Televangelist Pat Robertson: Divorce Is Cool If Your Spouse Has Alzheimer's

Hey, people looking to get rid of your spouses who are afflicted with Alzheimer's, a Very Important Christian has given you an out: Pat Robertson said on the 700 Club that it's totally fine to divorce your spouse if he or she has Alzheimer's, even if you have cried while watching The Notebook.

According to the AP, Robertson was answering questions from viewers when he "was asked what advice a man should give to a friend who began seeing another woman after his wife started suffering from the incurable neurological disorder." Robertson said, "I know it sounds cruel, but if he's going to do something, he should divorce her and start all over again, but make sure she has custodial care and somebody looking after her."

When his co-host, Terry Meeuwsen, asked whether marriage vows, like taking care of each other in "sickness and in health," applied, Robertson said, "If you respect that vow, you say 'til death do us part,'" adding the disease was "a kind of death." But Robertson did also say, "Get some ethicist besides me to give you the answer." Somewhere, Newt Gingrich is wondering if Robertson will allow an out for people with spouses who have cancer.

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By Jen Chung in News on September 15, 2011 8:54 AM

Comments [rss]

LICnative

If the spouse has Alzheimer's they wouldn't know if you were stepping out anyway. If they did, they sure as hell couldn't remember.

cr17

Now is a wife allowed to leave her husband if he has the disease, or does this only apply to men and their stricken wives?

whatidsay

You should probably pose that question to Mrs. Robertson.

robingee

Yeah; after all, Pat's been useless for decades!

robingee

Is this guy even still on TV? Good Lord!

CityFace

'Robertson did also say, "Get some ethicist besides me to give you the answer."'

That implies he's an ethicist. Using clever syntax like that is just skeevy.

Erik Lyngved

I believe they give these sorts of workshops at GOP conventions. "How To Say It Without Really Saying It"

Kevin_Kramers

Isn't marriage a sacrament?

Len_Drexler

Isn't marriage a sacrament?

It is in Catholicism which has seven: baptism, communion, confirmation, confession, last rites, marriage, and holy orders. Most Protestant religions only recognize baptism and communion as sacraments.

FU Boy

A sacred institution that can't be compromised by the gays. Lord knows how they'll piss all over it (since the straights have already used it for toilet paper).

BKPhil

The Christian thing to do in any situation is to look out for #1 - you.

Anything that threatens to inconvenience you (crippled spouse, taxes, etc) should be eliminated. Unless of course that something is a an embryo.

Got it?

Guest

And you couldn't be more wrong. But that's cool.

BKPhil

Sorry for the venomous snark. Robertson and his ilk wind me up up, and I lashed out with facetiousness.

By no means did I mean to imply that Christianity really or necessarily looks like that.

While no regular churchgoer, I grew up in a very different Christian environment. A Christianity of quiet humility, forgiveness, charity, peace and universality. Not loud, proud, judgmental, wrathful, greedy, and exceptionalist.

I'm sure practitioners of gospels of judgement and wealth would disagree with my characterizations, but when I hear them speak I always suspect they come from a, shall we say, diametrically opposite source.

S.D.

Wow, a 'Christian Evangelist' advocating divorce and Spousal Abandonment?
CLASSY!

Len_Drexler

a 'Christian Evangelist' advocating divorce and Spousal Abandonment

I am no expert on Pat Robertson or Christianity or Southern Baptism but he did say to "make sure she has custodial care and somebody looking after her." And on divorce, Protestant faiths tend to be more flexible than say, Catholicism. Again, I have no idea what Pat Robertson has said on the topic in the past.

Unkle_Bob

If your spouse has health issues, you know who should be looking after her? YOU! That's the whole fucking point of marriage - you love someone, you want to care for them, bla bla bla.

If you're going to bail out as soon as it gets tough (as many, many people do nowadays), then don't even bother getting married.

Len_Drexler

If you're going to bail out as soon as it gets tough

I don't see anything in the AP story about how far along her disease had progressed. It does say the guy was "seeing another woman" which I hope didn't start until things had progressed past the point where she didn't recognize him. Not something I would do but I bet it happens more than we think.

LtWorf

WOAH S.D. Remember: God talks directly to Pat Robertson. So whatever he says is actually the word of the Lord. We need to edit the bible every time Robertson issues a new commandment that differs from the Bible's teachings.