By Kathleen Kern

After Pat Robertson suggested this summer on the 700 Club that the United States “take out” Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, I thought of the 2,000 evangelical churches in Venezuela who declared before a 2004 referendum that they were praying for Chavez to receive “divine protection” against removal from office.

(The referendum was analogous to John Kerry supporters demanding that Americans vote right now on whether George Bush should remain president.)

I wanted to see what Venezuelan evangelicals are currently saying about Chavez and came across the following letter from a coalition of evangelical and Catholic groups released Aug. 26:

“Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer.” — I John 3:15

“[O]nce again, we have seen and heard with shock the criminal declarations that American television broadcasts. . . . We refer to the words of Pastor Pat Robertson . . . who, calling himself the preacher of a ‘gospel,’ publicly demands that the government of the United States assassinate the president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez. . . . These criminal declarations are absolute-ly anti-Christian and ethically untenable, since they incontestably constitute . . . an incitement to break the law, for which reason they should be duly judged under North American federal laws, as well as by the international courts. Further, they dishonor the noble people of the United States, whom we hold in high esteem.

“The declarations of [Robertson] constitute not only an aggression against fundamental human rights, but an offense against a president legitimized through 10 democratic electoral processes, and an insult against the worthy people of Venezuela. . . .

“As Christians and Venezuelans, believers in the God of life and love, we reject with utmost resolve the call . . . by this preacher of death. We call on President Bush to condemn categorically [Robertson’s words]. . . . We repudiate this kind of speech . . . used to legitimize aggressions, wars and the looting of natural resources throughout the world.

“We make a fraternal call to the churches of the United States to reject the doctrine of ‘manifest destiny’ that [justifies] the vilest abuses in the name of God and in the name of their country’s ‘security.’ We support those Christian bodies in the United States of America that struggle unequivocally against violence, war, abusive policies and foreign interventions. No nation should try to build its own security upon aggression and injustice.

“We call on everyone, Christians, Venezuelans and Latin Americans, to pray for our president and to denounce prophetically the manipulation of faith by national and international religious hierarchies. . . .

“The time is ripe to evoke the memory of the Rev. Martin Luther King, apostle of freedom and dreams, born in that great country to the north, who, by virtue of his commitment to the excluded, became a legacy for all of humanity. Let us listen to the voice of Pastor King, who, from the small black cemetery in Atlanta keeps crying out for justice, not only for his brothers of color, but also for boys and girls and entire peoples dying of hunger and torn apart by missiles in more than 150 armed conflicts [around the world].”

(Thanks to Duane Ediger for his translation.)

Also worthy of note: In October, Chavez plans to start shipping heating oil and diesel fuel at below market prices to poor communities and schools in the United States, beginning with the Mexican-American community in Chicago.