{"id":3044,"date":"2009-10-31T22:51:00","date_gmt":"2009-10-31T22:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2009\/10\/news-from-the-future-pat-robertson-blamed-for-christian-obesity\/"},"modified":"2009-10-31T22:51:00","modified_gmt":"2009-10-31T22:51:00","slug":"news-from-the-future-pat-robertson-blamed-for-christian-obesity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2009\/10\/news-from-the-future-pat-robertson-blamed-for-christian-obesity.html","title":{"rendered":"News From The Future: Pat Robertson Blamed For Christian Obesity"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>Due to my interest in time travel, I occasionally get sent news tidbits sent to me by well-meaning time travellers. I don\u2019t share any of them that might actually change the course of history in some paradoxical way, but I don\u2019t think there\u2019s too much danger with this interesting item from thirty years from now, which seems particularly relevant today\u2026<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>Article from October 31, 2039<\/em>:<br><strong>Pat Robertson Blamed For Surge in Christian Obesity<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Although the days are gone when <a href=\"http:\/\/barthsnotes.wordpress.com\/2009\/10\/30\/cbn-scrubs-witch-candy-blog-post\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Pat Robertson <\/a>was a household name, his <a href=\"http:\/\/jwest.wordpress.com\/2009\/10\/29\/you-cant-make-up-this-kind-of-stupidity\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">legacy<\/a> is still with us. Today marks 30 years to the day when he and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.charismamag.com\/index.php\/prophetic-insight\/23723-the-danger-of-celebrating-halloween?showall=1\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">his associates<\/a> revealed to the world a <a href=\"http:\/\/friendlyatheist.com\/2009\/10\/30\/halloween-in-the-eyes-of-a-christian-and-an-atheist\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Satanic conspiracy <\/a>to influence children by having witches strategically planted in candy factories around the world. Apparently covens instructed such witches to pray over the candy, particularly <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/badastronomy\/2009\/10\/31\/a-nutbag-on-a-bag-of-nuts\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Halloween<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/experimentaltheology.blogspot.com\/2009\/10\/demonic-candy-alert.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">candy<\/a>, asking their dark lord to make it particularly succulent and addictive \u2013 and perhaps also to lead children who eat it to abandon Christianity or, worse still, join a rock and roll band.<\/p>\n<p>In conjunction with this revelation, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.charismamag.com\/index.php\/prophetic-insight\/23723-the-danger-of-celebrating-halloween?showall=1\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Robertson issued a challenge to his prayer warriors<\/a> to not simply pray but <em>act.<\/em> More specifically, Robertson challenged Christian men and women of prayer to seek employment in candy factories themselves, and pray that children who eat the candy will not be led astray from the true path of faith, and also that they might find hymns and organ music strangely appealing.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, Robertson neglected to advise them to pray that the candy become foul-tasting, unappealing and devoid of calories.<\/p>\n<p>In the three decades since Robertson issued his challenge, more and more Christians have answered the call. And as the number of such \u2018candy prayer warriors\u2019 has grown in size, the<em> size<\/em> of the candy prayer warriors has increased as well.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ww1.prweb.com\/prfiles\/2006\/05\/09\/383718\/chocolate.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/ww1.prweb.com\/prfiles\/2006\/05\/09\/383718\/chocolate.jpg\"><\/a>\u201cWe just wanted to save kids from the evil influences of Halloween,\u201d said Candi Waistbund (featured in the photo on the right), whom we interviewed after her recent liposuction. \u201cI never stopped to ask myself if I was strong enough to resist the temptations that Satan always throws at any true prayer warrior.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Security footage obtained from the candy factory where McDonald was employed suggests that she threw herself at the candy, rather than vice versa.<\/p>\n<p>In an attempt to counter this trend toward conservative Christian obesity, Robertson\u2019s organization, now run by the 375 lb Edie Snickers, has challenged all true prayer warriors to abandon candy factories, which Snickers says have successfully been won for the Lord, and turn their attention to gyms, where apparently witches have lately been focusing their efforts, praying over exercise machines in the hope that people will become thin and healthy, and thus less likely to accept invitations to attend church that come from their obese, candy-factory-employed Christian neighbors.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div class=\"blogger-post-footer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/7622297540113836091-7962426719608126438?l=exploringourmatrix.blogspot.com\" alt=\"\"><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Due to my interest in time travel, I occasionally get sent news tidbits sent to me by well-meaning time travellers. I don\u2019t share any of them that might actually change the course of history in some paradoxical way, but I don\u2019t think there\u2019s too much danger with this interesting item from thirty years from now, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>News From The Future: Pat Robertson Blamed For Christian Obesity<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Due to my interest in time travel, I occasionally get sent news tidbits sent to me by well-meaning time travellers. I don&#039;t share any of them that might\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2009\/10\/news-from-the-future-pat-robertson-blamed-for-christian-obesity.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"News From The Future: Pat Robertson Blamed For Christian Obesity\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Due to my interest in time travel, I occasionally get sent news tidbits sent to me by well-meaning time travellers. I don&#039;t share any of them that might\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2009\/10\/news-from-the-future-pat-robertson-blamed-for-christian-obesity.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-10-31T22:51:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/ww1.prweb.com\/prfiles\/2006\/05\/09\/383718\/chocolate.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"James F. McGrath\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ReligionProf\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"James F. McGrath\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2009\/10\/news-from-the-future-pat-robertson-blamed-for-christian-obesity.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2009\/10\/news-from-the-future-pat-robertson-blamed-for-christian-obesity.html\",\"name\":\"News From The Future: Pat Robertson Blamed For Christian Obesity\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-10-31T22:51:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-10-31T22:51:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf\"},\"description\":\"Due to my interest in time travel, I occasionally get sent news tidbits sent to me by well-meaning time travellers. I don't share any of them that might\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2009\/10\/news-from-the-future-pat-robertson-blamed-for-christian-obesity.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2009\/10\/news-from-the-future-pat-robertson-blamed-for-christian-obesity.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2009\/10\/news-from-the-future-pat-robertson-blamed-for-christian-obesity.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"News From The Future: Pat Robertson Blamed For Christian Obesity\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/\",\"name\":\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath\",\"description\":\"The Blog of Dr. James F. McGrath, Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University, Indianapolis\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf\",\"name\":\"James F. McGrath\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"James F. McGrath\"},\"description\":\"Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. BD University of London, PhD Durham University. Author of John's Apologetic Christology, The Only True God, Theology and Science Fiction, and The Burial of Jesus, as well as (with Charles Haberl of Rutgers University) the two-volume Mandaean Book of John critical edition, translation, and commentary. Also author of numerous articles (and a few science fiction short stories) and the editor or co-editor of several volumes.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3Ge8ul5\",\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/jamesfmcgrath\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/jfmcgrat\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ReligionProf\",\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/religionprof\",\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/religionprof\",\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/James_F._McGrath\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/author\/james-f-mcgrath\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"News From The Future: Pat Robertson Blamed For Christian Obesity","description":"Due to my interest in time travel, I occasionally get sent news tidbits sent to me by well-meaning time travellers. I don't share any of them that might","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2009\/10\/news-from-the-future-pat-robertson-blamed-for-christian-obesity.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"News From The Future: Pat Robertson Blamed For Christian Obesity","og_description":"Due to my interest in time travel, I occasionally get sent news tidbits sent to me by well-meaning time travellers. I don't share any of them that might","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2009\/10\/news-from-the-future-pat-robertson-blamed-for-christian-obesity.html","og_site_name":"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath","article_author":"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/","article_published_time":"2009-10-31T22:51:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/ww1.prweb.com\/prfiles\/2006\/05\/09\/383718\/chocolate.jpg"}],"author":"James F. McGrath","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@ReligionProf","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"James F. McGrath","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2009\/10\/news-from-the-future-pat-robertson-blamed-for-christian-obesity.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2009\/10\/news-from-the-future-pat-robertson-blamed-for-christian-obesity.html","name":"News From The Future: Pat Robertson Blamed For Christian Obesity","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-10-31T22:51:00+00:00","dateModified":"2009-10-31T22:51:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf"},"description":"Due to my interest in time travel, I occasionally get sent news tidbits sent to me by well-meaning time travellers. I don't share any of them that might","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2009\/10\/news-from-the-future-pat-robertson-blamed-for-christian-obesity.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2009\/10\/news-from-the-future-pat-robertson-blamed-for-christian-obesity.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2009\/10\/news-from-the-future-pat-robertson-blamed-for-christian-obesity.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"News From The Future: Pat Robertson Blamed For Christian Obesity"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/","name":"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath","description":"The Blog of Dr. James F. McGrath, Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University, Indianapolis","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf","name":"James F. McGrath","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"James F. McGrath"},"description":"Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. BD University of London, PhD Durham University. Author of John's Apologetic Christology, The Only True God, Theology and Science Fiction, and The Burial of Jesus, as well as (with Charles Haberl of Rutgers University) the two-volume Mandaean Book of John critical edition, translation, and commentary. Also author of numerous articles (and a few science fiction short stories) and the editor or co-editor of several volumes.","sameAs":["https:\/\/amzn.to\/3Ge8ul5","http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/jamesfmcgrath\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/jfmcgrat\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/ReligionProf","http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/religionprof","https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/religionprof","https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/James_F._McGrath"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/author\/james-f-mcgrath"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3044\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}