A Day of embarrassment

Seldom do I blog about current events and politics, only because I really don't have anything interesting to add to what already fills the blogging world.

But Pat Robertson put me over the edge today: I am truly embarrassed to call myself a Christian. You've all heard Robertson's incendiary rhetoric calling for CIA operatives to assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Some predictably have come to Robertson's defense. Often said is that it would have been better to have assassinated Hitler before he had a chance to take his country and Europe to war and set the world on fire. They are applying the same concept of pre-emptive assassination to Hugo Chavez. One even cited Dietrich Bonhoeffer as an example.

Using Pastor Bonhoeffer to defend Robertson's inanity? My veins are about to explode. Grab an umbrella.


Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a young German pastor who suffered imprisonment and execution at the hands of the Gestapo for his involvement in the plot to assassinate Hitler. While studying in America, he decided he could no longer bear watching the rise of fascism in his homeland from an ocean away and moved back to Germany to speak out against the anti-Semitic policies of the Third Reich even though remaining in America during the war was an option. While the German Church fell deathly silent in the face of Nazism, he relentlessly spoke out against Hitler and eventually paid for his conviction with his life

(One interesting tidbit about his time in America: While studying in New York in the 30's, he was appalled by what he saw as rampant racism and anti-Semitism in this country. He quickly befriended black seminary students, frequented a church in Harlem, and took back to Germany a substantial collection of African American spirituals. His theological works were the main impetus to the Lutheran Church's official apologies for Martin Luther's anti-Semitic writings. He was truly light years ahead of his time).

Whether you agree with his involvement in the plot or not, you have to admire his willingness to put his life on the line to practice what he believed to be the right thing to do as a Christian. He certainly could have spoken against Hitler right here in America without putting his life at risk, but he certainly put his money where his mouth was. He chose to stand up to the Nazis on their turf.

Actions speak louder than words.

Instead of talking trash from the comfort of his multi-million dollar home here in America, Mr. Robertson should put his own butt on the line, travel to Venezuela and hunt down Hugo Chavez himself, or at the very least, say what he said on TV to Chavez' face. That may be the only way to take the foot out of his big mouth.