Literally.
Tang pointed this out to some of us a couple of days ago, and it seems to be gathering momentum. The interview above has Mr. Robertson tripping over his own inconsistencies amusingly often; between that and its more disturbing undertones, it's worth a glance by those worried about such things.
One of the main troubling things I noticed in it is his interpretation of how the Constitution defines a life term. "There's no question the Constitution gives [a life term] to them," he says of the Supreme Court justices, "but it doesn't mean they have to stay there." He mentions a few justices which retired at respectable ages, and waxes about how even congressmen are doing so (ignoring a certain ancient and terrible force in Congress who finally left the world a less hateful place recently) to make this seem reasonably well and good.
The tone of what Robrtson has to say is somewhat less innocuous, however. The implication is there, and seems to be implied mainly for the left, that it is not proper to actually use one's constitutional rights as they're guaranteed. Now, Robertson seems to be claiming this because their rulings are forcing unspeakable evils upon the great people of America, but I wonder if he would dare speak out in favor of retirement for older, conservative supreme court justices.
I doubt it, since he openly states that he wants the Supreme Court to be a conservative body, rather than the objective one it's supposed to be. Going far enough to pray for divine intervention to rid a court of judges because he disagrees with their decisions is one thing. Doing it in a manner which one brings to the status of militarism, by sticking such names as "Operation Supreme Court Freedom" is another. (The growing attitude of "this is a war" coming from the religious right is something I'll probably babble about later.) I'm almost willing to overlook the amusing claim that a judge's being "unelected" somehow makes them antidemocratic. The idea of a judge doing less than ten or fifteen-year terms frightens me anyway; I want them around for life.
The end of the CNN interview, however, gives me at least a glimpse into Robertson's mind that I find noteworthy:
But Paula, I prayed for the downfall of the Soviet Union. I thought that communism, the tyranny of communism, was an abomination and I beseeched God to bring that terrible evil down and he did. It was a great triumph, it took awhile, but it happened.
Pardon me if I'm misparsing, but did this man not just claim credit for getting God to destroy the Soviet Union? Did he not essentially claim to have the influence to have nations brought down?
And this is one of the leaders of the American, or even North American, spiritual community. Gyah.
God help the sane.
Posted by zibblsnrt at July 17, 2003 03:55 PM