700 Club

Pat Robertson accused President Obama of being a “dictator” today on The 700 Club for his recess appointment of Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau after Senate Republican obstructionism, who refused to confirm anybody to the position. Robertson and other critics claimed that the Senate is actually not in recess because of pro forma sessions, but legal experts and even Republican legal advisers have argued that such appointments are constitutional because pro forma meetings where no work is being done are not the same as a Senate sitting in session. Past presidents have also made such appointments. Robertson, who is certainly not the first Religious Right leader to call Obama a dictator, said that Obama “is power-hungry and he wants to take it all,” lamenting, “I didn’t know we were electing a dictator.”

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Robertson: I didn’t know we were electing a dictator, I thought we were electing a president who had constitutional powers, and we have shared governmental responsibility between the Senate and the House and the courts and the president, and that division has worked very well in our history. So suddenly you’ve got somebody who is power-hungry and he wants to take it all. There’s no question there’s got to be a challenge to this.

Today on The 700 Club, a man with an openly gay son asked Pat Robertson how he can show his son “the love of Jesus when you know his sexual preference is an abomination to God.” Robertson told the father to love his son by encouraging him to “un-acquire” his sexual orientation and “get out of this.” Robertson’s advice should come as no surprise, as The 700 Club has featured “ex-gays” and the televangelist has said that gays and lesbians are “on their way to hell,” will bring America into the “ash-can of history” and prompt God to destroy America.

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Robertson: Well you can love, you know what they say, you love the sinner and hate the sin, but I think what you got to do is love him, you’re his father. You want to say, ‘look I don’t agree with what you’re doing but I love you, you’re my son, you came from my body, you’re part of me and I’m with you but I’d like you to get out of this.’ I know people disagree with the question of homosexuality; is it something that they’re born with or is it something that’s acquired? I think a lot of it is acquired, I don’t know all the genes or the genetics that’s in your son as to what is causing him to do whatever he’s doing, you’ll have to figure that one out. But normally speaking, a person who has acquired this can un-acquire it. We’ve had many people who have indeed left the homosexual lifestyle and gone into a heterosexual relationship and have been very, very happy. But all I can say is love the son, love the son, and show him what you consider a better way.

Notably, Robertson’s own Regent University in a study of sexual minorities (gay, lesbian, bisexual, queer or bi-curious) involved or once involved in opposite-sex relationships found that heterosexual behavior did not alter their homosexual or bisexual orientation:

When we look at the sexual minorities specifically, it is noteworthy that the findings from the Kinsey scale suggest that they did report significant behavioral change. This likely reflected the commitment to their heterosexual marriage and the decrease in frequency of same-sex behavior. However, when the Kinsey expanded scale was administered, sexual minorities did not report a statistically significant change in the combination of behaviors, attraction, fantasy, and emotional attachment – the combination meant to convey sexual orientation rather than just behavior.

Secretary Hillary Clinton’s speech on defending LGBT rights abroad and the new Obama administration policy to protect people around the world who are jailed, beaten and executed for being LGBT have been met with intense uproar from the Religious Right.

Pat Robertson on The 700 Club today said that the policy was “appalling” shows that America is willing to “violate God’s principles and to make a mockery of His laws.” Robertson even warned that God will not tolerate it and “when the blow comes, it’s going to be horrible”:

Robertson: Isn’t it appalling that the United States of America would try to force the acceptance of homosexuality on other nations but at the same time we would not force them to take care of their religious minorities and they would permit discrimination and persecution of Christians? What kind of a country have we got? You know, there is a God in heaven and He is just. Thomas Jefferson, ‘I tremble when I remember that God is just.’ He is just, he is not going to allow this kind of thing to go on forever. This country cannot continue to violate God’s principles and to make a mockery of His laws and think we’re going to get away with it. And when the blow comes, it’s going to be horrible.

On Crosstalk yesterday, Vic Eliason of Voice of Christian Youth America argued that the new policy shows that “the inmates have taken over the asylum” and Liberty Counsel Chairman Mat Staver said it confirms the administration’s support of the “radical sexual anarchist agenda”:

Janet Mefferd yesterday defended Nigeria’s right to have a law criminalizing homosexuality and a bill that would crack down on gay couples, and even dismissed concerns about persistent violence against gays and lesbians in Africa:

Mefferd: Let’s get our priorities straight here, in other words, why are we even focusing on this? Other than the fact that you have African countries that have policies like Nigeria, criminalizing homosexuality, are they not a sovereign nation? Can’t they make up their own minds about these things? If they want to pass a law we’re going to play bully over this issue? I can understand countries where people are being flagrantly persecuted for their faith but this one; I don’t see that this is something that the United States has to jump in on because it’s such a huge global tragedy. It’s crazy. They’re saying it’s all homophobia in Nigeria, according to the law I guess in Nigeria not only is gay marriage a crime punishable by a fourteen year jail term but any person who registers, operates or participates in gay organizations faces a decade in jail, a clause that specifically targets the many active sexuality-rights advocacy groups in the country. Alright, but they’re not killing them are they? Are they going to go to jail?

What do you say about this? For another country to make the decision that anybody who violates a standard that they want to uphold in their society to go to jail, where do you draw the line on that? If you have a culture that had a lot of Christians who say we cannot as a society look upon homosexuality as a good thing for all of us, but in that case you’ve got to gather together the global community and bully them out of it.

Pat Robertson continued to amuse on The 700 Club today, asking host Kristi Watts following her interview with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, “What is this ‘mac and cheese,’ is that a black thing?” Watts and Rice agreed during the interview that macaroni and cheese is their favorite Thanksgiving dish. Robertson said that he never had macaroni and cheese and seemed utterly confused as to what it was:

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