Pat Robertson the Terminator

File this under "Embarrassed To Be A Christian".

Apparently Pat Robertson is calling for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Media Matters transcribed the broadcast yesterday:

ROBERTSON: There was a popular coup that overthrew him [Chavez]. And what did the United States State Department do about it? Virtually nothing. And as a result, within about 48 hours that coup was broken; Chavez was back in power, but we had a chance to move in. He has destroyed the Venezuelan economy, and he's going to make that a launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism all over the continent.
You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it. It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war. And I don't think any oil shipments will stop. But this man is a terrific danger and the United ... This is in our sphere of influence, so we can't let this happen. We have the Monroe Doctrine, we have other doctrines that we have announced. And without question, this is a dangerous enemy to our south, controlling a huge pool of oil, that could hurt us very badly. We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability. We don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator. It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with.

Isn't that nice? It seems Robertson's Bible reads quite differently than mine. Let's pool our funds and buy him a WWJA? (Who Would Jesus Assassinate?) bracelet.

You should really read "porn star"

A thoughtful reader directed me to this post by Natala on her blog. It deals with friendship, compassion and how we represent ourselves as Christians to unbelievers. It's lengthy and riveting and made me tearful.

You should read about the porn star too.

The Sinner's Prayer - children's version?

I mentioned earlier that I helped out with Vacation Bible School at church this week. While the overall experience was positive there was one very surreal and disturbing moment toward the end of the week.

Toward the end of the evening the children's pastor had everyone sit down and get very quiet. Which is not easy in a room full of 300+ young children but they did reasonably well. He then began explaining in simple terms that we were all sinners and that Christ died for us. That all we needed to do was to ask him to come in to our hearts and we could go to heaven. Then I heard the command: I want all heads bowed and all eyes closed.

From years and years of sitting in fundamentalist churches, revivals and rally meetings I recognized those words. Instantly I felt a strange creeping sensation inside of me. He's not going to lead these children in the Sinner's Prayer is he? Sure enough he began reciting the lines and having the children repeat the prayer in their hearts. When he was done he encouraged the children to talk to their leaders about "the very important decision you made tonight to follow Christ." None of the children in my group approached me - they'd moved on to a discussion of which Power Rangers show is the best.

Call me strange and old-fashioned but I'm not sure what the point was in leading young children in the Sinner's Prayer. Did they really understand it? Are they prepared to leave all and take up their cross and follow Jesus? Do they even know what it means to be a sinner in need of forgiveness? Maybe yes but I remember how I was at that age and I certainly had no clue.

This smacks again of cheap evangelism. Of "fire insurance" as we used to call it - getting someone "saved" as a way of simply preventing them from going to hell. Of emotionally manipulating someone (in this case rather small and impressionable someones) into making a decision without them being fully aware of what choices they are making. Is this truly the path Jesus wanted us to follow? Is this the way to bring young people into God's kingdom?

Up to my armpits in 3rd graders

I've been late getting my post out this week. The reason? I'm up to my armpits in 3rd graders. This week is Vacation Bible School at our church. I'm in charge of six 8 year-old boys and have been staying very busy most every evening. The week before VBS I'm filled with dread. I complain that I like my children and dislike everyone else's. And then I get into the middle of it and find that I'm having a great time and genuinely like the children. Once my brain recovers I'll have some quasi-intelligent things to say.

And a quick follow-up to my previous post on Promise Keepers. The event has come and gone and I did not attend. While I'm sure it would have provided near-endless material for me to blog grumpily about, I decided in the end that it would be best to sit it out.

They're already asking men to commit to going next year. *sigh*