This may seem like a funny thing for me to write about... after all, you all know me... I'm the conservative, Christian type, etc... but this guy is really ticking me off right now.  I had originally intended to make this post a couple days ago... but alas, our campus internet has been down all weekend, and so I've had a couple days to think about it, and it arrives... now. 

As many of you probably know, Pat Robertson is at it again.  A couple days ago, he made the statement that perhaps Ariel Sharon's current condition is the result of divine retribution for "dividing God's land".  Needless to say... there are some people not too happy to hear him say that.  Including me.  You see, my problem with Pat Robertson is not that he suggested that we should assassinate the president of Venezuela ("Do not murder" Exodus 20:13 [NLT]).  It is also not that he suggested that Ariel Sharon is essentially being killed by God ("He does not want anyone to perish," 2 Peter 3:9 [NLT]).  Granted, both of these things are terrible to say and should not have been said (Mr. Robertson needs to learn to think before he speaks, I think).  My problem with Pat Robertson isn't even that he claims to know something about Judaism and "divinding God's land" (I learned a lot about this topic last quarter from a Jewish Rabbi who helped teach one of my classes.  Apparently, many Jews believe that just because God promised them the land currently called Israel doesn't mean that no one else would be living there with them.  At the time the covenant was made, they were lucky to make it there at all.).  The root of my problem with Mr. Robertson is this: Pat Robertson seems to think that he speaks for a majority of Christians.  I don't know for sure that he doesn't, but I can tell you this: he doesn't speak for me, and he doesn't  speak for 99% of the other Christians I know.  It's easy enough to see that these eccentric extremist ideas that he expounds nightly on The 700 Club  are in direct opposition to the Word of God, yet he portrays them as if they are absolute truth, spoken by God himself.  I find it hard to believe that one man would suddenly be given authority to speak on behalf the entire Christian religion (much less God Himself), and even if he was, I find it hard to believe that these hateful messages are what our Creator wants to say to His world.

The unfortunate thing about it is that many non-Christians latch on to these kinds of statements and ideas and associate them with all of Christianity, when most of us don't agree with such statements at all.  Fundamentalists like Mr. Robertson always seem to grab the public spotlight and incite the commotion, while those of us in the dorms, offices, and churches of America are left to try to explain their words and actions to an unbelieving world ("...no, I swear, that's not what I think... that's just what he says... all Christians aren't like that").

So in conclusion... Mr. Robertson, if you're out there... please stop speaking before you think, especially if your words could be traced back to the faith I practice, and therefore, me.  It would do Christianity a lot of good.