Pat Robertson and Dover, PA: voodoo blackmail over intelligent design
Like a demented jack-in-the-box, Pat Robertson pops up at the damnedest times. This time, he has the gall to threaten divine retribution against an entire town because voters there threw out a slate of corrupt school board members who were trying to deliberately subvert the science curriculum in that school district by smuggling in disguised Christian dogma — so-called “intelligent design” theory.
Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson warned residents of a rural Pennsylvania town Thursday that disaster may strike there because they “voted God out of your city” by ousting school board members who favored teaching intelligent design…
“I’d like to say to the good citizens of Dover: If there is a disaster in your area, don’t turn to God. You just rejected him from your city,” Robertson said on the Christian Broadcasting Network’s “700 Club.”
Pardon the figure of speech, but “My God!” — how old is this decrepit old fraud and how come more people don’t recognize a childish temper tantrum inappropriate to one of his severely advanced years?
Although Ayn Rand was far from perfect, Mr. Robertson reminds me of a very apt quote from her essay “Attila and the Witch Doctor“:
“…Attila and the Witch Doctor form an alliance and divide their respective domains. Attila rules the realm of men’s physical existence—the Witch Doctor rules the realm of men’s consciousness. Attila herds men into armies—the Witch Doctor sets the armies’ goals. Attila conquers empires—the Witch Doctor writes their laws. Attila loots and plunders—the Witch Doctor exhorts the victims to surpass their selfish concern with material property. Attila slaughters—the Witch Doctor proclaims to the survivors that scourges are a retribution for their sins. Attila rules by means of fear, by keeping men under a constant threat of destruction—the Witch Doctor rules by means of guilt, by keeping men convinced of their innate depravity, impotence and insignificance. Attila turns men’s life on earth into a living hell—the Witch Doctor tells them that it could not be otherwise.”
Pat, you old Witch Doctor, I would hope you’d carefully consider this holy wrath stuff just a little more before flapping your lips in the future. If divine vengance follows election results, the whole United States has been totally screwed at least since November of 2004. As a matter of fact, I’d go so far as to say that no modern US President resembles the Beast of Revelations as much as George W. Bush does. Considering the commonly projected role of the “false church” in the reign of terror and tribulation the Anti-Christ is said to bring, that would kinda sorta make you, Pat, The Great Whore of Babylon.
Now, I don’t necessarily believe that, as I haven’t been a Christian since my adolescent years. Still, if the shoe fits, you’ve got to wear it Pat.
To the good citizens of Dover, Pennsylvania, I say this:
In my unofficial capacity as an Erisian Pope, allow me to extend the benevolence, blessings and protection of the Flying Spaghetti Monster to guard over your fair burgh. May your fields be green and your condoms never break. Now join hands with me in a circle and say “Gesundheit!”
The sad truth is that these sorts of curriculum disputes are an inevitable part of having a public education system — so we ought to just get rid of public education. Government schools are inevitably held hostage to politics. That’s why, pending complete abolition of the state, the best approach to education would be complete seperation of school and state.
Parents do have a legitimate interest in seeing that their children’s education reflects their own individual values, which is why I have a degree of sympathy for religious folks, when they’re not making a fool of themselves like ole Pat. The “one size fits all” nature of public education is incompatible with that, though, as are half-assed pseudo-privatization schemes like vouchers.
Just get government, all government, out of education completely. Then religious and secular folks can hopefully get along better as friends and neighbors, because we won’t all have to worry about who is trying to shove whose values down the other peoples throats.
Update: It just occurred to me to ask…
Aren’t political office holders whose votes are influenced by hopes of a personal heavenly reward in the afterlife essentially taking a bribe???
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