As Americans’ struggled to make sense of the massacre in Las Vegas that left at least 59 dead and more than 527 injured, one man sought answers from a higher power — Pat Robertson.
On Monday’s broadcast of “The 700 Club,” the TV preacher and former Republican presidential candidate suggested that the real cause of the carnage was widespread “disrespect” for President Trump, the national anthem and other societal mainstays.
“Violence in the streets, ladies and gentlemen. Why is it happening?” Robertson asked on his Christian Broadcast Network show.
“The fact that we have disrespect for authority; there is profound disrespect of our president, all across this nation. They say terrible things about him. It’s in the news, it’s in other places,” he continued. “There is disrespect now for our national anthem, disrespect for our veterans, disrespect for the institutions of our government, disrespect for the court system. All the way up and down the line, disrespect.”
Robertson continued by insisting that the real answer to violent crime like the one perpetrated by 66-year-old Stephen Paddock Sunday night was “biblical authority.”
“Until there is biblical authority there has to be some controlling authority in our society and there is none. And when there is no vision of God, the people run amok,” Robertson said. “And we have taken from the American people the vision of God, the whole idea of reward and punishment, an ultimate judge of all our actions, we’ve taken that away. And when there is no vision of God, the people run amok.”
Robertson is no stranger to controversy — so many in fact that an entire Wikipedia page has been dedicated to documenting them. You can read that here.
Video courtesy of Right Wing Watch.