Re: [RC] Sometimes (50% of the time) Robertson doesn't know what he is talking about

[David R. Block]

Title: To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical

50 %??? That LOW??? :-) Crazy Uncle Pat. David To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.--Thomas Jefferson   On 7/31/2013 10:20 PM, bil...@aol.com wrote:         To say that Robertson has "monumental" limitations is a clinical statement of fact. Here is one of his most recent rants; like so many others it is completely off the wall. Robertson's attitude toward research seems to be:  "When I feel like it, research is a good thing, but when I don't fell like it, no problem, I have freedom to make up statistics at will, no fact checking required."   Robertson, as of today, claims that people in Appalachia breed like rabbits and have oversize families as a matter of routine.   There was a period when there was some truth to this assertion. Before "the pill" mountaineers were, in fact, noted for families with 7 or 8 or more children.  I'm fairly certain that Appalachians were the last ethnic white population group about whom this could be said. This refers to the 1950s and more-or-less to the 1960s and into the 1970s, but from that time onward fertility in the region has been in decline and is now below the national average.   The birth rate per 1000 women in the USA as of 2011 was 12.7   "     "       "     "        "        "            West Virginia                11.2   Indeed, according to  the National Center for Health Statistics, National Vital Statistics Reports, vol. 61, no. 5, Oct. 3, 2012,   there are only a few states with lower birth rates: Connecticut  Rhode Island  both  10.4 Vermont         9.7 Maine             9.6   That's it. West Virginia (which is just about 100% an Appalachian state) has very nearly the same fertility results as Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Oregon. California has a higher rate, 13.3, but the highest fertility states are Alaska at 15.8 and Utah at 18.2.   Robertson has a perpetual case of foot-in-mouth-disease.     So, yes, he is, at best, a limited "good example." At other times he is an embarrassment to everyone.   When will he ever learn?  Probably the answer is "never."   Billy     -------------------------------------------------------------------------   Pat Robertson says birth control ‘very important’ to limit Appalachian ‘ragamuffins’ by Ben Johnson Wed July 31, 2013 VIRGINIA BEACH, VA, July 31, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Two days after saying he found nothing sinful about sex-change operations, televangelist Pat Robertson said contraception is “a very important part of humanity” that would prevent the birth of too many Appalachian “ragamuffins.” He also said that Natural Family Planning violated the provisions of the Old Testament. On today's episode of the 700 Club, a woman asked whether the use of birth control is sinful, something about which Catholics and Protestants disagree. When Robertson's co-host, Wendy Griffith, said not all families could afford to have multiple children, Robertson replied, “That's the big problem, especially in Appalachia. They don't know about birth control. They just keep having babies.” “You see a string of all these little ragamuffins, and not enough food to eat and so on,” he said, “and it's desperate poverty.” “I'd say yes, birth control is absolutely an important thing for people to use,” he added, saying contraception “is a very important part of humanity.” Robertson said that “birth control in the Protestant churches has always been permitted,” because they “feel that the care and rearing of children is a tremendous obligation.” However, the 83-year-old host had negative words for the Natural Family Planning method. “Our good friends in the Catholic Church forbid the use of birth control but they allow people to use what's called 'rhythm,'” he said at the beginning of his answer. “If you read the Old Testament they were forbidden to have sex while women were having their menstrual period, and the Catholic Church is telling women to do just that, and it's OK.” The Bible discouraged men from having sexual relations with a woman during her menstrual cycle – or touching her – in Leviticus 15:19-33, a provision taken up by Judaism and Islam. However, Robertson went on to tell another writer later in the segment that eating pork, which is banned in Leviticus 11:7 and Deuteronomy 14:8, is not a sin. “Where do people get all these things?” he asked. “This is ridiculous.” The Protestant Reformers opposed artificial contraception, something not embraced by Protestants until the Anglican Communion's Lamberth Conference in 1930. Pro-life activists point out that many forms of “birth control” – including the morning after pill, the IUD, and hormonal birth control pill – may cause a chemical abortion by blocking the implantation of a newly conceived child. -- -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <RadicalCentrism@googlegroups.com> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org   --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to radicalcentrism+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.     -- -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <RadicalCentrism@googlegroups.com> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org   --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to radicalcentrism+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.