The Wake

Before performing the song “Masters of War,” Bob Dylan once said, “I don’t mind the Ten Commandments, I believe in the Ten Commandments. The first one, ‘I am the Lord thy God,’ is a great commandment, if it isn’t said by the wrong people.” Decades after Dylan’s remarks, the wrong people still have the loudest voices when representing religion.

Televangelist Pat Robertson is second only to President George W. Bush in using religion as an instrument to gain power. Just as Bush campaigned that “God wants me to be president” to the religious conservatives and evangelicals of America to sway the 2004 elections, Pat Robertson has used the same religious conservatives and evangelicals to acquire an important voice in America to spread his right-wing ideals.

Robertson’s The 700 Club television program acts as a soapbox from which he shouts. The show’s official website boasts an American viewership of “nearly 90 million homes and averages about one million viewers on a daily basis.” As a result, Robertson has the attention of a significant number of Americans, who demonstrated with Bush’s 2004 win that they have substantial political power. Unfortunately, this large group is aligning themselves (knowingly or unknowingly) with Robertson’s beliefs by tuning into The 700 Club. Since Robertson has made countless fanatical conservative and offensive comments in his time as a political and religious figure in America, his audience is dangerous. Just as they reelected Bush, Robertson’s audience could eventually change the doctrine of America to reflect his conservative ideas if they adhere to his extremist agenda.

Robertson’s America would be a country in which feminists, homosexuals and liberals are persecuted. At the 1992 GOP convention Robertson stated, “Feminism encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.” Almost fourteen years later and Robertson is still making similar outrageous claims with very little opposition from his 700 Club viewers or the Republican Party, of which he is a member. Robertson even attempted to run for president in 1988, but lost the Republican nomination to George H. W. Bush.

In response to Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez’s statements that he believed that the U.S. government was planning to assassinate him, Robertson said, “I don’t know about this doctrine of assassination, but if [Chávez] thinks [America’s] trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it. It’s a whole lot cheaper than starting a war, and I don’t think any oil shipments will stop.” Robertson later denied that he made this remark despite it being recorded on television August 22, 2005. After Robertson’s careless comment, the American government merely said, “our department doesn’t do that kind of thing.” This is a rather mild statement from a government that outlawed the assassinations of heads of state in 1976.

In other instances, Robertson has claimed that his prayers have diverted hurricanes, that Ariel Sharon’s recent illness is retribution from God for attempting to give more land to Palestinians and that God will turn his back on the people of Dover, Pennsylvania because they “voted God out” by removing all seven members from the school board who supported intelligent design. These are just a few of the many unsubstantiated claims Robertson has made over the years. The fact that he is still on television and the fact that he still acts as a representative for America speaks volumes about Americans and the American government. In 2006 it is acceptable for leaders to criticize and condemn American people, but it is considered treasonous for the American people to criticize and condemn its leaders. George W. Bush proves this by labeling the anti-Iraq movement as un-American and, at the same time, by his unwillingness to punish Pat Robertson for his clearly un-American statements.

The conservative ,evangelical movement is a real threat to modern America as the country proves with leaders such as Bush and Robertson that history is cyclical—that America is repeating periods of the past. Bush’s America of the 21st century is becoming more similar to Puritan America of the 1600s and 1700s. The Puritans were ruled by men who used religion as a tool to oppress and take power, which eerily resembles Bush and Robertson today. Those who did not practice the beliefs of their religious male leaders became outcasts and were punished. Bush has already set America on a similar path by calling Iraqi war opponents unpatriotic. Ultimately this path will lead to leaders such as Bush and Robertson putting scarlet letters on these un-Americans to force them into exile—away from ever obtaining power. The Puritans did it to the Native Americans and Bush and Robertson are trying to do it to American liberals.

“So now as I’m leavin’ I’m weary as Hell, the confusion I’m feelin’ ain’t no tongue can tell, the words fill my head and fall to the floor, if God’s on our side he’ll stop the next war.”

—Bob Dylan, “With God On Our Side”