Not to stir up hornets' nest but ........

Belafonte's remarks don't deserve the same level of scrutiny. Belafonte's influence over the American political landscape is minuscule compared to that of the religious far right, of which Robertson is emblematic.

 

Typical left-winged response. Belafonte is a "darling" of BET which is highly influential in the left-winged community.

 

Well, it's not exactly Sean Penn in Baghdad, is it? How many newspapers, how many minutes of TV time are Harry Belafonte's pronouncements in Venezuela going to sell?

Thanks to his own efforts, Pat Robertson is a reliable top-shelf commodity, always good for a look.

 

Jimmy Clifton:
"How many papers printed the story about Harry Belafonte being in Venezula this past weekend with the communist dictator Hugo Chavez, praising him and calling Bush "the greatest terrorist in the world"?
Not many. Why? Belafonte is a far leftist, that's why!

----------------------------------

324 so far, according to Google News.

 

Thanks! You didn't check to see how many reported Robertson, did you? I will. Do you think more people today heard about Robertson or Belafonte?

 

It's not the print news that counts....

Hardly anyone reads the papers these days. It is one of the reasons politicians have to spend so much money on tv commercials.....

 

Well....

A google of "Belafonte Praises Chavez" returns 321 hits. A google of "Robertson Criticises Sharon" returns 46,400 hits. Of course, it is imperfect research practice to read too much into that.....

 

The assertion that either BET - a station aimed at 11% of Ameria - or Belafonte carry as much political influence as Robertson's ilk - "the majority" of America, as they see it - is simply unsupported by fact.

Robertson gets all the scrutiny he deserves. It will be a fine day when my fellow Christians begin loudly disowning his movement to the same degree that moderate Muslims have disowned Al Qaeda.

 

Pat Robertson is not that important nor persuasive anymore. His days as a leader in the evangelical movement are gone. He gets no attention or press unless he makes outrageous statements and that is why he makes them.

His following is not so vast as it was back in 1988 when he managed to turn many state Republican parties to the extreme right and actually won some GOP primaries then.

He's a blip on the GOP scale and even less in Christian circles.

 

This would be easier to believe if conservative Christians rejected his statements loudly and more forcefully.

As you are a conservative Christian I'll give you a crack at it. Yes or no:

-Do you categorically reject Robertson's statements?

-Do you regard Robertson's statements as being damaging to the image of Christians?

-Do you regard Robertson's statements as being damaging to America's image?

 

I would think my posts in this thread would answer your questions.

First, I am not a conservative Christian.

Second, Pat Robertson is out of touch with reality.

Third, yes to the first two of your questions.

Fourth, America's image is only damaged when nuts and extremist "Hate America" types extrapolate Robertson's inane remarks as the status quo thinking of the general American population.

He's their patsy and he's too dumb to realize it. In this sense, he falls into the same categories as most of Hollywood and the hard left politicians in this country. They are all unsuspecting patsies, dupes, and dopes of the global "Hate America" crowd.

 

Don't confuse "aimed at" with actual numbers. Your figure implies only blacks watch BET, which is ridiculous.

Secondly, remember that Belafonte was AARP's "Man of the Year" last year. Know how many members AARP has and how many read their magazine?

Belafonte is an old man, a has been, and is still embittered because Dorothy Dandridge wouldn't give him the time of the day "back in the day."

 

My dear Mr Luechtefeld:

I am so conservative a Christian that I believe, as does my religious tradition, that American political fundamentalism is a liberal aberration.

I also believe that Mr Robertson is a hell-bound heretic.

Will this do?

I'm not good at taking loyalty oaths or their bastard-brat rhetorical offspring.

Yours cordially,

Janko the Mad Priest

 

Fine rhetoric

But don't you think "brat-bastard" sounds so much more powerful?

 

Does this mean Isreal is going to open up their Educational approval process so it is more transparent than in the past?

 

In the Bible belt, he still carries weight. In the Tampa Tribune today there was one letter against and three letters saying that they felt Robertson was right because he was speaking the word of God!

Now that's scary.

Deb