OP-ED
Passing the Cross

Wendy Kaminer

The following op-ed is from Volume 26, Issue 1 of Free Inquiry

At seventy-five, Pat Robertson may be nearing the end of his run as a renowned religious huckster. Not that he isn�t aging gracefully, thanks, in part, I suppose, to his diet of age-defying protein pancakes and shakes and antioxidants. (Recipes are available at patrobertson.com.) But lately, Robertson has also been eating his words.

He practically apologized recently for advocating the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, after his remarks were widely condemned by allies, critics, and the U.S. State Department, which went out on a limb and called his comments �inappropriate.� (Robertson is probably not on the best of terms with the State Department: two years ago, he wondered if �we need a very small nuke thrown off on Foggy Bottom to shake things up.�) While acknowledging that he was wrong to call for Chavez�s assassination, Robertson explained that Christians actually might be obliged to kill Chavez, as they were once obliged to try killing Adolph Hitler.

Robertson also found it necessary to clarify his suggestion (made on ABC�s This Week with George Stephanopoulos in May 2005) that liberal judges pose a greater threat to the United States than Al Qaeda. Robertson claimed he did not equate judges with terrorists, as the �liberal� media reported. He did say, �If you look over the course of a hundred years, I think the gradual erosion of the consensus that�s held our country together is probably more serious than a few bearded terrorists who fly into buildings.� (You can find his clarification on his Web site: www.patrobertson.com/PressReleases/

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Statements like this have long made Robertson an embarrassment to saner, smarter evangelicals who realize the political benefits secularists derive from his sanctimonious and slightly lunatic malevolence. When Robertson warns that God will visit hurricanes upon Orlando for allowing gay rights groups to display rainbow flags, when he asks God to create vacancies on the Supreme Court, when he declares that feminism �encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians,� he discredits religious zealotry more than any secularist ever could. So I�ll miss Robertson as his prominence diminishes, and I worry about his likely replacements. Rick Warren, pastor of a California mega-church and author of the mega-bestselling religious self-help book, The Purpose-Driven Life, seems eager to supplant both Robertson and the almost equally quotable Jerry Falwell.

Warren shares their apparent conviction that secular humanists as well as adherents of non-Christian faiths are all headed straight for hell, and he is committed to advancing a right-wing social agenda, including the prohibition of abortion, gay rights, and stem-cell research. But he is also establishing a reputation as a tolerant, compassionate moderate who devotes himself to fighting AIDS and poverty, especially in Africa. Warren combines his impressive mass-market influence (sales for The Purpose-Driven Life reportedly top twenty million) with increasing legitimacy among elites, whom he seems to have successfully courted. He�s been championed by such mainstream conservatives as New York Times columnist David Brooks, who calls Warren part of a �new leadership cohort� for the Religious Right, and he�s been invited to speak at Harvard, the Aspen Institute, and a conference sponsored by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life (where I met him in May 2005).

Warren claims to want little part of the culture wars and expresses hesitancy about entering the political fray, endearing himself to centrists as well as relative liberals concerned about social justice. But, in fact, he has exerted his immeasurable influence as a religious leader to sway voters in the 2004 election. Then, instead of urging people to vote for candidates who would work to alleviate poverty and disease, he exhorted them to vote for candidates with correct biblical positions on the five �non-negotiable issues� on which �God�s word� is clear: abortion and the protection of �unborn children,� �homosexual marriage,� �the use of unborn babies for stem cell harvesting,� �human cloning,� and euthanasia, or the �killing of the elderly and the invalids.�

You have to wonder why someone supposedly devoted to re-directing the evangelical movement to the fight against poverty and disease would fail to mention either in exhorting Christians to vote in a presidential election year. You might also wonder about the priorities of a God who is more troubled by gay marriage than the neglect of human suffering. But secularists would be foolish to ignore or dismiss Warren; and the established pundits, academics, and institutional leaders who are attracted by his humanitarian efforts should consider whether he is the kinder, gentler face of the Religious Right or merely its kinder, gentler mask.

Wendy Kaminer is a lawyer and social critic. Her latest book is Free for ALL: Defending Liberty in America Today.

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