It is Christians who must denounce Robertson and his message, just like it is Muslims who must denounce their religious leaders who spread hate.   

I notice that most Christians lend support to Robertson and his ilk by remaining silent.

dianavan (and others),be aware that many—many—Christians are denouncing Robertson and the whole Christian Right thing. They are not remaining silent.

But they are being completely ignored by the media. Demagogues like Pat Robertson are much more newsworthy, apparently.

Above, 25 Aug 05 – 09:48 PM, Arkie quotes from an article by the Rev. Jim Wallis, entitled "Pat Robertson: An embarrassment to the church." The full article, along with several other articles, have been e-mailed to the subscribers to the Sojourners newsletter, and they can be accessed at the Sojourners web site HERE. Unfortunately, to get to the full article(s), you have to register, which some folks may not want to do. This specific article is very outspoken about Robertson and his ilk. What drew my attention to this magazine was an article Wallis wrote a couple of years ago entitled "Dangerous Religion," in which he discusses George W. Bush's attempts to religiously justify his policies.

The Rev. Jim Wallis is a writer for and the editor of Sojourners Magazine, to which many Christians (and others) subscribe. Rev. Wallis has also written a book entitled God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It. This book is getting a great amount of discussion in churches and neighborhood groups. Unfortunately, Jim Wallis does not have his own television show.

Wallis is definitely not a lone voice crying in the wilderness. Among others is the Fellowship of Reconciliation, an ecumenical organization with its headquarters in Nyack, New York, but it has chapters all over the country—all over the world, in fact. Also the Lutheran Peace Fellowship, for which my wife, Barbara, was national director for about a decade, and which is now headed by Glen Gershmehl (offices at Central Lutheran Church in Seattle). Many churches of various denominations are very much in agreement with Wallis's complaints about the religious right and strongly object to the way they're attempting to trample on religious freedom in this country. Many are fully aware of the danger: up until now, religions have been relatively safe from government interference, but government is no longer safe from religious interference. If this is not checked, the ultimate result could be something like a sort of American Christian-Right "Taliban." No real Christian wants that.

And a huge number of Christians also object when the media says "Christians say. . . ." when it's some nincompoop like Robertson or Falwell, or someone from the far-right Southern Leadership Conference making the statement, and it is definitely not representative of the beliefs of Christians in general.

While liberal and progressive Christians tend to work to better conditions in the community through a whole range of programs such as free meals, finding housing for the homeless, conduction conflict resolution workshops, and yes, sponsoring peace organizations, the Christian Right is out there bellowing their lungs out and getting the media attention by calling for assassinations, poking their noses into your bedrooms, and getting Harry Potter yanked from library shelves.

To say that "Christians do this or believe that" (implying all Christians, it's like saying "All Indians walk in single file. At least the one I saw did." I think that's called "prejudice."

Don Firth