Expressing joy at a diagnosis of cancer in another human being, even Pat Robertson, is classless and vile.
If he had been struck and killed by a lightning bolt, I could perhaps excuse a bit of glee…
No, I just turned off the computer for a while. But not before reading the first 5-6 posts or so condemning me for my asinine statement.
First off, I’d like to say that it was an asinine statement. I’ve read each response so far, and I’d like to say that I should have taken the high road as one poster had suggested.
I do not like Pat Robertson, that’s very clear. Yet I was wrong to sink to his level and fight his hatred with hatred turned back onto him.
I should have taken the position that in this time when he needs the compassionate embrace of others, that he should think a little harder about showing compassion to the groups that he has villified so much.
That would have been more effective, I think, and would have been a more effective debating strategy. On a moment’s reflection, it’s clear that anything would have been a more effective strategy that the tack I chose to take. I’m usually more savvy than that.
I lacked compassion vesterday when I made my post. I don’t want to say that “he made me do it” or “his hate made me hate” or anything like that, because that only works on the schoolyard playground. I’'m usually more mature than that … except for yesterday. I lost my compassion in the heat of the moment, and for that I am truly sorry.
Cancer sucks, and I should not have rejoiced in Pat’s bad news. I am also sorry that I have offended anyone who has cancer or who has or had a loved one with cancer.
Spiff
Thanks Spiff.
Credit where credit’s due: class act, Spiff.
Redemption is a beautiful thing. Thanks for reconsidering, Spiff.
WRONG!! THe people you are compareing me to actively preach hatered towards people who have done nothing wrong outside of being diffrent. I am just glad that one of them has cancer. I havent started up my own T.V. network to preach about how all of the worlds evil is caused by gay people. I know exactly who my enemy is. I know what his face looks like and what his voice sounds like. I know what he has done to earn my emnity. The same cant be said for Pat Roberson. To him anyone who is diffrent is his enemy. His enemy is an amorphous straw man that was created to feed on peoples fear and to fill his own pockets. i hope that there is a god, just so that he can send Robertson to hell when he dies.
BURNER, Spiff has shown some doper class. Perchance could you take a hint?
Thank you Spiff.
And I just don’t know what to say to the rest of this thread. I hope Pat Robertson is able to find some peace before and after he passes on. Like was said before, no reason to follow hate with hate. How does Mr. Robertson get to you so, BURNER?
I never ask this; is there a slight chance my coding could be fixed? Thanks.
Kiger, a more appropriate and moving way to delurk would be hard to find. Thank you for what you said.
Spiff, it takes a big man to admit when he’s wrong, especially from the bottom of a pile-on. Congratulations on having the guts and decency to make your top-of-page-three post.
I will admit that, on hearing the news, I felt a twinge of “Well, it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy” <insert irony smilie> myself. Especially when someone brought up the special “Biblically prescribed” diet that he’s been hawking as a cancer preventative.
I do not wish ill on anyone, and particularly not a lingering and debilitating disease. One thing that strikes me as an idea where we, right here on this board, can do something that might make some impact on the world around us, is for one of us to start a thread, perhaps in MPSIMS or IMHO, in which each says, briefly, why he or she dislikes particular stuff that Robertson’s been teaching, and then, sincerely, sends his or her best wishes (and where appropriate to the individual, prayers) for his recovery. Getting that, rather than hatred of the BURNER/Spiff-on-page-one reaction, from a bunch of the people that he’s vilified and those who stand by them, might have an impact all out of proportion to the relatively small effort involved.
Besides, from my liberal-Christian point of view, it has Scriptural warrant:
Oh, the part that makes such an effort have that kind of impact – someone e-mails a link to that thread to Mr. Robertson.
Just wanted to say that it is going to take every positive thought and every prayer and every bit of knowledge human kind has to defeat cancer.
It is truly the most dreadful pox mankind has to face and it plays no favorites.
aha,
cancer survivor
I’ll admit that I wouldn’t cry if the man died, but to express glee at his getting cancer is just repulsive.
for JoeK
Pat Robertson gets to me because he preaches his hatred out to the masses and people take him seriously. He has caused people to feel o.k. about hateing gay people, even though they may have never met one. He trys impose his narrow belief system on the rest of us through advocacy groups like the “moral majority”. He thinks that church and state should be one and the same. He is the antithesis of creativity, knowledge and innovation. To me Pat Robertson and thoes like him stand for the ultimate embracement of ignorance, in that they believe that any one who is diffrent is wrong instead of faceing the reality that they are just diffrent.
for beagledave
O.K. I will. Let me reiterate my position, Pat Robertson deserves it!! Sorry bro, no amount of public pressure will get me to change my mind on it. Peer pressure just doesnt work on my kind.
Burner, have you posted here before January?
I will not feel joy if he dies but I will likely feel relief that the bad are just as mortal as the good.
Mine, last I checked, had 194 posts. And hate is hate is hate, no matter how justified you feel it to be.
The only thing we need to eradicate your kind is antibacterial soap.
Well, I don’t exactly have glee over Pat Robertson’s condition, but I did find a certain puzzling justice in it when I wrote Pat Robertson’s Prostate.
Why? It’s not just Pat’s religious views, which are often vile. It’s also that Pat is and was a faith healer.
Isn’t it odd that when Mother Teresa had medical problems she didn’t go to one of her own hospitals, and when a faith healer like Pat gets prostate cancer, you don’t see him going to another faith healer for a cure.
Frankly, I wonder how many people’s early demise can be attributed to being “cured” by Pat Robertson. How many people with cancer stopped chemo, how many people with heart conditions threw away their medication, all because Jesus, via Pat, via their TV “cured” them. The damage he has done is manifest.
So excuse me that when I find one of God’s self-appointed regents suffering a bit, I say, well…“good”.
While I may not agree with the extent of BURNER’s sentiment, I also don’t see why he should have to show this so-called “doper class” (whatever the hell that is) and apologize for his viewpoint. Is the SDMB turning into naught but a mutual masturbation society? (and in the Pit no less!)
iampunha, it strikes me as ironic that you claim “hate is hate is hate, no matter how justified you feel it to be” and then take the approach of comparing BURNER to bacteria that should be eradicated. Or maybe you show love in a strange way.
Pat Robertson is a filthy, dirty, little hobbit-gone-Gollum of a man - and while I don’t wish him much suffering, I also won’t miss him when he finally goes to his Maker. Do I find it amusing that for all his divine healing and super-power-pancake talk that he’s turning to modern medicine to save him? Hell yes I do. Do I hope that he’ll come out of this a better person? I think I’ve said that before. Will I miss his damn-I’m-constipated wicked grin that he gives when he indicts atheists, gays, and pro-choice people for the evil in the world? Not in the least.
for Libertarian
Nope, why?
For iampunha
I am sorry you think I am your enemy simply because I disagree with your position. Maybe you would like me better if I told you what you wanted to hear insted of what my own opinion was. In any case, I dont consider you to be my enemy.