And then. To add to the physical and emotional suffering, Pat Robertson chose to pile on with some spiritual claptrap: obscenity, profanity, blasphemy, whatever you want to call it. I don't want to legitimize what he said with a summary or even a link. Google it if you must.
However, I do think it's important to say this: Pat Robertson does not speak for me.
Yes, we share some features:
- I, too, am a U.S. citizen.
- I was born and grew up in a state below the Mason-Dixon line, which technically makes me a southerner, as he is.
- I am named Marion. Seriously. He is apparently one of those men named Marion who (yippee) choose another name, like John Wayne, born Marion Mitchell/Robert Morrison. Whatever.
I have been uncomfortable saying "I'm a Christian" for a long time, in part because of the actions committed by people who are extremely comfortable claiming to be Christian. Like Jerry Falwell. Oral Roberts. Various popes. George W. Bush (also a Methodist, sigh). And now, like Pat Robertson.
But I see, finally, that the Haiti earthquake has created a situation analogous to the political situation in the U.S. during the previous presidential administration. I have said that it's impossible to have a real discussion with conservatives because of people like Ann Coulter, whose venom masquerades as thought. She and her ilk claim to speak for Republicans and True Conservatives. Until intelligent conservatives and Republicans say, "Wait a sec, she doesn't speak for me," we have to assume that she does. Few if any of the people she purports to speak for have taken her on, and political discourse in the U.S. is the worse for it.
It means nothing for liberals and Democrats to point out flaws in her thinking. Her opponents are automatically assumed to be misguided. Not worth talking to. Not worth the air they're breathing. And ignoring her, which some prescribe as the antidote, makes her more bold and shrill.
It's up to the people who she claims as allies to force her into irrelevance. They do this by drawing the line: This stuff over here, this belongs to me. I speak to it, I answer for it. That stuff over there: No. Hers.
So that's what I'm doing in relation to Haiti. As a person-with-relationship-to-Christianity, I must say this: Pat Robertson doesn't speak for me. I can't say that he is not a Christian, but the Christ he purports to know isn't the Christ I know of. The God he claims to serve is not the God I claim.
He has a bully pulpit and a following. But he stands over there, in that space of hatred and self-righteousness. That's his.
And I stand here, without explanation or blame for a disaster such as the earthquake in Haiti, and certainly no blame for its victims. I can do little that is of concrete value to them but give money. I can, however do that. This I claim.
As a side note: I am also extra grateful, these days, for the roof over my head and the Canadian Shield beneath my feet. It's snowing today. I watch the snow drift by and wonder--how long until I have seen 100,000 snowflakes, one for each person expected to die in Haiti?
