www.newsandletters.org
|
|
NEWS & LETTERS, June 2002
Pat's fascist friendsMemphis, Tenn.—Church & State magazine, published by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, is a wake-up call for those who think the religious Right is merely a highly opinionated celebration of Christianity. A recent issue reveals that Pat Robertson is in business with Charles Taylor, the dictator of Liberia, who is internationally criticized for his brutality. Taylor's military and police have been accused of torture, amputations and assassinations, but Robertson has joined him in a gold-mining business called Freedom Gold. Robertson also helped organize and promote the "Liberia for Jesus" rally led by Taylor, in which Taylor told the crowd that Liberia was a nation under Jesus, even though it is only 35% Christian. Taylor has been known to kill people taking sanctuary in churches, and it is thought that the rally was an attempt to weaken support of a mostly Muslim armed opposition movement, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy. In spite of this anti-Muslim stance, Taylor's Revolutionary United Front has sold diamonds from Sierra Leone to Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network, which sold the diamonds in Europe and used the funds to operate in the Liberian capital of Monrovia since 1998. Robertson recently dropped his supposedly religious stances against abortion and "moral relativism" when he stated that China had to have a forced abortion policy in order to curb overpopulation. The fact that he can hold this position when he doesn't mind women suffering and even dying when abortion is unavailable in the U.S. could be due to the fact that he aspires to be a major internet provider to China. Robertson also attempted to reopen the Powerine oil refinery in Santa Fe Springs, Cal. This was blocked by a state judge who ordered the refinery not to reopen unless pollution-control equipment was installed. Residents of the area, who remembered the smoke that caused paint to peel off their cars when the refinery was previously operating, marched in protest of Robertson, dragging an effigy of him as a devil. —Adele |
|
Home l News & Letters Newspaper l Back issues l News and Letters Committees l Dialogues l Raya Dunayevskaya l Contact us l Search Published by News and Letters Committees |
