Friday, January 15, 2010

Crazy Old Uncle Pat...

As many of you know, I'm a self-confessed conservative. And one of my fellow conservatives-- a very visible and vocal conservative no less said some rather abhorrent things the other day:

“They (Haitians) were under the heel of the French…and they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said ‘We will serve you’…and so, the devil said ‘Okay, it’s a deal’ and kicked the French out”, “They need to have…a great turning to God,”

I just want to turn this on its head a bit. Lets look at liberals and conservatives as two families. Pat Robertson is that crazy old uncle that spouts off all manner of nonsense but most of us in his family either humor him or just roll our eyes and ignore him. He doesn't shock the rest of us in the family any more as we've come to expect his kookiness. Some of us even understand his kooky logic (but keep in mind "understanding" and "agreeing with" are two VERY different creatures entirely-- as in "Uncle Pat, I understand where you're coming from but I still consider what you're saying to be bat guano craziness!")

On the other hand, those outside the family, those Liberals over on the left side of the street aren't used to Crazy Old Uncle Pat like those of us in his family are. And because he's in such a high profile position some of our neighbors over on the left side of the street might get the idea that crazy old Uncle Pat is speaking for the whole family when he utters his nonsense.

The moral of the story is... consider the source.

4 comments:

Vegas Linda Lou said...

Pat Robertson as a crazy uncle... that's a good way of putting it. Never thought of that. I'm on the liberal side of life, and God know we have our crazy relatives, too!

classicrockforthesoul said...

I mean, it doesn't really surprise me that those comments were made.

I'm definitely a conservative Christian and I certainly don't agree with Pat Robertson-- but I really don't "buy into" the majority of televangelists.
There's a fine line with all of that...

Jay Noel said...

That's how I think of Ron Paul. I understand where he's coming from. And even as he's talking, I might nod my head...but the next day when the rational mind returns, you think, "That crazy old man!"

Perplexio said...

Vegas Linda Lou: There are plenty of kooks on each side. Sadly the kookier people are the more vocal they seem to be. It creates the unfortunate impression that they're speaking for the majority.

classicrockforthesoul: It doesn't surprise me either. I think there are some televangelists that are more Old Testament-centric (God-fearing) and others that tend to be more New Testament-centric (God-loving). The idea of a God that would strike down tens or even hundreds of thousands of people falls more in line with the God-fearing/old testament-centric view of God.