Heavy metal has had its share of run-ins with the church. It kind of makes sense when you think about it. Back in the ’70s, heavy metal was a new and mysterious art form that was invented precisely to scare people.
With its ominous tones and occultist lyrics, its reasonable that a conservative Christian or two might be spooked enough to hold the odd protest outside of a concert or ban their children from listening to the stuff, lest they be condemned to hell.
Nowadays, the church has largely removed ridding the world of heavy metal from its to-do list. Maybe they realise that at the end of the day, it’s just music, or perhaps they’ve given up all hope of ever saving all of those poor souls.
However, one Bible-basher who’s still taking a militant attitude towards that damned ‘devil music’ is Pat Robertson. For those unfamiliar with Robertson, the TV preacher has become infamous for his inflammatory and utterly ignorant statements.
Having told Haitians that the 2010 earthquake that wreaked havoc on the impoverished nation was the result of the population swearing “a pact to the devil”, Robertson recently advised a mother to “smack around” her son for listening to heavy metal.
As News Corp writes, on a recent episode of The 700 Club, the flagship program of the Christian Broadcasting Network, Robertson was read a missive by a woman named Marie who was concerned about her 11-year-old son.
According to Marie’s email, her son had recently begun “listening to music that speaks of the ‘beast within’ and the ‘infection in people.’” She said she had almost come to the point of “giving up trying to parent him”.
Robertson’s advice started off reasonably enough, with the preacher acknowledging that the young boy was starting to enter puberty. However, logic promptly excused itself and left the room after that brief overture.
“You know,” the octogenarian televangelist began, “it doesn’t hurt to smack a little 11-year-old around a little bit. Say ‘You behave, you’re not going to listen to that garbage in my house.”
“If you do I’m going to tear it up and break those records or CD or whatever, iPods, however you get that mess,’” said Robertson. While he acknowledged that the boy was only 11, he was adamant, “He’s a little twerp and you make that little twerp behave.”
“The little kids wouldn’t do that with me, I promise you. Big Daddy’s home! Wham!” he said, amid laughter from his co-host. “There’s a lot of evil in the world and you have to protect kids from evil and you have to do it any way you want to.”
Readers can check out the full video below, but brace yourself, especially for the part where Robertson’s chastises Marie for “act[ing] like a single mother”, it’s going to make you feel a little bit ill after it makes you burst out laughing.
