God will punish you

Morality icon Rev. Pat Robertson once again is in the news. This time he has cast his wrath against the people of Dover, Pennsylvania for voting against eight school board members who supported teaching the theory of "intelligent design." The colorful Robertson warned Dover residents that if a disaster should befall their city they should not turn to God for help. "If they have future problems in Dover, I recommend they call on Charles Darwin. Maybe he can help them," he told the Associated Press.

The ouster of the school board directors during Tuesday´s election came on the heels of a federal trial in which eight families sued the Dover school district for trying to introduce "intelligent design" — the belief that the universe is so complex that it must have been created by a higher power — as an alternative to the theory of evolution.

Robertson, you may recall, caused an international incident when he said that Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez should be "taken out" by the U.S. government to avoid another costly war. The White House, whose current occupant enjoys Robertson´s support and has conferred with him on many ocassions, distanced itself from the preacher´s remarks. The Venezuelan government, meanwhile, has called for his extradition to face criminal charges for supporting the assasination of a political leader.

Robertson is just another in one long line of fundamentalists who try to invoke the fear of God in their daily worships, but instead foment hate and revenge and then come out losing. One of my favorite examples is R.G. "Brother" Stair whose far-fetch interpretations of the Bible are broadcast everyday on shortwave via WWCR and WWRB. Claiming to be the final day prophet, this eccentric South Carolina preacher, known by some as "Brother Scare," lived in a closed commune with dozens of his followers who grew their own food and sewed their own clothes. In 2002, law enforcement authorities arrested Stair (above right) for allegedly raping several women inside the compound. The women charged that Stair had downloaded pornography from the Internet and gave them herbal teas to induce abortions, according to Walterboro, S.C. press reports. Stair spent two months in jail and in 2004 he pleaded guilty to assault and battery charges. With his gravelly emotional tenor voice, he asked his listeners for forgiveness in his shortwave broadcasts. About a dozen of his former followers have filed a civil lawsuit against Stair seeking nearly $200,000 in damages from his Overcomer Ministries.