I know that Pat Robertson is a private citizen and he can say whatever he wants. But millions of people listen to him and he is very influential. Robertson would be easier to ignore if he was universally thought to be a crackpot...but unfortunately, that's just not the case.

So, as much as I think Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela, is a terrible leader and somewhat of a nutcase, and think that Venezuelans would do well to vote him out of office, I was deeply disturbed by Robertson's call today to assassinate Chavez. The main thing that Robertson accomplished by his statements today is to give certain enemies of America additional fodder to point out that the United States has powerful homegrown religious extremists, too.

As the CNN article points out, it's unclear how Venezuela, a country that is 98% Catholic or Protestant, will become "a launching pad for Communist infiltration and Muslim extremism all over the continent," as Robertson contends.

A couple years back, (and also as mentioned in the CNN article) Robertson reached the pinnacle of "pot-kettle-blackism" when he said, "It's clear from the teachings of the Quran and also from the history of Islam that it's anything but peaceful." I suppose that by contrast, the history of Christianity, from the Crusades to the Protestants vs. the Catholics in Ireland, demonstrates a totally peaceful and beneficent religion.

I think the vast majority of people in almost every religion are peaceful, but there is also small percentage of whack-jobs in almost every religion, who are either violent or suggest violence as a solution to a problem...and Pat Robertson demonstrated clearly today that he is one of them.

Disagree with me? Please post a comment and tell me why I'm wrong...