The Falwell/Robertson/Bin Laden Quiz
memepool pointed me toward a quiz entitled “The Falwell/Robertson/Bin Laden Quiz”. The goal is for the viewer to match statements to one of these three men. The author changes Christian- or Islamic-specific words to general term, and the quotes are slightly modified in the quiz portion to avoid giving extra clues, but the complete quotations are shown on the answers page; in my opinion the rephrasing has not made material changes to the statement.
The next paragraph contains some spoilers, so if you are interested I highly suggest taking the quiz before you proceed.
There are 20 questions in the quiz. I answered 9 out of 20 correctly, leaving 11 errors. Four times I answered ‘Pat’ when ‘Jerry’ was correct, or vice versa. Twice I answered ‘Usama’ when the ‘Pat’ was correct. And five times I answered ‘Pat’ or ‘Jerry’ when the answer was Usama (four times for the former, once for the latter.) I was probably biased in that direction because I assumed the quiz was to show that things we thought were Usama-esque statements actually belonged to the two Americans. But it also suggests that I am used to Pat and Jerry making statements that are hate-filled and incorrect. Let me cite one of Pat’s extended quotations:
There will never be world peace until God’s house and God’s people are given their rightful place of leadership at the top of the world. How can there be peace when drunkards, drug dealers, communists, atheists, New Age worshipers of Satan, secular humanists, oppressive dictators, greedy moneychangers, revolutionary assassins, adulterers, and homosexuals are on top?
Enough on Usama for a moment. Let’s think about the Taliban versus Pat and Jerry. The season pre-premier of The West Wing this season was a hastily-constructed high school lecture. Literally, actually, as a group of high schoolers served as the foil for the viewers who knew little about the Taliban. The character of Sam Seaborn (Rob Lowe) maps the Taliban to Nazis. I contend that, for a U.S. reader, mapping the Taliban to Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and their ilk would be clearer and more accurate.
Some may argue that the Robertson/Falwell vs. Nazi distinction is academic, but I think there is an important point. The Nazis, for the most part, are a group of a prior era. They live on in our memories and histories, but Hitler and his contemporaries in the Nazi party are unlikely to directly cause horrors and atrocities today. Pat and Jerry are alive and kicking. NBC would never have the courage to map the Taliban to them on air, but I would bet that Sorkin (judging from his politics) wishes he could have done so.
This is a very easy topic to beat into the ground. I could write for much longer (I have not even gotten to the breakfast I attended at which Falwell, Robertson, Steve Forbes and the mayor of Jerusalem spoke, for instance) but I will conclude this post quickly. If you (the reader) happen to be a theistically inclined person, fine; have you ever thought that Robertson must be praying to a different deity than you are? Consider Robertson on the murders of abortion providers: “If the judges appointed by man will not deal with [them] the Lord is going to enter in and bring justice. And when that happens many of the innocent will suffer along with the guilty.” His understanding of Yahweh seems not to progress beyond Genesis 7 and Genesis 19. Even in those two stories the Bible authors had the sense of mind to allege that everyone killed was guilty; the remaining options are that Yahweh has limited power or that Yahweh does not mind killing innocent people just for the hell of it (by the way, the book of Job explores the latter option, where Yahweh does allow the killing of innocents; amusingly it is literally “for the hell of it.”)
It seems that the only reason Robertson believes in Jesus is to give himself more reason to hate those who do not. Robertson entertains a naïve theology, a sociopathic theology. It is not that Pat and Jerry have a few things in common with Usama. Usama is Pat and Jerry.
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