Silence is Golden, Pat Robertson

Silence is Golden, Pat Robertson

The King will reply, I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.
Matthew 25:40 New International Version

I hardly ever watch the news. I don't need to; I get the reports from my co-workers. The list of deaths and tragedies seems to be endless. However, every once in a while the bad news breaks from the norm in favor of the bizarre. And this time the bizarre news has Pat Robertson (of The 700 Club) at its nucleus.

Pat was quoted around the office as saying that the Haitian nation has endured recent natural disasters and hardships because they made a pact with the devil . . . .

If I could speak to Pat personally, the first thing I would do is ask to pray with him for open minds and clear communication between us. Secondly, I would tell him that just because you know a thing, does not mean you need to say a thing. His statements about a “Haitian deal with the devil” make the rest of us Christians look like insensitive backwoods, superstitious idiots. Sometimes silence is golden, and it would have been golden if you would have remained silent, Pat. If you can't say something nice, maybe it is better to say nothing at all.

I won't address how Pat could possibly know such a thing as why disasters befall some and pass by others. Nor will I address the idea of his being wrong or right. I am not discussing whether the devil is real or not (and the scriptures say he is indeed real). What I would like to do is offer an alternative statement that I wish Pat would have delivered:

"The people of Haiti are experiencing tremendous loss of life and property. The things we take for granted such as food and water are now beyond the reach of the Haitian people. We believers have an opportunity to live out our faith and win these people back to God.

Jesus says that he will one day tell us that we visited him in prison, clothed and fed him. And our response to this statement will be, “When did we do this?” Jesus will respond that we did it when we did it for the least, the downtrodden.

Jesus is behind those broken and hurting people. And we can serve them today. We can serve them by sending funds to Haiti. We can serve them by sending representatives from our church congregations or missionaries. The world sends a few dollars, but we send hope. The world sends something good; we can send something better. We are serving them in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord."

Pat, please think before you speak. You owe it to the rest of us.