Our Sermon Today is "What Pat Said."

Today, ladies and gentlemen, we discuss Pat Robertson's remark that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke is divine retribution for giving up the Israeli settlements in Gaza.

From The Y Files: Pat May Be A Loon, But He's Our Loon

But tonight, I was pretty stunned myself when former Congressman-turned-Fox News talk show host John Kasich, subbing for Bill O'Reilly on "The O'Reilly Factor," offered a sort-of defense of Robertson, whom he judged to be guilty only of poor timing.

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Paul Levinson: I have an enormous amount of respect for the scripture, but when people in our modern age try to apply it literally in a fanatical way, it leads to graceless, absurd statements such as Pat Robertson made. If you think about the fact -- the only other public figure who' commented about Sharon's dying being appropriate in any way is the President of Iran, who's a fundamentalist Islamic nutcase.

John Kasich: (chuckles) You're not trying to compare Pat Robertson to the--this lunatic over in Iran, are you?

Janet Folger: I hope not.

Paul Levinson: I'm comparing two people who are fundamentalists and who don't seem to have a modern view of the world -- who don't seem to understand that the Prime Minister shouldn't be judged according to scripture when he's on his deathbed.

Not be judged according to scripture when he's on his deathbed? Isn't that---doesn't it say---? Damn Christians don't know no damn thing about they bible.

Be sure to check out the entire transcript on the blog. They almost-but-not-quite have something, they've almost made it to the terrible, yet true conclusion: that the Old Testament should never be applied to anything in "modern life." Pat Robertson is being who he is--a findamentalist, applying scripture to modern life. What he says is perfectly logical in a biblical context. At least, in a context where the people of the US are God's Chosen, instead of some middle eastern nomads, Of course, one thing they said is correct. In the Old Testament stories, Pat Roberson would probably be turned into something by God for daring to assume the mind of God. It would probably be exceedingly gory, and would be ignored by modern Christians, for its goriness.