Pat Robertson's recent comments about Dover, Pennsylvania remind me of a bumper sticker I've seen several times the last few years around Portland, Oregon, "Jesus, save me from Your followers."

Earlier this Fall Pat used the platform of his daily show, the 700 Club to call for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. About two years ago Pat suggested that the US State Department should be blown up with a some sort of nuclear device. And I also remember Pat saying a while back that feminism encourages women to "kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians."

I don't believe I'm better, smarter or less uncouth than dear old Pat. My own track record for saying stupid things can certainly rank among the best of them. But here's some of what I think about Pat and his recent and his not-so-recent comments ...

Oftentimes people rise to positions of power and influence more because of timing, money, or maneuvering, rather than because they are have integrity, are discerning, or because their character is rooted in truth and they have a heart for serving others.
But when people begin sensing that their levels of power and influence are diminishing, they easily become motivated by fear and ego instead of God and selflessness.

Maybe they're getting older, and the reality of feeling younger people nipping at their heels while reaching up for the next rung of success has them panicking.

Or ...

Maybe they've disappointed or disenfranchised the folks who've always been loyal to them, and their responses (both public and private) to seeing their "flock" shrink becomes impetuous instead of thought out, nutty instead of centered, and unfocused instead of purposeful.

Or ...

Maybe they've bought into the lie that "once a person is powerful and influential", they are entitled to be so until they die. The reality however, is that everyone has "chapters" to their lives ... times when they are up and times when they are down.

So not knowing how to paddle through the white-water of change, these kinds of people all too easily try to pretend that either the rough water isn't real, or that they can walk on water. And the bottom line is that both of these choices make us look "foolish" in the short-term and "over" in the long-term.

Pat Robertson is getting old and he's trying to hang on. Thinking that these kinds of recent "proclamations" will make him look "discerning, hip and in-tune" instead of "uninformed, out of touch and irrelevant" Pat has showed everyone that he's being led through this recent chapter of life more by fear than by God.

I don't want to be like this when I get old. And I'm convinced that the way to avoid it then is to admit my own proclivity to it now. These are my thoughts and I'm sticking with them. Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg