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October 19, 2005

Thanks, Pat!

Words have consequences:

Robertson, a 1988 presidential candidate, said on his August 22 broadcast of The 700 Club television program that the U.S. government should assassinate Chavez to protect American oil interests and because Chavez "has destroyed the Venezuelan economy, and he's going to make that a launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism all over the continent." He later apologized, but Chavez's government stopped issuing foreign missionary visas and reportedly tightened regulations on preachers in the country. Venezuela's religious affairs chief, Carlos Gonzalez, told Reuters that the government had already been working on the move "but these declarations have made us speed things up."

Robertson told CNN on Sunday that Chavez "is negotiating with the Iranians to get nuclear material. And he also sent $1.2 million in cash to Osama bin Laden right after 9/11." Robertson offered no evidence to support his accusation.

In response to Chavez's plan to expel NTM, another mission group wrote in a confidential prayer e-mail, "While we believe that Chavez has been planning to expel foreign missionaries for some time, statements like those made by Robertson have provided him with an excuse to do so and might actually justify his actions in the eyes of many Venezuelans who otherwise would have been more ambivalent."

...

While Venezuelan evangelicals "shrug Pat Robertson off as goofy," Olson said, the nation's evangelicals are coming under popular disfavor because of Robertson's remarks.

"That certainly isn't a wise thing to say," Olson said. "It certainly smears the evangelical world for all it's worth."

New Tribes Missionaries are being kicked out of Venezuela, in part because of Pat Robertson's comments. Sure, Chavez is using Robertson as an excuse, but Robertson should have known better than to give the Venezuelan president some political cover for this move.

Kudos to Christianity Today for this story. It's long past time for the evangelical community to start pointing out just how harmful the careless words of Robertson can be to missions work around the world.

Posted by slublog at October 19, 2005 12:00 AM

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Posted by: Dan Pete at October 19, 2005 01:29 AM