So now Pat Robertson has said that it’s okay, perhaps even a good thing, for the spouse of someone with Alzheimer’s to divorce his mate and get on with his life (See story here: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/AlzheimersCommunity/pat-robertson-alzheimers-makes-divorce/story?id=14526660 ). Strange, from someone who’s capitalized on claiming to be a pro-family advocate, even candidate, all these years.
Of course, Robertson is the same false prophet who announced on his tabloid TV show - the 700 Club - the world would end by 1982. A few years later, he proclaimed that God had chosen him to be the next President of the USA and would win the 1988 election. Can you say ‘contradiction’? Of course, neither of these came to pass, which is consistent with Robertson’s overall success rate for predicting the future: 0%. Then, there were his announcements that God would want the US to assassinate Hugo Chavez, the September 11th attacks were God’s judgment on the US, and the Haitian earthquake was God’s judgment on them.
It’s true, in the Old Testament God sometimes did bring His judgment through natural disasters (though never through hijacked airplanes). In fact, I do a routine based on the story of the drought during Elijah’s time that was sent to bring idol-worshippers to repentance. If I thought God still worked that way during our present era, I’d have to wonder if the current drought in Texas was sent to bring the Tea Partiers who elected Rick Perry as Governor of Texas to repentance.
As for Pat Robertson encouraging a recent caller to advise a friend whose wife has Alzheimer’s to divorce her and begin dating again, he finally proved, in no uncertain terms, that he either A) doesn’t read the Bible, or B) doesn’t really care what it says.
Unfortunately, that means he’ll probably have a large following for a long time to come. After all, it’s the religious right lemmings, more than any other group, who cling to every word spoken by another false prophet, cultist and lover of violence: Glenn Beck. It is the religious right, no doubt, along with the more secular right wing Tea Partiers, who cheered enthusiastically for Governor Perry’s 234 executions in a recent Republican presidential debate. It’s the religious right, as much as any other group, who have turned the four-times-married Rush Limbaugh into a spokesman for family values. And it was the son of a local religious right politician who welcomed one of our daughters to her new school by calling her 'baby killer' when she said to her high school class that then-candidate Obama’s plan to decrease abortions through education and health care may be more effective than John McCain’s plan to treat abortion as a states' rights issue.
Simply put, Robertson’s latest proclamation is the last straw for me. It is offensive to the hundreds of nursing home patients we visit each year with our ministry. It is offensive to spouses, like our friend, Frank, whose life long love came down with Alzheimer’s years ago. Frank has not only stayed true to his wife, but has kept her living with him even though she no longer knows who he is. And it is offensive to Jesus Christ who said, "When you do it to the least of these, you've done it unto me."
And Robertson’s anti-prophecy must be downright scary to those in the early stages of the disease, as they now wonder if they will be abandoned by their loved ones as the disease progresses.
Shame on Pat Robertson, and shame on those who continue to watch his show, listen to his heresies, and look the other way instead of holding him, and other religious right heretics, accountable for unbiblical, anti-Christian messages.