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WWJD? According to Pat Robertson, Jesus Would Screw the Poor

Posted by Tana Ganeva, AlterNet at 5:24 PM on May 28, 2009.


Noted biblical scholars Neil Cavuto and Pat Robertson settle an eternal theological question: WWJD about the economy?

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Today, noted biblical scholars Neil Cavuto and Pat Robertson settled a complex theological question that has perplexed philosophers and  religious thinkers for two millennia:  Was Jesus a fan of big government? Or, more specifically, WWJD if confronted with a failing auto industry in the midst of a global economic meltdown? 

Following a rigorous analysis of key biblical passages and an in-depth study of the New Testament's historical context, Cavuto and Robertson determine that it sure as hell wouldn’t be helping the poor!

Cavuto, brow furrowed: “You know Reverend ... you hear the argument from those espousing government intervention in companies like GM, and more stimulus ... is that this is the good and decent thing to do ... the humanitarian thing to do. Some even incorporate Jesus, to say: That’s what Jesus would do. Would He? Is Jesus a fan of big government?”

Shrunken, dried up Pat Robertson: “Ha Ha Ha ... no He wasn’t .. I don’t know that we had any situation like this in the Roman Empire ...  But I do believe that Jesus said “You don’t prefer a poor person over a rich person, at all.” That’s the biblical standage. You give them all equal treatment.”

But ... wait. Cavuto seems confused: “Wasn’t it tougher for the rich guy to get into Heaven?”

Robertson: "Oh, it’s tough because he’s so greedy. And greedy is a different thing ha ha ha!”

Good point. There have been no instances of foul, piggish greed in this financial crisis.

   

Robertson, who was on the air shilling a book titled “Right on the Money: Financial Advice for Tough Times”, is, of course, part of the proud, uniquely American tradition of Evangelicals preaching greed, deregulation, unfettered capitalism, screwing the poor, etc. — as hallmarks of  Christianity.

There have been signs though, that the so-called "gospel of prosperity" is on its way out, as younger Evangelicals embrace a more socially responsible religion. Perhaps the hardship of the financial crisis will add another nail in the coffin of Gordon Gekko Christianity.

Here's the clip, vie Media Matters:

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Robertson = GOP - Elitist Puppet
Posted by: CatDad on May 28, 2009 6:18 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Pat Robertson exposed himself as an elitist Right Wing puppet when he openly called for the assassination of Chavez of Venezuela

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WlSYoJQziA

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» RE: obertson = GOP - Elitist Puppet Posted by: pelican beak
Time for A New New Testament, with Republican Rewrites for The Greedy.
Posted by: kanekoa64 on May 28, 2009 8:06 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
If there was a God and he gave his only born son for us...
He lost his son for nothing.
Isn't it strange Christians are the biggest transgressors when breaking, changing for the sake of convenience and purpose or ignoring the tenants they thump people over the head with and accuse all "non believers" to be the cause of and further, purport the destruction of "American Family Values" has nothing to do with their own Sins, but completely and solely due to ours?
Hell is booked and being renovated with updated facilities for the massive influx of inbound reservations for this generation and the ones that bookend it.
If you actually believe the Bible even half as much as they seem to.

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seems pat robertson...
Posted by: undrgrndgirl on May 28, 2009 8:16 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
hasn't actually read his bible...not that the big 3 auto makers are really the biblical definition of the poor.

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Creating God in His Image
Posted by: DrBrian on May 28, 2009 11:29 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Of course Patronizing Robberbaron thinks Jesus would screw the poor; people create God in their own image, and he's spent his entire career doing that very thing. How many billionaires do you think send him money?

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The needle's eye
Posted by: adempatriot on May 29, 2009 1:46 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
"And again I say unto you, It is easier for a bicycle to get through a rush hour traffic jam, than for a Sports Utility Vehicle to parallel park."

(not a Bible quote, but satire, based on the famous line from Mark 10:25)

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» Corollary Posted by: pelican beak
» RE: Corollary Posted by: Sister_Lauren
» RE: Corollary Posted by: pelican beak
» RE: Corollary Posted by: jimmyaj
PAT ROBERTSON IS A TELEVANGELIST. ROBERT TILTON IS A TELEVANGELIST.
Posted by: joeocho88 on May 29, 2009 3:53 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
And a WHOLE LOT OF LIARS, CHEATS, CON ARTISTS and PSYCHOPATHS are TELEVANGELISTS who HIDE behind the IRS TAX EXEMPTION for RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS!

AND THESE PEOPLE HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO CREDIBILITY IN THE EDUCATED WORLD!

NOBODY likes them except the ignorant people in the backwoods who have been brainwashed by this particular brand of Xtianity that always seems to be advantageous to the TELEVANGELIST.

And the poor people give their pathetic sums and it all adds up.

THEY SHOULD HAVE BEEN RAIDED BY IRS A LONG TIME AGO AND PUT IN JAIL --which should have been outsourced to China -- the land these RULING CLASS ELITES would like us to be like, at least us ordinary working people,

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Robertson hasn't a clue of WWJD
Posted by: maryyooch on May 29, 2009 4:13 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
"Robertson, who was on the air shilling a book titled “Right on the Money: Financial Advice for Tough Times”, is, of course, part of the proud, uniquely American tradition of Evangelicals preaching greed, deregulation, unfettered capitalism, screwing the poor, etc. — as hallmarks of Christianity."

Seems Robertson needs to study yhe Scriptures, or maybe just READ them. Jesus was an advocate for the poor and desolated. He did say that it would be harder for a rich person to get into heaven than a camel to get through the eye of a needle. He also said to give to Caesar what is Caesar's and go about your business. Your business being to spread love and peace and helping others who cannot help themselves.
These so-called "Christians" are using the Lord's name in vain worse than someone using the phrase "Godd*amn".
And as far as greed is concerned, most rich people are very, very greedy. I really hope that the day comes when they are truly judged by their God. How are they going to answer for all the lies, greed and self promotion they use in God's name?
Jesus was a liberal socialist according to the Bible. Their Bible, any body's Bible.

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Just to add to
Posted by: maryyooch on May 29, 2009 4:22 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Just to add to my previous comment. I used to work for a Limo company, and a lot of our clients were T.V. Evangelicals. They would fly into private airports, on their way to their private studios), have entourages, demand things of us drivers, stay either in 5 star hotels or private condos, and act like you should feel privileged to wipe their a$$es for them. All the time preparing for their T.V. show to beg for money from the elderly on fixed incomes or the brain washed masses. Doesn't that sound a bit like GREED to you?
I don't believe Jesus would have behaved like that in modern times. It's like the money changers at the holy temple. Jesus would have been outraged!

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Eye of the Needle
Posted by: jmmartin on May 29, 2009 5:12 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
You know, Pat Robber's Son is about as Christian as Osama bin Laden. You can take one look at him on his TV show and you realize you are staring into the face of stark, unmitigated EVIL. Pat Robber's Son is Satan personified.

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Cavuto, Stooge for the Plutocracy and Idol of the Dupes
Posted by: Midway54 on May 29, 2009 5:33 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
This is the contemptible piece of work who ran off to Sacremento on behalf of the Fox News Cesspool to cover the Plutocracy-planned Tea Party there. Caught on camera while preparing for his propaganda broadcast, he told one of his flunkies that the crowd appeared to number about 5,000 (five thousand). Nine minutes later when his airtime began, he stood there looking into the lens of the camera and told the Dupes and other forms of mentally deficient who watch this infernal broadcast site that the crowd numbered 55,000 (fifty-five thousand) and probably more.

It came as no surprise that this clown would play patty-cake with Reverend Pat, himself a billionaire or close to it, essentially to convince the pathetic buffoons in the audience that Jesus loves the free market plutocrats, encourages tax cuts for them, and is a Republican who wants Congress filled with them to further our freedoms as a Christian nation.

One can almost hear the responsive chanting in the dusty outbacks of Bibleland that we don't need no stinkin' big gummint socialism and librul idees 'cuz Jesus says so---just ask Pat and Neil.

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Meh!
Posted by: Cybershaman on May 29, 2009 5:45 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
What can you expect? These are the same people who envision Jesus with a machine gun strapped to his chest and arguing about the necessity for the state to execute people. How twisted do you have to be to think a guy who was publicly executed himself would favor doing the same thing to others?

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Jesus and Pat the Robber's son.
Posted by: thisizrob on May 29, 2009 6:33 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Having read all these comments it is quite revealing to see that at last many folks are seeing through falsehood christianity. There are many comments that are right on the ball. These people who are puting themselves up as "Christians" are pretty well total fakes and have not the slightest idea of what Christianity is all about. I reckon i could put my money (if i had any) on the commentors in this lineup. It seems that there are MANY who have some idea of just what Real Christianity is supposed to be about. Good on yer Folks. A breath of fresh air.

I reckon that with just a little more understanding of what real Christianity is supposed to be about, you Folks could start such a revival that it would blow these supposed christians clean out of the water. At least you would be referred to as "hated Chreesteeans" because you would be too honest for the wolves in sheep's clothing.
Go for it Folks.

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Pat's Confusing Himself With Jesus Again
Posted by: FoonTheElder on May 29, 2009 6:36 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Pat Robertson is confusing himself with Jesus again. Once again Pat, it's not what Pat Robertson would do, it's what Jesus would do.

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Otto
Posted by: otto on May 29, 2009 7:03 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
G.K. Chesterton has said: "The Christian ideal has not been tried and fond wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried." Most of us who call ourselves Christians should be ashamed.

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keep on talkin'
Posted by: WyrdSister on May 29, 2009 7:11 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
the more these so-called christians spew stupidity and venom, the more easily it will be for the masses to see them for what they really are.

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Pat Robertson is following a tradition.
Posted by: manyu on May 29, 2009 7:50 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
In 1910, there were a series of booklets called Fundamentals, written by two right-wing pastors,underwritten by Robber Barons like John Rockefeller and Henry Ford. The purpose was to tie right wing agenda with Biblical literalism. To marry social Darwinism with salvation gospel. The emphasis was to be born-again.It was reaction to modernism, which treated the Bible as literature,not sacred text,even to question the existience of historical Jesus. Also, to divorce itself from social gospel,which was pro-union. They wanted a Christianity that made the rich look like saints and poor as evil and lazy. Also, to incorporate Scofield/Darby End times Dispositonalism, which would be abandoning the gospel of helping the poor, sick, hungry.
Pat Robertson was in Assembly of God, started out by Marjoe Gortner's grandparents, that Marjoe exposed as con artists in his bio movie Marjoe. Swaggert, Bakker, John Ashcroft all belonged to Assembly of God.

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PB
Posted by: Bigioni on May 29, 2009 8:23 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Robertson et al. fly in the face of the Gospels and the entire Judeo-Christian tradition when it comes to economics. They are all too happy to quote the Old Testament in order to justify the slaughter of their supposed enemies, but what about forgiving all debt every 7 years? What about a share of all crops being taken to pay for the poor and for community festivals? What about the prophets railing against the injustice of the idle rich profiting not from the work of their hands but from merely owning property? The concentration of land ownership in the hands of few wealthy creditor-owners was considered by the prophets and by Jesus as theft and fraud. When Jesus told the rich man to give away his possessions, it was no mere exhortation to perform an act of charity. He was telling the man to give back what had been taken from its rightful owners - even though the rich man had broken no law. This was a call to economic justice that Roberston likely cannot even comprehend.

The neo-liberal fascination with absolute property rights is outright idolatry and its evangelical pushers are false prophets.

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What Jesus said about rich people
Posted by: sarahk on May 29, 2009 9:00 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Matthew 19:24 "Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

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but what did jesus mean by easier for a camel...needle than rich...heaven?
Posted by: Sawyer on May 29, 2009 9:20 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
When we have riches, those riches become our master. Jesus said we could only have one master and it's either God or Mammon. Mammon meant riches, treasure. He also said where your treasure is your heart is also, thus one's emotions become connected to the self worth and security we believe we acheive by accumulating material riches.

When a poor person has a health crisis, say are told they need a new heart to live, not having resources to get high on the list of donars due to having no money to buy into it, leaves them wanting and more likly to turn to God for help. This is actually one example in a whole host of reasons why holding one's wealth as our real master leaves it impossible to actually graduate into the strata of life that is above human that is not limited to human in any way shape or form and requires a gradual building of practical relationship with what The Kingdom of God has provided us through it's workers, in this case Jesus, but actually of late the real Two Witnesses called Ti and Do. Christianity as all religion and spiritually and atheism are all dead ends and riches is just one part of why.

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"Ha Ha Ha" He's laughing
Posted by: Dixie Dawg on May 29, 2009 10:35 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
"I don’t know that we had any situation like this in the Roman Empire"
PR


Robertson laughs because he knows his ignorant statements such as the one above made him rich. His "authority" with his spiritual dependents has taken the truth of the Biblical text totally out of play for years.

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Scary
Posted by: willymack on May 29, 2009 12:19 PM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Know what's scary? That so many people actually believe the jesus myth. Know what's even more scary? That so many people listen to and believe the rantings of a nut like pat robertson.

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» RE: Scary Posted by: JefffromCA
» Even scarier... Posted by: Moz Volta
WWJD? According to Pat Robertson, Jesus Would Screw the Poor
Posted by: Worldmind on May 29, 2009 1:57 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
While I am the last person to ever agree with Pat Robertson, the exerpt in the articles, both written and videoed, does not say anything about 'screwing the poor'. He said two things... that the bible says that 'God' does not put one person as more important than another, and second, that Jesus was not a fan of 'big government'. Well, Jesus definitely flamed the big government of his time, and he did not value the poor over the rich or visa versa. They were just people to him, obviously, along with those who were devalued as whores and such.

Frankly, money is not what the Jesus dude talked about except to illustrate what he was trying to get across. And that was because if you are going to explain something to people, you have to use their language and culture in the explanation.

I have no problem with the teachings of Jesus, real or not, just with all the rest of the crap which passes as 'Christianity'. Too bad such wisdom is buried in such a huge pile of manure.

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Pat Robertson is lunatic but not fringe ...
Posted by: stellabloo on May 29, 2009 3:07 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Unfortunately for the rest of us, he has lots of company.

150 Graduates of Pat Robertson's College in Bush Administration

... which came to my attention when I read that GW supposedly believed he was doing battle with Gog and Magog in the Middle East - a quick search revealed that my memory does not fault me when I recall that Robertson along with Jerry Falwell and the like are long-time pals of the Bushies.

Although I knew Pat and Co. are great preachers of the imminent and literal Apocalypse (and certainly not adverse to helping Armageddon right along in the name of the Second Coming), I did not realize Pat believed that Wealth is just another sign of Spiritual Blessing. Sadly, I'm not surprised. This has always been a popular idea among the ruling class and why would it change now?

Promoting 'Spiritual Capital': Right-wing guru urges melding religion and money making.


The idea "is gaining ground in a well-financed effort to paint a friendlier face on capitalism and win elections for conservatives ... The money and interests behind it indicates it is being used to co-opt spirituality for corporate and political purposes."

Which is not exactly news either, but interesting to note that Dubya Clone Stephen Harper is strongly tied, not only to the notion of Spiritual Capital but to the Alliance Church, an innocuous-sounding organization that requires members to believe in Heathen Sinners, The Blood of the Lamb and a - surprise! - a literal and imminent Apocalypse.

My thought has always been that Evil is remarkably uncreative and as the following post confirms, Fear has always been a spectacularly effective tool in maintaining the Status Quo.

Plagues and Their Uses: A book review of Dread: How Fear and Fantasy Have Fueled Epidemics from the Black Death to Avian Flu

"Plague as pretext for state intervention - [The author] argues that since at least the 14th century, disease outbreaks have stimulated the growth of the modern state. If the ungodly were provoking divinely sent plagues, then the state and church needed to persecute the impious and sinful. If the bad habits of the poor were making them sick, then the state must control their licentious behaviour. Fear of epidemics, like fear of terrorism, gave the state enormous leverage against its own people."

That certainly explains why the Bushies own so much stock in Big Pharma. These people may no longer technically in power - but they are still very, very, very rich. And if the General War on Terror doesn't get you first, there'll be another three Horsemen right behind that one :.(

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Pat Robertson...
Posted by: frank69 on May 29, 2009 8:49 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Pat Robertson is a crook.

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LAWYER PAT ROBISON IS A LAW SCHOOL PRESIDENT FIRST AND A PREACHER
Posted by: Raymond Emerson on May 29, 2009 10:30 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
second. Both were chosen out of the ultimate cynicism. The school and the church operate outside of the reach of the Internal Revenue Service. He cares nothing for God or the law. They are just convenient tax dodges.

Time spent on the radical right is time wasted. Our time should be spent on those things that create a more equal America. Our quality of life has degenerated to 30th place in the world while we worshiped at the shrine of elitism.

The Bush, Bush, Reagan, Nixon, Eisenhower world was all wrong. We have dropped from first place in quality of life in 30 years to 30th. Would any one like to guess how many more years of republicans it would take to pass Uganda on the way down?

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