Pat Robertson is a tool

I have never made a secret of the fact that I am an Atheist. But according to Pat Robertson, I am also a Nazi. Who new?

On Pat Robertson's television program last week (The 700 Club) he made a very interesting statement, especially interesting to an atheist such as myself:

"Atheists don't like our happiness, they don't want you to be happy, they want you to be miserable. They're miserable so they want you to be miserable."

Well, I'm not surprised to find out that I'm miserable (if you count depression as misery), but I certainly don't want anyone else to be miserable. Or depressed. It sucks. But back to Pat. He went on to say:

"Just like what Nazi Germany did to the Jews, so liberal America is now doing to the evangelical Christians. It's no different. It's the same thing. It is happening all over again."

OK, now I've got to call him on this. In what way am I like the Nazis? Have any Atheists launched an extermination campaign lately, against Christians or anyone else? Have our brown-shirted thugs run riot in Christian neighborhoods, dragging people from their homes and beating them senseless? Is there one Atheist-run concentration camp? Has any Atheist called for the mass murder of evangelicals, forced them into gas chambers, attempted to eradicate them from the face of the Earth? Is any of this happening? Is any of this likely to happen?

I have to admit that there are people out there who claim that we're up to precisely such shenanigans. Those people are just that...out there. They believe such nonsense without any evidence. Not even bad evidence. (If anyone has such evidence, don't keep it to yourself.)

(It's also possible that I don't know about such doings on the part of Atheists because I haven't been going to meetings. In which case, my bad.)

OK, back to Pat. Having just said some bizarre shit, he went on to blame Democrats, homosexuals, and the media equally:

"It's the Democratic Congress, the liberal-based media, and the homosexuals whom want to destroy the Christians. Wholesale abuse and discrimination and the worst bigotry directed toward any group in America today. More terrible than anything suffered by any minority in history."

In all honesty, I'm at a bit of a loss as to how to respond to this, especially that "More terrible than anything suffered by any minority in history." How do you respond to nonsense like that? When faced with something so outrageous, so unsupportable, so obviously wrong, is it appropriate to respond at all?

I have a friend who, in response to something I once wrote about Rush Limbaugh, said "Yer just fanning the flames by addressing him. ;-)" (Yes, that ridiculous "winking" smiley was his.) As I read it, he felt that the only appropriate response was to ignore it; drawing attention to it only, as he put it, fanned the flames.

(You can read that article, and my friend's response, and my response to his response, here.)

In my opinion, he was wrong. Very wrong.

In the early 1930s the German government tended to view the Nazi party as little more than a bunch of thugs and malcontents, and ignored them. They were wrong; history had better teach us that if it teaches us nothing else. The Nazis, as I'm sure you don't need to be told, perpetrated some of the most extreme horrors in human history. No comic book super-villain was ever as destructive, as dangerous, as purely evil as Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party.

Pat Robertson didn't say that I am that bad; he said that I am worse.

It would be easy to rant and rave in response. It would be easy to argue against this notion. It would be easy to summon all the verbosity at my command to demean, to ridicule, to belittle, to show Pat Robertson as the religious bigot he is. In fact, I just did...and deleted most of it. The truth is, I can do no more to show him in a demonic light than he himself has done with his statements. Go back and re-read them, and judge the man for yourself.

For my part, I'm just going to tell you a story.

One day this past summer, I was sitting in the Napoleon Cafe digesting my lunch, reading a book and sipping a diet cola. (I do this a lot.) A middle-aged woman came up to me, having seen me limp in on crutches, and asked me what had happened. I told her that I was in a car accident more than twenty years ago. Had I been on crutches all these years? No, but as my hips deteriorate my mobility becomes further compromised. It was a pleasant conversation about a less-than-pleasant topic, and after living with this handicap for so long it didn't bother me at all.

Then she asked me if I minded if she prayed for me, and asked me if I would pray with her.

Once upon a time, when I was more militant about my beliefs, I would have said no. I might even have been curt, if not actually nasty. I would have loudly and proudly proclaimed my Atheism, and my pride would have stood as a silent challenge to her Christianity.

I am not that person anymore; I am no less an Atheist (more of one, probably) but I am not as confrontational as I used to be. Besides, this woman wanted to do something nice for me, and in her world this was as nice as it could possibly get.

I said of course she could, and of course I would pray with her.

So I sat there in the Napoleon Cafe holding the hand of a woman I didn't know, head bowed and respectfully silent, as she prayed for my health and well being.

We said our thanks and good-byes, she left and I went back to my book. I imagine we both felt better for having had that moment; I know I did.

Pat Robeertson said, and he was referring to me, "Atheists don't like our happiness, they don't want you to be happy, they want you to be miserable. They're miserable so they want you to be miserable."

I suggest no lesson from this story. You will, I hope, judge me as you know me. If you don't know me, judge me by what I write. I would take great offense if you judged me as Pat Robertson sees me, though he does not (and will never) know me as anything other than a godless Atheist worthy only of his contempt.

I'm going to say one last thing before I close this. My mother grew up in greater London. She was ten years old at the start of WWII and grew up with large amounts of German ordinance exploding all around her. It's a good thing for Pat Robertson that she did not live to hear her oldest son compared to the Nazis; she would have torn out the bastard's heart and fed it to him.

Good on you, Mum.

The Blues Viking

The opinions here expressed are mine and if you don’t like them you can get your own damn blog.

Pat Robertson: 'Miserable' Atheists Trying to 'Steal' Christmas (The Huffington Post)

Pat Robertson claims 'miserable' atheists are stealing Christmas (Examiner.com)

Pat Robertson on Atheism at About.com