Replies

My church's doctrinal position is that the gift of prophecy is closed at this point in history.

But that's neither here nor there and I'm not interested in debating the finer points of our shared Christian beliefs.

The point is this: in the rough and tumble world of secular politics, this sort of statement from a "leader" of the "Christian Right" (as is commonly understood in popular political culture) is counter-productive and feeds negative and hurtful stereotypes. To put it bluntly: Robertson's statement makes it LESS likely that Bush would be re-elected in a landslide since it tends to drive away moderates who don't share your view of Robertson. There are more of them than there are of you, if I may continue to be blunt. That's politics.

Truth be told, I also think these types of comments hurt from a Christian perpective as I think its very possible (knowing the kind of agnostic folks that I consider friends) that they raise stumbling blocks to a positive reception of the gospel message. Bluntly (again!) I don't think this sort of "God told me last night that..." builds many bridges to non-believers. It does cause snickers and rolled eyes, however.

I understand your viewpoint. I know there are churches that don't believe in prophecy. We all have a right to believe what we want. I hope you don't close your mind to it, however.

I know Pat Robertson is a very controversial figure and at times he needs to be careful what he says unless he KNOWS it's from the Lord. I don't think he said that in this case, but I could be wrong. It sounded more like an opinion to me when I heard it. Unbelievers and those who scout out his program to see what he has to say, will never believe God works through him. Not unusual. (I always say that if God used a donkey, he can use me!)