Lively televangelist Pat Robertson had something interesting to say during his 700 Club broadcast on May 8th. It was then that he announced to the world, or at least his followers, that God had spoken to him. Again.
And what did ‘He’ have to say? Apparently we are being warned of impending doom and gloom: Robertson said “If I heard the Lord right about 2006, the coasts of America will be lashed by storms”
Um,… Really? Is this a threat?
This kind of blatant God-wielding is precisely why Robertson hereby gets the nod as today’s Arrogant Jerk in my ongoing, albeit random, effort to round up my like-kinded terrestrials.
Lets begin with this one; do I understand correctly that he is ‘unsure’ whether he heard God right? Was he just not listening as closely as he should when the Creator of All Things™ was whispering in his ear? Or is he leaving himself a big giant escape hatch for when, perhaps, the Storms-a-Lashing don’t materialize? Either option makes me wonder how he has been able pull the wool over so many eyes for so long. That is quite a trick. And a lucrative one, at that.
As if to really tap into the fear generated in all of us as we watched that wave take over the beachhead on December 26, 2004, Robertson threw in these words two days later for good measure: “…there well may be something as bad as a tsunami in the Pacific Northwest.”
What an Arrogant Jerk.
Why would God warn us about something that is generally commonplace? As a young boy in Florida roughly 40 years ago I am pretty sure “hurricane” was among my first understood words. And according to the almanac, storms have been hitting these Great American States from all sides for longer than we have been counting. What is so special about this revelation? Nothing, and Robertson is an Arrogant Jerk for saying so.
“…in 2006”. Oh, so Pat; you may not have been listening very well when God was instructing you on our demise, but you are pretty sure it was going to be ‘this year’? In the unlikely, no, the impossible scenario that we get to the end of 2006 without any storms at our shores, I am pretty sure Robertson would recall that it must have been ‘another’ year. He really wasn’t listening, after all.
Spoiler Warning: Pat Robertson is using the idea of ‘God’ as his personal floatation device to make you think he is above you.
Predicting that a terrible storm will occur in the U.S. in the next year is about as difficult as hitting the ground with a lawn dart. Try not to; I dare you. Claiming ‘God’ revealed this information is to assume that those listening are as gullible as a dodo. Probably.
I am hereby upgrading Pat to ‘Pious Arrogant Jerk’.
Amen.
