What are we to make of the Haiti earthquake?

[TK]

"He was born blind so the power of God could be seen in him."

What if the above statement of Jesus was made today and played on CNN? might cause an uproar.

TK

[selah]

"He was born blind so the power of God could be seen in him."

What if the above statement of Jesus was made today and played on CNN? might cause an uproar.

TK

This reminds me of an email a friend sent me today.

In it, she says, "Here's one of the articles that talk about the Haitian's faith. I see these types of things over and over again. The light of Christ is certainly being shown by the Haitians."

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/ ... tml?hpt=C1

Could it be that the earthquake hit "so the power of God could be seen" in the Haitians?

[christopher]

Steve, I’m just curious, what proportion of unbelievers that you interact with fit the description of the man you described? My impression from listening to your show for many years is that it would be a very small percentage. From my vantage point, you seem to have a good reputation with outsiders who disagree with the Christian position. And for some reason, Paul thought this was important enough to make it one of the qualifications of church leadership.

I wonder how many unbelievers would feel comfortable carrying on a respectful dialogue with Mr. Robertson. Does he have a good testimony among those who are outside?

I personally don’t think this issue has anything to do with how public the medium of communication is in the church. I see nothing wrong with TV, Radio, or internet as a means of communicating and teaching Christians. Jesus spoke to thousands at a time knowing full well there would be people who wouldn’t get it or thought he “had a demon”. That’s not really the issue as far as I can see.

I really believe that Mother Teresa or Bono could have said something similar and not provoked the same severity of response because they have more “benefit of the doubt” in the social bank. But the Robertsons and Falwells of the world have spent all their saltiness it would seem and for the kingdoms sake I think they should be aware of that.

I highly doubt Pat’s comments had anything to do with warning or preparing other believers about a curse (if such a curse even exists). In my mind, the comments carried the tone of cause and effect and were completely without value. Like other times in the past, Mr Robertsons’ words have done nothing but “shut up the kingdom of heaven against men” IMO. It didn’t emanate the fragrance of our King and it certainly didn’t bear witness in my spirit**.

I don’t want come off sounding like I just want to slam Robertson, everyone makes blunders. But I would say it would be a good gesture if he would apologize for his untimely and insensitive remarks spoken out of season.



**That may actually be a good question for a poll. Does anyone out there feel like they could say “Amen” to what Pat said? If so, I’d be genuinely curious to hear why.

[christopher]

What if the above statement of Jesus was made today and played on CNN? might cause an uproar.

TK

It might, unless of course he also proved it by healing the blind man like he did in that case.

TK, the thing is, those words weren’t televised, they were spoken privately to His disciples as a matter of correction for their erroneous presuppositions.

Seems a bit different to me.

[steve]

Steve, I’m just curious, what proportion of unbelievers that you interact with fit the description of the man you described? My impression from listening to your show for many years is that it would be a very small percentage.

While I am sure there must be others, the man I mentioned is the only non-Christian I have heard of who gets upset with me. When I said he sends "hate mail," that was an exaggeration. He sends angry mail, objecting to every time I discuss the evolution issue. There must be others like him. Some anonymous person (whether Christian or not, I may never know), leaves an angry message with my call-screener every time a topic relating to my objections to a "nanny-state" comes up. The message is always, "Don't talk about politics! You don't know what you're talking about! Stick with subjects you understand!" I suppose this could be the same unbeliever who objects when I talk about evolution, but I suspect it is someone else.

I occasionally have heard rumors from listeners telling me of persons they have spoken to who are very critical of my program or of me—but so far the critics in these reports have always been Christians—often pastors.

[TK]

e

What if the above statement of Jesus was made today and played on CNN? might cause an uproar.

TK

It might, unless of course he also proved it by healing the blind man like he did in that case.

TK, the thing is, those words weren’t televised, they were spoken privately to His disciples as a matter of correction for their erroneous presuppositions.

Seems a bit different to me.

it is different, of course. I was just giving a hypothetical. but even if he healed the man on national TV, i am not sure how his statement would have been received.

TK

[selah]

e

What if the above statement of Jesus was made today and played on CNN? might cause an uproar.

TK

It might, unless of course he also proved it by healing the blind man like he did in that case.

TK, the thing is, those words weren’t televised, they were spoken privately to His disciples as a matter of correction for their erroneous presuppositions.

Seems a bit different to me.

it is different, of course. I was just giving a hypothetical. but even if he healed the man on national TV, i am not sure how his statement would have been received.

TK

TK, how is it different?

Thank you,
Selah*

[steve7150]

I highly doubt Pat’s comments had anything to do with warning or preparing other believers about a curse (if such a curse even exists). In my mind, the comments carried the tone of cause and effect and were completely without value. Like other times in the past, Mr Robertsons’ words have done nothing but “shut up the kingdom of heaven against men” IMO. It didn’t emanate the fragrance of our King and it certainly didn’t bear witness in my spirit**.




I agree in this case Pat's words had a negative effect on the kingdom because they are condemning words blaming the tragedy on many innocent victims after the fact.
Pat's show "The 700 Club" is on ABC family station which is a secular station and popular , if the same statement were made on a Christian station like Daystar or TBN it would get little attention. Unfortunately once again when there is a highly visable tragedy Hollywood portrays itself as caring and one Christian on secular TV manages to portray Christians as condemning and judgmental.

[christopher]

I occasionally have heard rumors from listeners telling me of persons they have spoken to who are very critical of my program or of me—but so far the critics in these reports have always been Christians—often pastors.

Yep, I know first hand that the rumors are true. And that's exactly my point. You seem to have a relatively good rapport (overall) among the outsiders that know you despite being very up front about your views. In contrast, you receive the most criticism from the religious leaders within. Since this was also Jesus' circumstance, I'd say you're squarely in good company.

In occasionally taking a social pulse, my impression is that most other public Christian figures are the exact opposite. So who has the fewer barriers to positively represent Christ in a cynical generation? It's a no-brainer as far as I can tell. We need more Steve Greggs, NT Wrights, and Rob Bells in the public view and fewer Robertsons and the like IMO.

[steve]

Pat's words had a negative effect on the kingdom because they are condemning words blaming the tragedy on many innocent victims after the fact.

I confess, I still have not been able to find this element in Pat Robertson's statements, and have a hard time seeing how one could take this meaning from them. Which of his actual comments carries this note of condemnation or blaming of innocent victims?