Pat Robertson reportedly diverted Operation Blessing donations to mining project
Christian Dem in NC printable version print page     Bookmark and Share
Fri Sep 06, 2013 at 06:06:45 PM EST

A new documentary may be one of the highest-caliber shells fired across Pat Robertson's bow in a long time.  Back in 1994, Robertson's humanitarian organization, Operation Blessing, claimed to have raised scads of money to help thousands of Rwandan refugees who fled across the border to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  But according to Mission Congo, slated to premiere tonight at the Toronto International Film Festival, much of that money actually went to fund a diamond mining operation run by Robertson.

Mission Congo, by David Turner and Lara Zizic, opens at the Toronto film festival on Friday. It describes how claims about the scale of aid to Rwandan refugees were among a number of exaggerated or false assertions about the activities of Operation Blessing which pulls in hundreds of millions of dollars a year in donations, much of it through Robertson's televangelism. They include characterising a failed large-scale farming project as a huge success, and claims about providing schools and other infrastructure.

But some of the most damaging criticism of Robertson comes from former aid workers at Operation Blessing, who describe how mercy flights to save refugees were diverted hundreds of miles from the crisis to deliver equipment to a diamond mining concession run by the televangelist.

Read more about the film at the festival Website.  The allegations it makes would send a chill down th