Reflections on Playboy: The Haiti earthquake isn’t funny, but Pat Robertson is

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COEPTIS

Brian Sorgatz
(rhymes with “cats”)
Arcata, Humboldt County, California, United States

What sort of man blogs about Playboy? I flatter myself to think that Kendra Wilkinson might call this blog intellectual pimping.

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ISFP “Composer Artisan.” Culturally and economically libertarian for reasons having nothing to do with Ayn Rand. The rabbit in the avatar is not mine. I stole the image from the House Rabbit Society home page. Favorite activities: reading, writing, crosswords, Jeopardy!, moviegoing, television (and proud of it), piano, didgeridoo, foreign languages (currently Spanish), light hiking, spiritual practice, friendship, sex.

Hollywood, California, is my spiritual hometown. I actually grew up in three other communities in California, but it hardly seems to matter which three. How could my heart take root anywhere under the tyranny of American public schooling?

I don’t have to work for a living. After my father died in December 1997, my family and I won a legal settlement.

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Trash Culture: Popular Culture and the Great Tradition by Richard Keller Simon. Professor Simon makes an impressive case for the essential similarity of “high” and “low” culture. The chapter on Playboy is thoughtful and valuable.
The Substance of Style: How the Rise of Aesthetic Value is Remaking Commerce, Culture, and Consciousness by Virginia Postrel. There is nothing inherently shallow or frivolous about spending time and money on beauty in one’s environment, possessions, or body.
God in Popular Culture by Andrew M. Greeley. A liberal Catholic priest sees quasi-Christian messages of grace abounding in the allegedly soulless realm of commercial pop culture. For all I know, Greeley is not necessarily a Playboy fan. But his interpretation of Madonna’s song “Like a Virgin”—more plausible than the interpretation in Reservoir Dogs—has influenced my impression of Playboy. (In case anyone wonders, my religious heritage is German-Hungarian Lutheran on my father’s side and Anglo-Scots-Irish secularist on my mother’s.)
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The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How to Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education by Grace Llewellyn. She trusts Jean-Jacques Rousseau more than she should, but she has the right idea about America’s tyrannical public schools.
The Soul of Sex: Cultivating Life as an Act of Love by Thomas Moore. With his remarkably nuanced and unprejudiced mind, Moore ponders human sexuality as an expression of soul.

January 14, 2010

The Haiti earthquake isn’t funny, but Pat Robertson is

According to televangelist and former presidential candidate Pat Robertson, the disastrous earthquake in Haiti was a consequence of the pact with the devil the Haitians made some two centuries ago to drive out their French oppressors. While I wouldn’t make light of the suffering in the Caribbean, I believe ridicule is the best response to callous, moronic statements like Robertson’s. Let’s have some fun.

Let’s watch these two videos, one right after the other. The first shows Robertson telling the “true story” on The 700 Club:

What’s so funny about that, you ask? As you watch this clip from a 1960 episode of The Twilight Zone, “The Howling Man,” in which Lucifer escapes from the monastery that has held him prisoner, try to imagine him thinking, “The first thing I’ll do is liberate the Haitians,” as he strokes his beard and begins his transformation. If you’re like me, this will help you savor the delicious absurdity of Robertson and the science fiction version of Christianity (as opposed to serious Christianity) he stands for.

Posted by Brian Sorgatz at 5:22 PM

Jessica Penot left this comment at January 16, 2010 10:21 PM
This is so wrong it makes me sick. Thanks for the post.

The Plastic Mancunian left this comment at January 17, 2010 6:51 AM
I've heard a lot of bilge about Haiti partcilarly coming from the mouths of evangelical idiots - or written in evangelical blogs.

What is wrong with these people?

And who actually believes them?

Things like this really annoy me. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

Cheers

PM

Brian Sorgatz left this comment at January 17, 2010 9:50 AM
You don’t have to get sick or annoyed. Just laugh at (not with) it.

carl left this comment at January 19, 2010 3:21 PM
I've blogged about Robertson's comment too. That seems to be a trend with conservative Christians to blame the victims of such disaster. Remember he and others made these kinds of comments in the midst of Katrina too.

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