Evangelist Pat Robertson says coronavirus is God’s way to ‘hold us guilty’ for abortion, same sex marriage

Conservative preacher Pat Robertson believes coronavirus is God’s way of punishing mankind for homosexual and abortion rights.

The 90-year-old evangelical made his comments on an episode of his long-running show “The 700 Club” that ran Monday.

The segment started with a co-host reading a letter she said was from a viewer who was tuned in last week when Robertson quoted Chronicles 7:14 from the Bible. That letter also claimed “many people” opposed the state of Israel.

“How can God heal our land and forgive the sins when abortion and same-sex marriage are laws and many people are anti-Israel. Doesn’t this prevent his healing and forgiveness?” the passage reads.

Robertson again addressed that point in a segment picked up on by media watchdog group Media Matters.

“You know the Bible says, they turn from their wicked ways. They didn’t get forgiven They will turn from their wicked ways,” he said. “We are not turning when we have done terrible things. We have broken the covenant that God made with the mankind.”

Robertson similarly made claims after the attacks on 9/11 that God may have been sending a message to mankind with the terror strikes that killed nearly 3,000 people in the U.S.

“We have taken the life of the innocent, slaughtered them by the tens of millions,” he said Monday. “I mean, we’ve allowed this terrible plague to spread throughout our society.”

The “plague” to which he was seemingly referred to the issue of women’s reproductive rights and not coronavirus. Robertson then implied that if mankind makes amends, supernatural help in stopping the pandemic would likely follow.

“It’s a small wonder God would hold us guilty,” he said. “But the answer is, you know, you confess your sins and forsake them. Then he heals the land. It’s not before.”

Human Rights Campaign Religion & Faith Program Director Michael Vazquez took exception to Robertson’s interpretation of Christian teachings.

“At the core of the Christian faith is an ethic of love and justice, and what Robertson is advocating for is an ethic of hate and violence,” he wrote in a statement provided by the commission. “Christians who continue to use the LGBTQ community, and other marginalized populations, as scapegoats for tragedy betray their God-given duty to be people of love and inclusion, and doers of mercy and justice.”

Professional wrestler Hulk Hogan quoted the same scripture as Robertson earlier this month when he, too, suggested the vaccine needed to end the pandemic might come through divine intervention.

According to the 6-foot-7 grappler who weighs in at more than 300 pounds, God shut down the nation’s sports stadiums, movie theaters and financial institutions so humans could focus on their relationships with Jesus Christ.

“If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land,” Hogan wrote on Instagram.

Hogan, born Terry Gene Bollea, made no references to abortion or same sex marriage.

Coronavirus has infected more than 1.5 million people and killed nearly 172,000, according to Johns Hopkins University.