Kos 1, Robertson 0

I'm not a fan of Daily Kos but must give credit for this post from earlier today that struck me as rather clever, and neatly illustrates one of the pitfalls of evangelical politics:

God is a waffler. Pat Robertson said God told him that Iraq would be a bloody disaster. But the same God told George Bush it wouldn't, which so surprised Robertson, he almost dropped the pennies he was stealing off a dead woman's eyes. But why is God talking out of two sides of his mouth? Flip-flop. God told us to beat our swords into plowshares. God: Wrong on defense, wrong for America.

Now most evangelical Christians that I know will accept a limited version of "private revelation", in the form of a "still small voice" that provides advice and insight. I'm open to that possiblity myself.

But private revelations in the real world are not on par with scripture and, to make matters worse, sometimes wrong. So whenever Robertson starts passing around his private revelations on the political future I get very, very nervous.

This wouldn't be the first time that Robertson has let slip one of these juicy bits of intel from the Big Guy. Back on Jan 2, 2004 Pat alerted us that:

I think George Bush is going to win in a walk. I really believe I'm hearing from the Lord it's going to be like a blowout election in 2004. The Lord has just blessed him.

Considering that the election ultimately hinged on a relatively close vote in one state (Ohio), I don't think that Robertson heard God right. (No, I'm not arguing that the 2004 vote was stolen, but the result was only a blowout compared to 2000)

The point? If God tells you something, keep it under your hat. Or if you just can't help yourself, tell it to a few close friends that you can trust to keep a secret. Please don't blurt it out on national television. By all means do God's will, in politics as in everything else. But leave God with plausible deniability.