Pat Robertson, Insanity, and Faith-Based Initiatives

[The following is from the article, "The Christian with Four Aces," by Bill Sizemore.]

Things became bloody and genocidal in Rwanda in 1994. But Pat Robertson and his international charity, Operation Blessing, were ready to help. Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) "launched a media blitz, pleading for donations to send medical teams and win two million souls for Christ..."

Mr. Robertson informed his suckers, oops, viewers that Operation Blessing needed a Lockheed L-1011 jumbo jet which would be transformed into a "Flying Hospital." People sent him money. The jet cost $25 million. The jet was too big for the remote areas it was supposed to serve. And it was too expensive to run. "By 2001, it was sitting unused in the Arizona desert."

Then Robertson got on TV and told his viewers that he'd obtained some cargo planes, and indicated they'd be used to bring doctors and medical supplies to Zaire's refugee camps. Wasn't it wonderful that they would have a chance to contribute to the success of this ministry? He even showed a photo of an airstrip which he claimed the natives had hacked out of the jungle.

"What Robertson didn't tell viewers was ... [that] The airstrip was actually built so the planes could bring in equipment to dredge diamonds from a remote jungle riverbed for the African Development Company, a for-profit owned by Robertson and registered in Bermuda, where there is no corporate income tax and business regulations are lax. The three planes, two of which were registered to Operation Blessing, were used almost exclusively for a mine deep in the jungle...Only one or two of more than forty flights were charitable."

After Robertson became intricately involved with the notorious and brutal Zairean dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko, things began to come apart. Mobutu had granted Robertson a mining concession in Zaire in exchange for Robertson's lobbying to reverse U.S. sanctions against Mobutu's travel to America.

Janet Howell, a Virginia State Senator, realized all was not on the up-and-up at the Robertson show, and suggested the attorney general investigate the possibility that Robertson might be using charitable contributions for other, less charitable causes - like lining his own pockets.

An investigation discovered evidence that Mr. Pat had "willfully induced contributions from the public through the use of misleading statements and other implications..." But the investigation was impeded by the fact that Operation Blessing did not respond promptly to requests for materials and when they did send materials the latter were often incomplete and confusing. Lawyers involved in the investigation thought that Robertson had made false claims but didn't think they could prove "he intended to defraud donors."

In the end, Robertson was not indicted, but he did reimburse Operation Blessing $400,000 for use of the planes and agreed to make some changes in the way Operation Blessing worked.

Later, Robertson cozied up to the bloodied Liberian madman president, Charles Taylor. In 1999, Robertson, under the name of Freedom Gold, a for-profit company, signed a mineral development deal with Taylor.

Taylor is not a nice man and his climb to power involved much brutality and viciousness -- including "forced labor, torture, and executions. In order to obtain diamonds for funding his enterprise, Taylor gave weapons and support to Sierra Leone rebels who were noted for "hacking limbs off civilians and slicing open the bellies of pregnant women."

The U.N. "slapped Liberia with an arms embargo, a travel ban on government officials, and a prohibition on diamond exports.

"Robertson lobbied vigorously to get the sanctions lifted."

"In 2002, Taylor was the star attraction at a three-day 'Liberia for Jesus' rally, which Robertson helped organize and covered on The 700 Club. ... Taylor stepped down in 2003 ... and is now on trial for war crimes in The Hague.

At last report, Robertson's gold-mining venture, which had been disrupted by the factional fighting, had resumed operations."


If you have followed the career of Marion Gordon "Pat" Robertson, you will remember how he has claimed many times that God speaks to him and through him; that God instructed him to run for president in 1988, and that he has healed many thousands of sick people, that he has turned hurricanes aside, that he has personally fought Satan "and the demons at his command," that God told him we are in the last days and that Jesus will return soon ... and that he will be present when that happens.

Robertson claims that God gave him the job to usher in the 2nd coming of His son...which will happen on Jerusalem's Mount of Olives. At one point after Robertson had obtained METV (Middle East Television), CBN officials put together a detailed plan as to how to televise Christ's return. "We even discussed how Jesus' radiance might be too bright for the cameras and how we would have to make adjustments for that problem," said one of the men involved.

You may also remember how in January of 2007, Robertson said that God had "personally warned him of a major terrorist attack, 'perhaps nuclear,' that would occur before year's end." That "prophecy" made Robertson look like a fool, but most of his viewers don't seem to care.


There's a lot more to say. But this is enough to declare that, like John Hagee, Pat Robertson is a certified lunatic! In a semi-perfect world, we would carry him off in a white jacket and put him in a room where he wouldn't hurt himself and then, using the latest therapies and drugs, try to help him become sane.

The evidence shows clearly that Pat Robertson is insane!


Maybe that's what it takes to succeed in our world today. Consider this: When prezident George W. Bush, by executive order, channeled billions of federal dollars through his Faith-Based Initiative to religious groups and groupies, Operation Blessing, in 2005, received $14 million of your tax money and my tax money!

Fourteen million taxpayer dollars!!! So who's crazy now?