He thinks his audience believes in him so much that they wont make the connection that he is running a scam and is a con man.

I think in his heart he knows what a liar he is. He knows he isn't talking to god. He just loves his money so much he can't help himself.

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are. Matthew 23:15

I get really weary of the left-wingers who just rant and make snarky remarks all the time. David seems a bit more humble and a bit more serious -- like a younger version of Thom Hartmann.

It is hard to put myself in the shoes of a right-winger, but I'l thinking they are more likely to listen to people like Pakman and Hartmann than the screaming heads. Most of the others are just preaching to the choir. We actually have to get out of the church and convert others. That doesn't mean you have to be a pushover. David is very direct. He just isn't nasty about it, and I like that. Entertaining and informative, but not mean-spirited.

"Sweet Jesus: PLEASE prevent these these Religious scam artists from twisting your words of love into hate so, in order for them to profit off of people's prejudices."

"Oh wait, I'm off script; never mind." "By sending a mere $5000.00 to 700 Club, YOU can become a
"Crusader for Christ." All of your donations will help supplement right wing talking points and intolerance. Praise Gaawwdd!"

Years ago, I knew a couple who were down on their luck, barely making ends meet from week to week. They constantly listened to radio and TV evangelists, saying that kept their spirits up. Over and over they heard "God will provide."

One day, when they were completely out of money before the week was out, they received an unsolicited credit card in the mail...it had a $15K limit. They honestly felt God was providing for them, answering their prayers. They immediately began charging everything they needed and a lot of what they wanted. When the first billing arrived they ignored it and kept charging--including an expensive vacation--in spite of what all their friends were telling them.

To make a long story short they charged everything for months, certain they didn't have to pay the bills because God had given them the card as a gift. Well, God didn't open his wallet a second time (probably had his own bills to pay), and they ended up in bankruptcy court. Yeah, there really are some who believe every word Pat Robertson and his fellow scammers spew.

pretty much got my mom to give away her retirement. Hope he's enjoying his ill-gotten gains. As long as there are easily manipulated people, grifters like him will have plenty of "seed" money in their pockets.

Why, some religious scamsters even hawk protein drinks and use the donations sent to them for mission projects to fund operational expenses in a diamond mine. Don't you think that's shameful, Pat?

lying and intentionally trying to trick people. -- Having spent the first 25 years of my life surrounded by fundamentalist - I am absolutely certainly that the vast majority - do believe albeit in a highly self-deceptive kind of way what they are saying. There are the Marjoe Gortner types who are fully aware that they are lying and tricking people. - But they are a small minority. The mere exercise in self-deception and denial of reality that is required to maintain a zealous faith like fundamentalist Christianity and to simply live with oneself - being forced to constantly deny their own human nature - believing that they are "new creatures in Christ Jesus" - not even being able to have one single minute of a conscious sexual fantasy in peace - without wrapping it in webs of self-deception - all of this self-inflicted mental torture that every true believing fundamentalist faithful have no choice but to put themselves through - all of this denial and self-deceit - creates a mind set where unreality is the norm and denial of reality and reason are a constant state of being.

Pat would tell us that means not to swear godammit, but the way I see it, it means not to assume God's name for yourself. After all, the word "vain" absolutely means one's self.

Don't assume to tell others you know what God wants from people, or that you can talk to Him on behalf of someone who sends you money.

Pat Robertson has taken the Lord's name in vain every day of his long life and should have a huge debt to pay in the fantasy of his afterlife.

Good point.

He should have sent help to this lady, but instead Robertson's Familiar Spirit speaks of her self destruction.

ran for President, he claimed to have been a Korean War combat veteran. Actually, he was a liquor purchasing officer thanks to the influence of his father, who was a US senator. He never saw combat. That revelation pretty much sank his presidential ambitions. It doesn't get much lower than that, unless you count being involved with the blood diamond trade and suckering widows out of their pensions to finance the Lord's diamond mines in Africa.