God Responds to Pat Robertson
God and Robertson
Yesterday, Pat Robertson claimed that God was punishing the people of Haiti with a devastating earthquake. In an attempt to be fair and balanced we contacted God and offered him a chance to respond.
Interviewer: I want to welcome you to the interview and give you a chance to address Mr. Robertson’s claims that you want to punish the people of Haiti. Is this earthquake an expression of your displeasure?
God: First, I want to be very clear to everyone that earthquakes are a natural process of the planet’s normal tectonic motion. When two large solid bodies slowly collide it creates a shearing and buckling effect which can occasionally result in a violent release of energy when two colliding bodies rapidly slip.
At this point in the interview God held his hands together and demonstrated a rapid sliding action by moving his hands in different directions.
When the pressure between two objects overcomes the friction a rapid slipping motion can occur.
God: As shown this week, it can be quite a lot of energy and it can be very destructive. On the other hand, tectonic motion is actually vital to all life on earth because it helps to maintain the balance of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. I use the same process to create mountains and move continents around. It is very handy.
Interviewer: What is your response to Mr. Robertson’s claims of divine vengeance?
God: I heard that yesterday Pat implied that I have some kind of grudge or vendetta against the people of Haiti and nothing could be further from the truth. Making this kind of claim is on par with saying that I’m using gravity to punish plane crash victims or diseases to punish the sick.
I want to make it very clear that these are natural processes and not any sort of value judgment. I’m afraid that some people feel like they have a unique provenance over morality and try to incorrectly assert ownership by interpreting a terrible natural tragedy as a directed act of malice to justify their own beliefs.
It is not my place to protect humanity from the world, but if you can help each other in times of need, showing compassion and respect for others, that is no small thing. You will find a few notes about compassion and other useful advice in my books which are available in stores now.
Interviewer: I’ll look forward to reading them.
God: Thanks. Would someone mind passing this information on to Pat? He doesn’t seem to be listening to me much anymore.
Interviewer: You can always try sending a letter to the Christian Broadcasting Network:
The Christian Broadcasting Network
977 Centerville Turnpike
Virginia Beach, VA 23463
God: I may have to give that a try.
