For a while I was getting worried. Pat Robertson had started saying sensible things, such as that religious people should not be saying things like the age of the Earth is just 6,000 years old that oppose well established scientific facts, and that marijuana should be legalized. I was afraid that these were signs that we had entered some strange alternate universe.
But I needn’t have worried, because the old familiar Pat is back! He is at his best (i.e., most crazy) when he is answering questions from viewers of his TV show and is speaking off the cuff and giving advice on things like romance. That is when his inner crazy, never far from the surface, bubbles up and he utters with the most bizarre stuff.
In this clip, he responds to a question as to why these days miracles seem to occur only in Africa and not the US.
“People overseas didn’t go to Ivy League schools,” the TV preacher said, laughing. “We’re so sophisticated, we think we’ve got everything figured out. We know about evolution, we know about Darwin, we know about all these things that says God isn’t real.”
“We have been inundated with skepticism and secularism,” he continued. “And overseas, they’re simple, humble. You tell ’em God loves ’em and they say, ‘Okay, he loves me.’ You say God will do miracles and they say, ‘Okay, we believe him.'”
“And that’s what God’s looking for. That’s why they have miracles.”
Robertson is a master at ‘effing the ineffable‘, claiming detailed knowledge of what god likes and wants. But what is worse is that he makes out that Africans are dopes who simply accept what he tells them about god. Furthermore, it makes no sense that god would avoid doing miracles in those parts of the world where there is greater skepticism. Surely that is precisely where he should do them, in order to confound the skeptics?
But Robertson is wrong on the facts, since god has produced a miracle Pepperidge Farm goldfish snack right here in the US. Let’s see you match that, Africa!
But his underlying message is correct, that the more people get educated and learn about science, the less likely they are to be gullible about alleged miracles. So we have to credit him with realizing that, however offensively he says it.
Mano, is effing the ineffable your phrase? Brilliant!
Pat is one of the US’s biggest embarrassments. If he is considered one of Christianity’s brightest stars, they are in worse trouble than I thought.
Alas, no. I am not that adept at coining phrases. I wish I had thought of it but if you follow the link you will see that it originates with philosopher Stephen Law.
The second video autoplays, starting with an annoying commercial. I hate that. Hope you can fix it.
I don’t know how to do that, unfortunately. I’ll see if I can figure it out.
Bwahahaha!
That ‘cross’ in the goldfish is nothing more than the negative impression from a phillips head screw.
If that’s a sign from god, then my shop is a verifiable holy site!