Robertson race horses scratched after critics charge hypocrisy

PEOPLE & EVENTS

TV preacher and Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson has agreed to end his involvement in horse racing after a barrage of negative reaction to a New York Times report about his fondness for the sport.

Robertson owns several thoroughbreds and recently purchased a horse he named Mr. Pat, which he had hoped would some day race in the Kentucky Derby. Robertson now says he will disband his racing stable by November.

"I don't bet and I don't gamble," Robertson told The Times. "I just enjoy watching horses running and performing."

Robertson's Coalition, which he officially stepped away from last year, has long opposed legalized gambling, and Robertson himself has opposed other forms of gambling in some states. In Alabama he appeared in television commercials to oppose a bill that would have permitted video gambling at dog tracks. He has also backed a ban on some forms of Internet gambling but said he would exempt horse racing.

"I wish horse racing was not supported by gambling," Robertson told The Times. "They call it the sport of kings. People from King Solomon on have been raising and racing horses. The people I see at the track, they don't seem to love horses. They're looking at The Racing Forum and are trying to make money betting. I like to look at them as performers and to study their bloodlines. That's what I find interesting."

Martin Marty, a professor of the history of modern Christianity at the University of Chicago, was not persuaded by Robertson's attempt to justify his actions.

"The notion of an evangelical entering horse racing and gambling, well, he can pretend all he wants that he's in it for the beauty of the sport, but you can't look at it that way or buy your way out of it by saying that," Marty observed. "The whole culture of horse racing involves gambling, and all the money comes from people trying to hit it big gambling. This is like saying you're investing in a bordello but aren't in favor of prostitution."

Robertson took a hard line toward gambling in his 1984 book Answers to 200 of Life's Most Probing Questions. "Pervasive gambling teaches people that fame, success, and fortune are available without work or struggle," Robertson wrote. "A roll of the dice, a turn of a card, the spin of a wheel, the run of a horse, the drawing of a lottery number are held out as the way to riches. The virtues of industry, thrift, careful investment, and patience are all undermined by this vice. In their place come human greed, lust, avarice, sloth, and a live-for-the-moment mentality."

On May 8 more than 200 religious leaders, including many Religious Right activists, placed a full-page advertisement in Washington, D.C.'s Roll Call newspaper, urging President George W. Bush to curb the spread of legalized gambling. Robertson was noticeably absent from the list of signers.

A few weeks after the April 22 Times story ran, Robertson announced that he was ending his involvement in horse racing. On his website, www.patrobertson.com, Robertson said he had received about 200 letters from supporters disagreeing with his involvement in racing.

He sent each a letter that read in part, "I am sorry that my fondness for the performance of equine athletes has caused you an offense; therefore, for your sake and the sake of others like you, I have set in motion the necessary plans to dispose of all of my thoroughbred racing and breeding stock between now and the breeding sale in Kentucky in November."

In other news about the Religious Right:

* Religious Right author Chuck Colson is under fire for using ghost-written material in his books and columns. The evangelical magazine World reported in April that Colson, in a Christianity Today column, blasted historian Stephen Ambrose, who has been accused of plagiarism.

Ironically, that same Colson column was in fact written by someone else -- ghost writer Anne Morse, although her name appeared nowhere on it. Colson later admitted that his books, columns and other materials are produced by teams of writers. Colson defended his practice, saying he gives credit to the other writers when he feels he should.

* The president of Bob Jones University wants people to stop using the term "fundamentalist," saying it has become too closely identified with terrorism. Bob Jones III, president of the ultra-conservative school, based in Greenville, S.C., wrote a column recently asserting, "Fundamentalist evokes fear, suspicion and other repulsive connotations in its current usage." Jones recommended using the term "preservationist" instead.

Copyright Americans United for Separation of Church and State Jun 2002
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