile, but he's back at it again. Now Pat's calling Muslims "satanic." I'll give him this, when he's talking about terrorists, he used the word "fanatic," which is spot-on accurate. But then he took that extra Christian step, the one that none of them born-agains can resist, to say that anything they don't like or don't understand or which threatens them in any way, is inspired, sponsored, manipulated, controlled, or (your word here) by Satan himself.

Well, of course, that has to be the answer. If simple observable sciend from a third-grade classroom shows how water pressure can drive a toy train or a toy rocket, and that same verifiable, incontrovertible science, the science that powers the Internet and aircraft flight and the electronics that make these Christians their coffee every morning, is applied much more deeply and intricately to observe and catalog the boundless infinite-ness of space and the billions of years of cataclysmic and randomly violent existence, with nary a speck of evidence to show the existence of God or Jesus or the Garden of Eden or Noah's Flood, then it must be the work of the devil. Pure Luddites, at least when it comes to the big-picture stuff that they can't begin to intellectually fathom anyway.

So Pat has called the bad-guy Muslims "satanic." Well, that's not really new, is it? And it's only to be expected. My main observation here is that this is kind of the end of the line when it comes to insults and put-downs and how you demonize the other side. Naturally, it closes off any kind of debate. If you've got on a black turban and an unshaved beard, then you're in league with the Horned One, and there's really no point in talking at all, since you're after all of our souls, burning in the Fiery Pit, etc. So, there's no point in any sort of engagement with these folks. The only answer is violence, open attack, both physically and rhetorically.

So where does Pat go next? Since this is the Christian equivalent of dropping the "Fuck you" bomb in an argument, where does he take it from here? You can't back off this kind of talk, especially when we're talking about the Black Prince. My only guess is that Pat probably will take this to some kind of End Of Days scenario, link it up with the Armageddon theme to really get those Midwest non-thinkers quaking in their sensible shoes. Hell, if there's an army of devil-controlled troops out there fighting us, then this must signal the end times, that the devil finally has been roused from his lair and is now walking the earth in plain form to take control and establish his dark dominion, right?

So it's only a matter of time until the truly righteous and good and Christian-ly intolerant start floating on up to Heaven, right? Or just flat-out disappear--poof!--like in the Left Behind series. Now, how long will it take Pat to get to this kind of speech? Days, or weeks? Or will he hold off on it, since predicting the end of the world still hasn't worked out for any preacher whatsoever, since the beginning of time and organized religion. Pat's a smiling, intolerant bigot and bully, sure, but he's also most likely smart enough to know that in the grand End Of The World roulette, he'd probably not break even. That would be bad for his credibility, at least what credibility he maintains among the dull flock who follow him because they can't think on their own.

So, Pat, surprise us all and say something new. Put some biblical demonic names to the satanic leaders. Be the righteous and brave, and put some names to figures we're encountering today. Pick up that flaming sword and wade into the battle, instead of standing in the back and making speeches over the heads of those you and your Bush-Cheney cabal are sending in.