THE WORLD Evangelical Alliance yesterday blasted American televangelist Pat Robertson over his call for the United States to assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
"It is with great regret and deep concern that we totally condemn the recent speech by Dr. Pat Robertson calling for the U.S. government to assassinate President Chavez," the alliance said yesterday.
"This kind of statement, by this well known American Christian leader, is in complete contradiction to the teachings of Jesus Christ who evangelical Christians believe and seek
to demonstrate," says Geoff Tunnicliffe, WEA International director.
He added that: "Robertson does not speak for evangelical Christians. We believe in justice and the protection of human rights of all people, including the life of President Chavez."
Rev. Sam Olson, veteran pastor of Las Acacias church in Caracas and president of the Venezuelan Evangelical Alliance (associated with WEA) has expressed deep concern for how this statement will negatively impact evangelical Christians in Latin America. He said "Robertson has placed our lives in jeopardy as he has completely misrepresented us and has given our government every reason to believe we would support such an action."
The World Evangelical Alliance has called on Dr. Robertson to withdraw his statement and reconcile his views with the orthodox Christian faith. The WEA calls on all people, in particular those of Venezuela, to show restraint in how they react to such a statement, knowing that it represents the opinion of one individual and not that of the hundreds of millions of evangelical Christians around the world.
