{"id":4639,"date":"2015-03-09T22:43:07","date_gmt":"2015-03-09T22:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/?p=4639"},"modified":"2015-03-09T22:43:07","modified_gmt":"2015-03-09T22:43:07","slug":"responding-to-pat-robertsons-comment-that-a-christian-could-get-infected-by-buddhism-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2015\/03\/responding-to-pat-robertsons-comment-that-a-christian-could-get-infected-by-buddhism-video.html","title":{"rendered":"Responding to Pat Robertson’s comment that a Christian could ‘get infected by’ Buddhism [Video]"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/iframe><\/p>\nToday Pat Robertson, on his well-known Christian Broadcasting Network show\u00a0The 700 Club,\u00a0<\/em>told a viewer who works with Buddhists and fears she is being preached to by them that:<\/p>\n<blockquote>If you are healthy and there is a mild contagion around you, the chances are you won\u2019t get it. But if you put yourself in the middle of a hospital ward where everybody has the disease except you, sooner or later you will be infected by it. Now, it\u2019s one thing for you to be ministering to somebody who\u2019s of a different persuasion, but if you\u2019re in the middle of hundreds and hundreds of people who think that way, you\u2019ve got an uphill fight, and I think the best thing at that point is to withdraw with dignity. Get out of that environment, because they\u2019re going to get to you before you get to them. Alright?<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\nAlright.<\/p>\nHow will Buddhists (and others) respond?<\/p>\nMy first thought was, \u201cMeh?\u201d<\/p>\nThis is Pat Robertson, after all. The same Pat Robertson who said that the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, which killed an estimated 220,000 and impacted a total of 3.5 million people, was because African slaves had entered into a Vodou \u201cpact with the devil.\u201d Around this time last year he also <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rightwingwatch.org\/content\/pat-robertson-likens-islam-nazism-again\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">compared Islam to Nazism<\/a>\u00a0(again).<\/p>\nHeck, there\u2019s a whole wiki page dedicated to cataloging <a href=\"http:\/\/https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Pat_Robertson_controversies\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Pat Robertson Controversies<\/a>. So we shouldn\u2019t exactly be surprised when he compares Buddhism to a disease. Given his history, I\u2019d say he\u2019s letting Buddhism off pretty easy.<\/p>\nGiven this, I think most Buddhists will have something like the following response:<\/p>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/83\/2015\/03\/poo-bear-doesnt-give-a-bother.gif\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-4640 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/83\/2015\/03\/poo-bear-doesnt-give-a-bother.gif\" alt=\"poo bear doesn't give a bother\" width=\"400\" height=\"328\"><\/a><\/p>\nOr perhaps something a bit more colorful from the site (feel free to pick a favorite and paste it in the comments): <a href=\"http:\/\/501fucksidontgive.tumblr.com\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">http:\/\/501fucksidontgive.tumblr.com\/<\/a>.<\/p>\nAs an educator, for me the saddest fact is that there are still so many people out there who might take Robertson seriously. Maybe we\u2019ll start to see calls for \u201cmoderate Christians to formally denounce his extremism\u2026\u201d<\/p>\nI had the great privilege of teaching online Introduction to World Religions courses for a couple years and the first quote above, on Vodou, comes from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/1285434684?ie=UTF8&camp=213733&creative=393185&creativeASIN=1285434684&linkCode=shr&tag=montanafreethink\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">our textbook<\/a>. It was given as one example among many of how religions like Vodou are misunderstood and often literally \u201cdemonized\u201d in American popular culture. Students who liked Robertson could come out and try to defend him, but usually discussions around the topic were about how often he had said things like this about other religions, or just other strange things he\u2019d said.<\/p>\nSo everyone came away with a clear understanding: don\u2019t take Pat Robertson seriously.<\/strong> When you come to understand the many different worldviews out there and the particular one that Robertson inhabits, then there\u2019s not much left to upset you, except for the level of ignorance on display.<\/p>\nThat\u2019s education for you. And in the US it\u2019s sadly all too rare a thing when it comes to religion.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Today Pat Robertson, on his well-known Christian Broadcasting Network show\u00a0The 700 Club,\u00a0told a viewer who works with Buddhists and fears she is being preached to by them that: If you are healthy and there is a mild contagion around you, the chances are you won\u2019t get it. But if you put yourself in the middle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":4642,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,9,31],"tags":[520,47],"class_list":["post-4639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academia","category-american-buddhism","category-interfaith","tag-buddhism","tag-interfaith-2"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>Responding to Pat Robertson's comment that a Christian could 'get infected by' Buddhism [Video]<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Today Pat Robertson, on his well-known Christian Broadcasting Network show\u00a0The 700 Club,\u00a0told a viewer who works with Buddhists and fears she is being\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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