Pat Robertson is a liar and hypocrite

Russell Saunders

Russell Saunders is the ridiculously flimsy pseudonym of a pediatrician in New England. He has a husband, three sons, daughter, cat and dog, though not in that order. He enjoys reading, running and cooking. He can be contacted at blindeddoc using his Gmail account. Twitter types can follow him @russellsaunder1.

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36 Responses

  1. Vikram Bath says:

    I got the liar part. Where’s the hypocritical part?Report

  2. Rufus F. says:

    Is it possible that he’s really gullible and not particularly bright instead of intentionally lying?Report

    • j r in reply to Rufus F. says:

      If that is true, I’m not sure there is any real difference. It’s possible that someone fed him this story and he just chose to repeat it without any proof or verification, but do you think that he would have done the same thing if someone passed him a similar story about evangelical Christians?Report

    • NewDealer in reply to Rufus F. says:

      That seems like a distinction without a difference.

      Though I think you are right. I’ve had this debate before about which of the big right-wing guys are true believers in their nuttiness as compared to which ones are cynical manipulators spreading it for profit.

      Call it the Elmer Gantry questionReport

  3. Chris says:

    I remember this rumor, or a rumor like it, from the early 90s. The only people I knew who believed it then were rabidly anti-gay evangelicals. I assume that it was spread in Robertson’s circle as well, and this is him finally bringing it up publicly, because he is at this point so completely out of touch that he’s forgotten that he’s only supposed to spread rumors like this among people who already think the way he does about teh gays.Report

  4. I also grew up in fear of gay people, because of stuff exactly like this.Report

  5. J@m3z Aitch says:

    Sigh. I feel for you Russell. That’s pretty awful. If there’s any comfort, perhaps it’s in that one way or the other this guy’s living a lie, and the ultimate end for him ain’t gonna be what he’s expecting.Report

    • kenB in reply to J@m3z Aitch says:

      Yeah, but presumably at that point there won’t be any Pat Robertson consciousness able to realize his mistake. That’s the problem with being an atheist — you can’t comfort yourself with the thought that people will eventually be confronted with the Truth.Report

  6. No wait, the AIDS ring is totally real…

    http://www.yankodesign.com/2008/06/25/viral-jewelry/

    Though it’s in questionable taste, to say the least.Report

  7. Jaybird says:

    Sigh. He actually signalled that he was capable of independent thought with the whole marijuana thing and was downright compassionate when it came to the idea of divorce of someone with Alzheimer’s.

    I suppose him actually opening his eyes was too much to hope for.

    Back to waiting for him to be called back home…Report

  8. LeeEsq says:

    Its pretty much a blood libel accusation.Report

  9. Rod Engelsman says:

    Ya gotta wonder if this was started by some closeted evangelical-type who came down with AIDS and wanted a cover story.Report

  10. Damon says:

    Oh please, Pat is just exposing a conspiracy between the CIA and the militant homosexual one world liberal groups (sponsored by the lizard people) to turn American INTO SODDOM AND BRING ABOUT DA EVIL!!!

    God Bless ‘merica and Pat.

    *sniff*

    /sarcasm offReport

  11. Burt Likko says:

    Well, now we know one way urban legends get propagated. And really, to expect critical thought from the likes of Pat Robertson on a subject matter eliciting strong emotions from the man is setting a high expectation.

    With that said, obviously this is several levels of obnoxious and beneath contempt.Report

  12. North says:

    I wish I could say I was surprised.Report

  13. Shazbot3 says:

    Ah, famous and wealthy leaders of Christianity… You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.

    Seriously, is there one wealthy leader (famous pastor, preacher) of Christianity who isn’t a monster? I suppose there is, but as a group, there are a lot of bad apples. Never mind the pedophiles, homophobes, and misogynists in the Catholic hierarchy.)Report

  14. Pinky says:

    A few thoughts –

    I think it matters a lot whether someone is crazy or a liar. It doesn’t affect the truth of what he says, but it says something about his intentions. Robertson is, by my estimation, a lunatic. This statement of his probably doesn’t make the top ten list of crazy things he’s ever said, and not because it isn’t crazy, but because of the serious competition it has.

    There’s a thing I’ve noticed among conspiracy theorists: they believe all of them. You’re going to find an occasional person who believes one or two, but you’re never going to find someone who believes only 50% of them. Once you condition your mind to assume that everything the public believes is false, you accept everything (everything!) the public doesn’t believe as true. I think of this as the George Noory Syndrome. I used to listen to his Coast-to-Coast AM radio show a lot. Every caller believes the entire set of things “‘they’ don’t want you to know about”. When an occasional guest would be on to talk about UFO’s but didn’t have any opinion about the Fed or chemtrails, the audience would react badly.

    My personal favorite crazy thing that Robertson said was about Haiti being cursed by their pact with the Devil. It sticks out in my mind because he said this to a commentator on his show, and she had to have known that her reaction would be enshrined on Youtube – but she went along with it. What must have been going on in her mind? She knew that she was sitting next to a crazy person, but she didn’t have the guts to call him out, I guess for the sake of her job.

    Anyway, my take is that Pat Robertson is an exact parallel to Michael Moore – he says nonsense that one side likes, and even though 95% of the people on that side know it’s nonsense, they don’t want to say anything to offend the 5% of their allies.Report

  15. Jeff Lipton says:

    I’m shocked that it’s news to you that Robertson is a liar, and therefore a hypocrite. I’ve known that for over a decade.Report