When asking a god about whether you should be involved in karate, Pat Robertson wants you to be more like Chuck Norris, who “takes ghetto kids and makes them very fine citizens” instead of those who “inhale demon spirits”:
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/facepalm. Really. That guy is a wackjob
I know it doesn’t seem possible, but it appears that Pat Robertson has actually gotten crazier with age.
And by “demon spirits”, kids, we mean “the Marijooana”. Don’t inhale!
In my dim and distant teenaged years I took a LOT of drugs – and to quote Bill Hicks:
“I had a reeeeaaaal good time. Never raped anybody, never robbed anybody, never lost my house, my car, my wife or my kids – laughed my ASS off…. And went about my day”.
Yep. Most people who rant and rave about how drugs are killing their kids, etc. almost certainly know at least one person who recreationally uses something harder than MJ and they’ll never know it, because the person acts normally and has a pretty normal life. Most of the people who know me have been utterly floored when they find out about my occasional MJ habit, since I don’t fit the stereotype. (Well, former philosophy student, but other than that…). It’s funnier when the person so surprised is a pothead.
What Custador said. And it’s hilarious when you floor a fellow ‘head by coming out of the, er, “closet”. (Should have seen my brother’s face!)
Robertson is not likely referring to pot but to eastern meditation practices.
My primary religious mentor (back in the day) is one of Robertson’s closest advisers. It’s comments like this that make me so interested in neurobiology. I’m uber curious as to how I could go lolly-dolly ding-donging next to this crap for several decades.
Oh I know he wasn’t talking about MJ. I just couldn’t resist the “inhale” part.
:)
I actually thought cocaine, but it can be MJ, I guess :p
Cocaine is usually insufflated, not inhaled.
Unless you’re smoking ‘cocoa puffs,’ or something. :)
So… when you’re inhaling powdered cocaine through your nose, that’s not inhaling…?
In the medical things I’ve read, inhale means draw into the lungs, and insufflate means inhale into the nose.
So for example, ‘inhaled steroids’ would be like Advair, and ‘insufflated steroids’ would be like Flonase.
The distinction is tenuous from the internet searches I did, but it doesn’t matter, I was just razzin’.
Just pointing out that you do, in fact, inhale through the nose as well. (Why else would they use those damn nasal cannula thingies for oxygen?)
*has officially learned something new for the day*
I guess Pat is unaware that Chuck Norris inhales demon spirits just so he can talk in a funny high pitch voice.
(Chuck Norris facts are still funny right?)
Chuck Norris still laughs at Satan for losing to God.
No, and they never were funny.
Those wacky demonic spirits, who knows what they’ll get up to next.
Like maybe keeping the real Pat in a closet. Just so they can take his place, say stupid things, and make him look like a total Ass. Well it could happen right?
You can always trust good ole Pat when you need a good lough.
Robertson is an old man from a very different subculture than most of us, so he uses some strange terminology. When he talks about “inhaling demonic spirits,” I dunno, I assume it’s his way of talking about how life can be dominated by selfishness, efforts to amass wealth or fame or good feelings or nice situations etc for ourselves, at the expense of caring for others. I’d agree that many of us suffer from following selfish motivation, and I think there may be similarities between how I use “selfish motivation” and Robertson’s “demonic spirits” metaphor.
I’d understand the jist of his response is that Karate etc isn’t good or bad in itself, but you have to examine your own motivations. (At the very beginning, Robertson made clear that the questioner would have to examine for himself what’s right — God’s plan — not expect an answer elsewhere.) Is your teaching of Karate going to advance selfishness? Or will it be like teaching Karate to underprivileged kids, out of charitable motivation (as Robertson suggests Chuck Norris does)?
When he talks about “inhaling demonic spirits,” I dunno, I assume it’s his way of talking about how life can be dominated by selfishness, efforts to amass wealth or fame or good feelings or nice situations etc for ourselves, at the expense of caring for others.
Honestly, I get the impression that when he’s talking about demonic spirits, he’s talking about demonic spirits. Culture shock or no, the guy is off his nutter.
yeah, its best to just take fundies at their word. When they talk about demons destroying people or entering a persons mind, they are not giving some high brow analogy to the dangers of temptation and sin. Many literally believe in demons, invisible little spirits that intend you harm.
It took me a long time before I realized just how serious some fundies are when they talk about this kind of stuff. I liked to assume people are intelligent and in the past that caused me to read into things too deeply. But once you start taking most people at their word the world becomes a much simpler place.
Robertson is talking literally when he says that people are breathing in demons. This isn’t a metaphor unfortunately.
I don’t know much about the bible but are there really supposed to be demons floating about everywhere? And if you inhale too deeply you can suck one up?
ohhhh….
and then you sneeze and someone says gabblesho.
It’s more about how receptive your mind is to demons rather than how deeply you inhale. That’s why they guard against meditation. It leaves you “too open” to demonic influence.
Another example of fear driven propaganda.
Oh, so it’s okay if the lord gives you inhuman strength, but not when demons do. Whatever.
I haven’t watch the video but do I really need to since no matter what he says it is going to be stupid and am always afraid it is contagious.
Why am I not surprised Robertson likes the creationist, homophobic Norris? They are two of a kind to be sure.
I don’t know, the video doesn’t actually seem all that bad to me. He is saying that martial arts can be a good thing, which as a martial artist I do appreciate (it gets annoying when people think the purpose is only to learn to kill people).
When he speaks of the “demon spirits” I know exactly what he means. Many martial artists believe in chi, which is like spiritual blood. They work on increasing chi through meditation and things like Qi’gong (the slow martial art done by old people in America). Almost all of the christian martial artists I’ve met consider this to be essentially witch craft and so will have nothing to do with it. Most of the work is done via breathing, i.e. breathing in the chi of the universe. Hence his breathing in demon spirits.
It seems silly, if not completely ridicules, to call something the holy spirit and label it good, while calling chi, or the celestial energy of life, or the universe, as bad. They are the same freaking thing, created by God/the universe, God is chi. He is the living energy that connects us all.
You are correct that god and chi are same freaking thing. Both are gobbledygook that people made up to explain things they have no understanding of.
Why do people ask this idiot questions? It only encourages him.
lol. I once got into a conversation with a guy at a youth group that my friends attend. He was trying to relate to me saying that he had practiced martial arts a while (Tai Kwon Do I think) but that he had always been in pain after practicing.
I say aloud, “Oh sure, I’ve been sore many a time after practicing”
And he responds with, “Oh no, this was different. This was deep down, to the bone. And then one day, I look in the back of the school searching for my teacher, and he had a little figurine there in a meditation stance with incense on… From that moment forward I knew that his school was under the influence of demonic powers and so I never returned.”
When I asked him what type of statue it was he said, “Oh I dunno… Shiva? Buddha? One of those demonic gods those people over there worship. In any case it was evil.”
:)
I inhaled a demon spirit once. It came from Mexico and had red hairs. It imbued me with incredible strength, such that I was able to tear apart a candy bar package with ease. I cackled wickedly as I devoured the innocent candy bar. The demon made me forget where my keys were. It was horrifying.
Yeah, I encountered that guy’s sister, she’s from Canada, and she made me eat healthy foods…. and then we played D&D.
I think Robertson is speaking from a strictly religious angle – I figure by “demon spirits”, he means exactly that. He most likely refers to those who seek out training in martial arts skills as a means to intimidate, dominate and harm others. This is counter to Christian doctrine as well as the entire martial arts philosophy as I understand it.Don’t both teach the avoidance of violence and its use of violence only as a last resort?. Martial arts are intended to be defensive in nature, and people with the training are not supposed to run around bragging about how tough they are, and using that knowledge for personal gain.
In that sense, Chuck Norris is playing it pretty close to the line, if not over, since he’s used his “toughness” angle in commercials for profit.
D’n @ 2:54 sounds like someone who knows something about the spiritual nature of martial arts. Am I off base on my claims here?
So, for Chuck Norris to use toughness to make profit is wrong, but for Pat Robertson to use God, to make money and personal fame is right? No, it’s not it is hypocritical.
Chuck Norris is actually Carlos Noriega. Geraldo Rivera is Jerry Rivers.
So let me get this right.
The guy asking the question is already a killing machine expert and “now” he is wondering that it might be sinful?
MARTIAL ARTS ARE SATANIC!!!!!!
The Lord Jesus Christ does not want us to defend ourselves. The Lord says to turn away if you’re spit on or beaten. Become a matyr. If you pray to the Lord, he will fight your enemies. Look at what he’s doing for us in Iraq. You guys think those troops were trained hard diligently. Phssshh! NO! That’s the Lord’s work.
Demon spirits are afraid of the devout Buddhist martial arts masters! Only Christians have to guard their noses. Seriously, though, apparently nobody’s read enough about the history of Asian martial arts to know that they all developed as part of Hindu, Buddhist, and Taoist religious practices. So, no way should a Christian study them.
Also, Christians should stay away from any building that looks like a pagan temple- such as the US Supreme Court, which has idols of the pagan goddesses Justice and Liberty !