Sparky - Robertson lies to his followers about Japan

Xtians on the rise in Japan

In Japan, Christianity is on the rise. Japan's major religions are Buddhism and Shintoism. For decades, many missions organizations put the number of Christians in Japan at around 2%.

But a new Gallup poll says that currently 6% of the Japanese population claims to be Christian. Researchers call that figure "stunning."

They say they are also surprised by the high number of teens who claim to be Christians – about 7 percent of Japanese teenagers say they are believers.

The above is off by a factor of 10. It's only 7 out of 1000 who may tell rude pollsters out of politeness that they are Xtian. But thankfully it's doubtful.

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Evil as a youth and still evil —

When he was twelve, Robertson was enrolled in the military preparatory McDonogh School outside Baltimore, Maryland. From 1944 until 1946 he attended the McCallie School in Chattanooga, Tennessee. McCallie, now a college preparatory school, that was at the time a military school. He graduated with honors and enrolled at Washington and Lee University, where he majored in history and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, a prestigious national honor society. He also joined Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. Robertson has said, "Although I worked hard at my studies, my real major centered around lovely young ladies who attended the nearby girls schools" (see [1]).

In 1948 the draft was reinstated, and Robertson was given the option of joining the Marine Corps or being drafted into the army. He opted for the former, which allowed him to finish college under the condition that he attend OCS during the summer at Quantico, Virginia. He graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree and was the first person to be commissioned as a Second Lieutenant at a graduation ceremony at the university. In January 1951, Robertson served four months in Japan, "doing rehabilitation training for Marines wounded in Korea."

In his words, "We did long, grueling marches to toughen the men, plus refresher training in firearms and bayonet combat." In the same year he transferred to Korea, "I ended up at the headquarters command of the First Marine Division," says Robertson. "The Division was in combat in the hot and dusty, then bitterly cold portion of North Korea just above the 38th Parallel later identified as the 'Punchbowl' and 'Heartbreak Ridge.' For that service in the Korean War, the Marine Corps awarded me three battle stars for 'action against the enemy.'" (see [2])

Former Republican Congressman Paul "Pete" McCloskey, Jr., who served with Robertson in Korea, claimed that Robertson was spared combat duty when his powerful father, a U.S. Senator, intervened on his behalf, claiming that instead Robertson spent most of his time in an office in Japan. According to McCloskey, his time in the service was not in combat but as the "liquor officer" responsible for keeping the officers' clubs supplied with liquor.

Paul Brosman, Jr., another veteran who had served with Robertson, claimed in a deposition that Robertson had sexual relations with prostitutes and sexually harassed a cleaning girl. Robertson has described these allegations as "an attack by liberals to discredit me."

But he lost his case against them. Bwahaha!

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Support for Charles Taylor/Diamonds Controversy

Robertson repeatedly supported former President of Liberia Charles Taylor in various episodes of his 700 Club program during the United States' involvement in the Liberian Civil War in June and July of 2003. Robertson accuses the U.S. State Department of giving President Bush bad advice in supporting Taylor's ouster as president, and of trying "as hard as they can to destabilize Liberia."

Robertson was criticized for failing to mention in his broadcasts his $8,000,000 (USD) investment in a Liberian gold mine. Taylor had been at the time of Robertson's support indicted by the United Nations for war crimes, and prosecutors also said he had harbored members of Al Qaeda responsible for the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings. According to Robertson, the Liberian gold mine Freedom Gold was intended to help pay for humanitarian and evangelical efforts in Liberia, when in fact the company was allowed to fail leaving many debts both in Liberia and in the international mining service sector. Regarding this controversy, Richard Land, head of the Southern Baptist Convention's public policy said, "I would say that Pat Robertson is way out on his own, in a leaking life raft, on this one."

Robertson has also been accused of using his tax-exempt, nonprofit organization, Operation Blessing, as a front for his own financial gain, and then using his influence in the Republican Party to cover his tracks. After making emotional pleas in 1994 on The 700 Club for cash donations to Operation Blessing to support airlifts of refugees from Rwanda to Zaire, it was later discovered, by a reporter from The Virginian Pilot, that Operation Blessing's planes were transporting diamond-mining equipment for the Robertson-owned African Development Corporation, a venture Robertson had established in cooperation of Zaire's dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko.

An investigation by the Commonwealth of Virginia's Office of Consumer Affairs determined that Robertson "willfully induced contributions from the public through the use of misleading statements and other implications" and called for a criminal prosecution against Robertson in 1999. However, the Virginia Attorney General Mark Earley, a Republican whose largest campaign contributor two years earlier was Robertson himself, intervened, accepting that Robertson had made deceptive appeals but overruling the recommendation for his prosecution.[3]

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Have a better day than me or the Guru! - Sparks