WASHINGTON (ABP) — Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson is once again making waves with comments on his “700 Club” television broadcast — this time criticizing a church-state watchdog group he frequently battles.
Robertson, who has made worldwide headlines several times in recent months for other controversial comments he's made on the show, attacked Americans United for Separation of Church and State and its chief executive during the show's May 11 broadcast.
According to a transcript of the show provided to Associated Baptist Press by Americans United, Robertson accused the organization of being taken over by the American Civil Liberties Union and under communist influence.
He also repeated an accusation he has made before: That Barry Lynn, the group's executive director, opposes providing even the most basic municipal services to religious groups.
“Barry Lynn is so extreme, he has said that if a church is burning down, the city shouldn't bring the fire department and trucks to spray water on the church because that violates separation of church and state,” Robertson said.
Robertson said the ACLU “pulled a secret takeover” of Americans United, which he claimed was originally founded by Baptists and intended as a Protestant religious-liberty organization.
“The goal of the ACLU is to strip all religion from the public square. Why? Because the goal of the Communist Party was to weaken America, and they thought that they could weaken America if they took faith out of our public life,” Robertson said, according to the transcript. “That's where it all came from, ladies and gentlemen.”
A spokesman for Americans United said May 11 that Robertson's accusations were factually incorrect in several ways.
Jeremy Leaming said Lynn has never called providing basic city services to churches a violation of the First Amendment's religion clauses. “That's just ridiculous to suggest that government can't provide that kind of protection without violating the establishment clause — we've never said anything like that, Barry's never said anything like that,” he said.
In fact, Leaming added, Robertson has made the same accusation against Lynn in the past, and the group has asked him to stop doing so. “We sent a letter to Robertson a long, long time ago saying, 'Quit saying that, because that's not true.' We wish he would quit doing that,” he said.
Leaming also said that, while Baptists were involved in Americans United from its beginning, it was never a Baptist group, per se. “We had several different denominations involved in the founding of Americans United,” he said. “He's getting his facts wrong. It proves he either doesn't care about the truth, or he just doesn't know his facts.”
The group was founded in 1947 as Protestants and Other Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Its founders included Louie Newton, who was president of the Southern Baptist Convention at the time, and Bromley Oxnam, a Methodist bishop. In 1972, it shortened its name to its current form to reflect the fact that its supporters also included Catholics, Jews and those of other faith groups or no faith at all.
CBN's media-relations office did not immediately return a phone message requesting comment for this story.
Robertson's comments followed a CBN news segment about Americans United and its involvement in an Iowa lawsuit aimed at preventing government funding for a Christian prison ministry that focuses on proselytizing and converting inmates.
The incident is the latest in a series of dust-ups over statements Robertson has made on the show, which airs daily.
In August, Robertson caused something of an international diplomatic crisis by calling for the assassination of Venezuela's leftist president, Hugo Chavez. He later apologized for the remark after coming under heavy fire from the Venezuelan government, the Bush administration, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention and others.
Robertson has also suggested a debilitating stroke suffered by former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was divine retribution for Sharon's concessions to Palestinians.
Robertson also said disaster could befall Dover, Pa., because its citizens had “voted God out of their city” by unseating a group of school-board members who had pushed for the teaching of “intelligent design” in high-school science classes.
In March, Robertson lost his bid for re-election to a seat he had held for 30 years on the board of directors of the National Religious Broadcasters. Many observers said at the time the CBN founder's repeated controversies were causing the NRB and its evangelical supporters to back away from him.
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