Dear Pat Robertson

Dear Pat Robertson:

Please stop calling yourself a Christian. Please stop referring to yourself as a spokesman for God.

Your track record over the past two decades suggests very strongly that you are following your own religion, not Christianity. Through your death threats to world leaders you don’t like, your support of apartheid policies in South Africa, and your vitriolic slurs against women, Hindus, Muslims, atheists, and non-heterosexuals, you present a very non-Christian face to the world. I suggest that your real religion is the worship of all things Pat Robertson – that is, being male, white, Protestant, Christian, American, rightwing, heterosexual. Everything else is on your list to despise.

You see, Pat, that is not Christian, not by anyone’s definition. And to be very frank, it also doesn’t make the least bit of sense. You can’t call yourself a patriotic American when you call on people to denigrate its laws, its supreme courts, and its ethnic diversity. And you can’t make calls to hatred and violence in the same breath as quoting the loving teachings of Jesus.

I have noticed the same tendencies among other fundamentalist groups, such as fundamentalist Jews, Muslims, and Hindus. And before you get angry by that comparison, consider how similar fundamentalist groups are, despite their rigid differences in creed. In fact, creeds are about the only real difference among them: the way they all live, speak, and act on their creeds is exactly the same. Violence, hatred, superiority, claims about what God wants, claims about who gets into heaven, opposition to change, education, science. They also all show a remarkable disdain for democratic principles, human rights, laws, and human progress. We really should consider fundamentalism as its own religion, with sub-sects of Christian, Muslim, and Jew.

And speaking of science, Pat, just a point of information. It’s not a collection of facts approved by the powers that be, as you seem to assume. Science is a method. It is a way of determining the truth of a principle. It is a testing and retesting and reviewing and discussing and experimenting path to truth. So school board authorities can’t dictate to the world’s science community what is and isn’t science, just because fundamentalists are breathing down their necks. Science just is such as it is. So if you really want to discuss creationism or its newer euphemism, intelligent design, then you need to find a more appropriate avenue. I recommend church or home.

Just as science is not a collect of facts, Christianity is not a collection of rules and edicts approved by the powers that be either. It’s especially not a set of rules of who-to-hate and edicts of what-harm-we-get-to-do-to-which-others. It’s a way of life, following the example and teachings of Jesus.

This is why, mysterious as it seems to be to you and your followers – this is why people in your country are demanding a sharp separation between church and state affairs. They don’t want people who know nothing about science or education -- or democracy or decency or human kindness -- returning everyone back to the Dark Ages.

Fundamentalist, it may be. But Christian, it ain't.

Sincerely

Nancy A

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Dear Dover, Pennsylvania:

You rock. Totally.

Sincerely

Nancy A