It is a far different thing for Mister RObertson to speak his mind as a citizen than it is to speak it as the leader of a million-viewer televangelism club. He is posing ads a spiritual leader. Politically or militarily, killing one man might be brilliant compared to invading a nation and killing thousands. But oddly enough both Bush and Robertson think it is the business of CHristianity to opt for killing in general, despite their verbal assurances that they belong to a cult which honors the commandments "Thou shalt not kill" and "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's goods" as divine instruction; both these men profess faith and adherence to this cult. How does one explain, then, this proclivity for wishing death on others?

We used to have a word of condemnation, hypocrisy, for this kind of duplicity. It is smarmy, covertly destructive, the mark of the jackal and the carrion-eater. But hypocrisy is considered by our sophisticated population as an inevitable part of living. The ideals of simple honesty, integrity, having a "word" which was reliable and so on, are quaint notions now.

Maybe they always were, but they were once at least given better lip-service than they are today.

Is it possible for someone like Robertson to stand still and speak out of both sides of his face at once, saying "Yes, I am devout and Christian, but murder is sometimes the most Christian thing I can think of doing..." ?? I do not htink so. I think he must squirm in a sort of blackened self-loathing, and I expect he enjoys good drink in fairly good quantity when he needs to be alone for any period of time and run the risk of noticing what he is really doing.

A