c. 2005 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Criticism of Pat Robertson’s statements about assassinating Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has spread across the religious spectrum, with fellow conservative Christian leaders joining what has become a chorus of denunciation.

One prominent Southern Baptist leader has gone so far as to say Robertson has brought “shame to the cause of Christ” and needs to repent.

On Wednesday (Aug. 24), Robertson, a 75-year-old religious broadcaster, tried to explain himself. Robertson said he has been misinterpreted by the media when he said on his television show Monday that the U.S. should “take him out.” He wasn’t, he said, referring to assassination.

“I didn’t say assassination,” Robertson explained on “The 700 Club,” a program on his Virginia Beach, Va.-based Christian Broadcasting Network.

“I said our special forces should quote, take him out, and take him out can be a … number of things, including kidnapping. There are a number of ways to take out a dictator from power besides killing him. I was misinterpreted.”

In his original comments on the program Monday, Robertson said: “We have the ability to take him out and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability.”

He also said Monday, “You know, I don’t know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we’re trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it.”

Groups ranging from Muslims to atheists have criticized Robertson, who ran for president as a Republican candidate in 1988 and later founded the Christian Coalition, a national political group with state chapters.

Some leading Christian conservatives also say Robertson went too far.

“The Southern Baptist Convention does not support or endorse public statements concerning assassinations of persons, even if they are despicable despots of foreign countries, and neither do I,” said Southern Baptist Convention President Bobby Welch in a statement to Baptist Press, his denomination’s news service.

R. Albert Mohler Jr., another prominent Southern Baptist, wrote a commentary urging Robertson to rethink his words, saying they have “brought shame to the cause of Christ” and made evangelism more difficult.

“Pat Robertson bears responsibility to retract, rethink, repent, and restate his position on this issue,” wrote Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., on his Web site, http://www.albertmohler.com.

“Otherwise, what could have been a temporary lapse of judgment can become an enduring obstacle to the gospel.”

Some conservative groups, including the Family Research Council, chose not to comment.

Ron Godwin, spokesman for the Rev. Jerry Falwell, explained why the Lynchburg, Va., pastor has declined dozens of interview requests on the matter.

“When a friend does something this controversial, you tend to look at his entire career and … weigh this particular remark in light of long years of association,” he said in an interview on Wednesday.

National Association of Evangelicals President Ted Haggard told CNN that Robertson wasn’t speaking for evangelicals but he should be forgiven.

“Granted, his semantics might not have been well advised,” he said Tuesday.

Muslim leaders speaking out about the comments included Mahdi Bray, executive director of the Washington-based Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation.

“If that had been a Muslim cleric talking about killing a head of state, you would have never heard the end of it,” he said in a statement. “The White House would have denounced it as terroristic, extremist and incendiary or provocative violent hate speech.”

During a press briefing Tuesday, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the administration did not share Robertson’s views.

“I would say that Pat Robertson is a private citizen and that his views do not represent the policy of the United States,” McCormack said. “Any allegations that we are planning to take hostile action against the Venezuelan government are completely baseless and without fact.”

MO/JL RNS END

Editors: Search the RNS photo Web site at https://religionnews.com for a file photo of Robertson. Search under “Pat Robertson” and check exact phrase.