Venezuelan bishops call evangelist’s comments on Chavez incompatible with Christian faith

Caracas, Venezuela, Aug 24, 2005 / 22:00 pm

The President of the Venezuelan Bishops’ Conference, Archbishop Baltazar Porras, expressed the bishops’ repudiation of evangelist Pat Robertson’s call to assassinate President Hugo Chavez, saying the comments were incompatible with the Christian faith.

During a televised episode of the 700 Club on Monday, Robertson said, "You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we are trying to assassinate him, we should go ahead and do it. It's a whole lot easier than starting a war, and I don't think any oil shipments will stop."  "We don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator," he continued. "It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with."

On Wednesday Robertson backtracked and said his comments were taken out of context .  "I said our special forces should go 'take him out,' and 'take him out' could be a number of things, including kidnapping."

Archbishop Porras said the statements could not be supported by any Christian or person of faith, or by anybody who has any respect for human rights.

“We repudiate and absolutely reject these comments and we consider them to be simply misplaced,” he said.

The archbishop said that difference should be resolved “in a civilized way and not by having recourse to violence, weapons or the elimination of any person.”

He also noted that Robertson’s spoke for himself and not for the United States.