WASHINGTON (ABP) — Something of an international diplomatic crisis ensued Aug. 23, after news spread that conservative Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson had called for the assassination of Venezuela's president.
Representatives of groups as diverse as the State Department, the Department of Defense, the National Council of Churches, the Venezuelan government and the president of the Southern Baptist Convention all condemned the comments Aug. 23.
During the Aug. 22 broadcast of his Christian Broadcast Network show “The 700 Club,” Robertson said the time had come for United States officials to consider murdering Hugo Chavez. The president — who has been twice elected by Venezuelans and is up for election again — has emerged as one of the Western Hemisphere's most outspoken critics of President Bush's foreign policy.
“You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he [Chavez] thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it,” Robertson said. “It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war. We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability.”
He added: “I don't think any oil shipments will stop.”
The South American nation is the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, and provides a significant portion of U.S. oil imports. Chavez, a close ally of communist Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, has repeatedly accused Bush officials of plotting to overthrow him, and has implied that he is the target of assassination plots backed by U.S. operatives.
Surrogates for Chavez, who reportedly was traveling in Cuba Aug. 23, lambasted Robertson.
According to the New York Times, Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel called the comments “terrorist statements” and said the U.S. response to them would test American resolve to prosecute terrorism worldwide.
''The ball is in the U.S. court, after this criminal statement by a citizen of that country,'' Rangel said. ''It's huge hypocrisy to maintain this discourse against terrorism and at the same time, in the heart of that country, there are entirely terrorist statements like those.''
Bernardo Álvarez, the Venezuelan ambassador to the United States, called for Bush to clearly denounce Robertson. In a Washington press conference, he said, “Mr. Robertson has been one of the president's staunchest allies. His statement demands the strongest condemnation by the White House.”
During a televised Pentagon press conference Aug. 23, a reporter asked Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld about Robertson's recommendation. ''Our department doesn't do that kind of thing,” he said. “[Robertson is] a private citizen. Private citizens say all kinds of things all the time.''
The 75-year-old Robertson, a former Republican presidential candidate, has long been one of the leading figures in the Religious Right. He founded the Christian Coalition, and his television shows are seen on Christian and other national cable networks, such as ABC Family.
He has made headlines with other controversial statements in the past, including praying that seats on the Supreme Court become vacant, saying feminism inspires women to kill their children and become lesbians, and a warning to the city of Orlando, Fla., that God may be angered into sending a hurricane its way if city leaders didn't rescind a policy of welcoming gay-pride celebrations.
A religious-liberty watchdog group that has been critical of Robertson and his efforts in the past called his latest comments “chilling.”
Barry Lynn, director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said in a statement that it is “deplorable for a Christian preacher to go before his vast audience and urge the American government to murder a foreign leader…. This is just the kind of religious fanaticism that the world does not need more of.”
AU also called on Bush to make a clearer denunciation of Robertson's remarks.
But even some representatives of groups allied with Robertson's conservative social views distanced themselves from the assassination recommendation. Southern Baptist Convention President Bobby Welch, in a statement released through the denomination, said the SBC “does not support or endorse public statements concerning assassinations of persons, even if they are despicable despots of foreign countries, and neither do I.”
He added, “The Christian's responsibility is to pray for our leaders as well as the extremists around the world. Jesus Christ can save these people and change their lives.”
Gary Percesepe, director of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America, offered a stronger condemnation. “Pat Robertson is not only wrong politically, but he has revealed himself to be bankrupt spiritually,” he wrote, in an e-mail message to ABP. “His hateful words should be condemned by every Christian, particularly those who take seriously the message of the nonviolent gospel of peace, expressed so beautifully by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount.”
Citing a term often used by Bush, he added: “A consistent ethic of life would condemn all forms of killing and embrace without contradiction respect for a 'culture of life.'”
A Robertson spokesperson did not return an Associated Baptist Press reporter's request for comment by press time for this story Aug. 23, but other news agencies reported that Robertson was not doing interviews and his spokespeople were not commenting on the situation.