To the editor:

Rev. Pat Robertson’s call for the U.S. to “take out” Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is not free speech. It borders on the criminal!

How ironic that a proclaimed devout Christian who professes and quotes scripture should voice such hateful and bloodthirsty words. He sounds like the hateful and bloodthirsty Islamic fundamentalist clerics he and his followers loathe.

Why the Rev. Robertson suggests “we” assassinate a democratically elected leader was equally sad: to save the United States from another $200 billion war. Why? Because Chavez is going against the grain of Washington by looking for other nations to buy their oil?

Rev. Robertson suggests President Chavez will allow Venezuela to become a “launching pad for Communist influence and Muslim extremism” – like I haven’t heard THAT rhetoric before!

Look, he can think what he wants (though I wonder if thinking about having someone assassinated is a sin), however talking about government-sanctioned murder is something else entirely. In other nations and from the minaret rather than the sound stage of “The 700 Club,” we call it terroristic hate speech.

We have gone after and arrested these Jihadist masterminds. I wonder just what we will do about this one in our own backyard? Sadly, I think we will just let him go on preaching his hate and bigotry like we do our own Rev. Phelps. It isn’t free speech at all; it is hate speech and it is against the law.

Steve Craven,

Lawrence