I've posted comments relative to Ray Comfort (July 1) and Franklin Graham (June 9 and June 21), but it occurs to me I need to give some time and focus to Pat Robertson. I am not sure how I missed Pat.

Robertson made news, last August, by claiming that boys raised by single mothers turn homosexual, due to a lack of male role models. See the story here.

This is a classic example of Robertson Bizarriana: Pat often invents theories on the spot, in the absence of any supporting information whatever, often without even any suggestion that God Himself thinks what Pat is saying might be true. In this case, Pat is responding to a boy's stepmother, who has told him that the boy is experiencing "crushes on boys," and that he "lives with his mother most of the time." Pat ignores the "most of the time" qualifier, which implies that the boy does spend some time with his father; he does not try to find out whether there is a man in the life of the boy's mother, which would make his theory irrelevant; he fails to suggest where one might find any of the (non-existent) evidence that boys raised by single mothers are more likely than others to be homosexuals. He simply pulls the theory straight out of his ass, without even any references to any Bible passages that might support it.

This, of course, is a staple of Pat's "700 Club" messages. Just a month ago (see the story here), Pat raised eyebrows by suggesting to the coworker of a bereaved mother who had lost her baby that God was not to blame, and that it was very likely a hospital error (can't you imagine the distraught woman's relief at being told that?), and then he went on to contradict himself in nearly the same breath, suggesting that God took the baby's life because the baby might have turned out to be a horrible person: "As far as God's concerned, he knows the end from the beginning and He sees a little baby and that little baby could grow up to be Adolf Hitler, he could grow up to be Joseph Stalin, he could grow up to be some serial killer, or he could grow up to die of a hideous disease," Robertson said. "God sees all of that, and for that life to be terminated while he's a baby, he's going to be with God forever in Heaven so it isn't a bad thing."

If I were trying to comfort anyone who had lost a loved one, say the widow of an adored husband at his funeral, I would not let Pat Robertson be in the same time zone with her. And if God did take the baby to prevent another Hitler, because God "knows the end from the beginning," why didn't God do that with the original Hitler? That was six million of God's own people Hitler murdered.

Self-contradiction is Pat's forte; no one does it better. See, as a summary of one example, "Pat Robertson's contradictory theology: God won't stop a tsunami -- but might respond to Gay Days with an earthquake". The title of the article pretty much says it all, but to capture some of the detail: Pat responded to a question from George Stephanopoulos as to why God didn't prevent a tsumami from killing hundreds of thousands by saying, "I don't think He reverses the laws of nature." This would come as a surprise to many fervent Christians, who firmly believe God does control the weather -- including Pat himself, who once warned the city of Orlando, Florida against flying rainbow flags from lampposts in honor of Disney World's "Gay Days," saying that "I don't think I'd be waving those flags in God's face if I were you. ... [A] condition like this will bring about the destruction of your nation. It'll bring about terrorist bombs, it'll bring earthquakes, tornadoes and possibly a meteor." The idea that God would make use of natural disasters to destroy America for tolerating homosexuality (see June 17 post in this blog) is widespread, and Pat fully subscribes to it, except when it's more convenient for him, when the context changes, to say God doesn't have that ability. He never notices the conflict.

As the above article also points out, Pat has said, in the aftermath of two different hurricanes, that the headquarters of the Christian Broadcasting Network, Pat's own megaphone to the world in Hampton Roads, Virginia, escaped damage from the hurricanes because God responded to Pat's prayers and steered the hurricane away. Of course, if that is the case, "steering" the hurricanes in a new direction caused monumental damage to the lives and homes of many people who would otherwise have escaped destruction were it not for Pat's prayers, since God, of course, considered Pat more important than all those unfortunate people, even though I guarantee nearly all of them were praying just as hard as Pat was. That's how crucial Pat's safety is to God. According to Pat.

In my post of May 23, I pointed out the rapidly growing number of people who are dropping out of organized religion -- the percentage of respondents to a recurring Pew Poll who say they are not associated with any particular religion has grown from 16% in 2007 to 23% in 2014. Most Christians (the main religion from which all those people are departing) believe, I'm sure, that "enemies of God" are responsible for the decline. I am much more inclined believe it's been caused by God's friends. The more people like Pat Robertson talk, the more people will scratch their heads and wonder, "How does this make any sense?"