PAT ROBERTSON,
ROBERTO D'AUBUISSON &
THE DEATH SQUADS

In the Spring of 1984 Pat Robertson and CBN reporter Norm Mintle traveled to El Salvador where they met with the late Roberto D’Aubuisson. Following the trip, the "700 Club" aired four 20-30 minute segments on El Salvador, the major theme being that D’Aubuisson was a "very nice fellow" who was being maligned by the "biased liberalism" of Newsweek, Time and U.S. News and World Report.

D’Aubuisson - a very nice fellow? Hardly! D' Aubuisson was considered to be the most nortorious torture and Death Squad leader in El Salvador; he was described by Robert White, former U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador, as a "pathological killer," and was widely known as "Major Soplete" (i.e., "Major Blowtorch").

How is it possible that Robertson could have described him as "a very nice fellow?" - but that's the kind of "purposeful blindness" which has become altogether too much the hallmark of those evangelicals who have gotten mixed up in politics. God preserve us from those who have been so blinded, and from their leaders - it's a case of the blind leading the blind! (Matt 15:14)

When confronted with the facts concerning those with whom they have allied themselves, evangelical leaders like Robertson don't even bother confronting the facts themselves, but with a wave of their hand they simply lie and dismiss the allegations outright. Truly it can be said of them: "Having ears to hear, they hear not, and eyes to see, they see not!" (Mark 8:18)

There will be a reckoning someday, and on "that day" it will not go well for many of the leaders of today's evangelical church.

• Please see Report on Human Rights in El Salvador, America Watch Committee (New York: Random House, 1982); also State Terrorism and the Death Squads by William Lavellel; unpublished manuscript, California State University, Sacramento, 1983.