...is that he's Pentecostal, which means that the Holy Spirit speaks directly to him, which means that he hears voices in his head, which means that he is probably to some degree schizophrenic.Wikipedia is a quick source of information, and its Pentecostalism page provides history, statistics and other information. Among the adherents of Pentecostalism listed there are Elvis, Dolly Parton, Al Sharpton and John Ashcroft.
Schizophrenia is characterized by, among other things, an inability to distinguish between internal and external experience, hallucinations and/or delusional beliefs. Hearing voices is a significant criterion of the diagnosis.
Some links have been theorized between schizophrenia and shamanism, which is "a range of traditional beliefs and practices that involve the ability to diagnose, cure, and sometimes cause human suffering by traversing the axis mundi and forming a special relationship with, or gaining control over, spirits." Alec Foege, in his book The Empire God Built: Inside Pat Robertson's Media Machine, describes several incidents where Robertson, on his TV show The 700 Club, mentioned the medical malady of an unseen, unknown person and then said something similar to "God is healing you right now, even as we're speaking." Shamans have been known to claim the ability to control the weather, and it's been mentioned on several websites that Robertson claims to have once commanded a tornado to change its course.
In this light, Robertson's casual call, on The 700 Club on Monday, for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez shouldn't be surprising. It makes perfect sense to him.
1 comment:
I am the tornado that changed course when Robertson commanded. But it wasn't because I paid him any heed-- I never listen to televangelists. I was just getting bored so I changed direction-- strictly a coincidence.
Just wanted to set the record straight.
PS: You have a nice blog, but where are the Fiats?(I love tossing them around.)
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