On the same “700 Club” program today in which Pat Robertson said that Jews must convert to Christianity in order to enter Heaven, he also took on a question from a woman who was friends with a man whose wife is suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease and has begun to date another woman and wanted to know what to do. Robertson’s advice was to encourage the husband to divorce his wife with Alzheimer’s because she was, for all intents and purposes, already dead. Co-host Terry Meeuwsen understandably wondered if that would not violate the “til death do you part” provision of the wedding vow, which Robertson just pretty much dismissed, saying “he certainly wouldn’t put a guilt trip” on anyone who decided that divorce was the answer.
She didn’t ask me, but if she had asked me… I would’ve advised that woman whose friend is seeing someone other than his stricken wife to butt the fuck out. And I would’ve advised that woman’s friend, if he had asked me, to do what he needs to do to stay sane but not to divorce his dying wife. In other words, I would’ve advised him to do what he’s already doing: seek companionship without abandoning to the care of a stranger who won’t advocate for her the way he could and should during the final months or years of his wife’s life. But Robertson? He urges divorce and leaving his wife in the care of complete strangers. Hm, I guess I’m just a conservative—more conservative than Pat Robertson—when it comes to divorce. In sickness and in health, until death do you part, etc., I take that shit seriously. (Other shit, meh, not so seriously.)
And I would advise Pat “I Hate Alzheimer’s” Robertson to lay a guilt trip on God the next time the two men speak. God is the Creator of All Things, including Alzheimer’s, and while a cure has so far eluded science, a cure for Alzheimer’s can’t possibly elude Him.
Wait, WHAT? Pat Robertson said something crazy? STOP THE PRESSES.
Well said Savage. This is why I never watch shit like 700 club, fox news or any of the right wing propaganda bat shit crazy tv shows; it would seriously raise my blood pressure. As someone who has had two grandparents suffer from Alzheimer’s, I understand the importance of family support. I also understand, as Savage points out, the need to balance this with taking care of ones own needs but to hear some block head (Robertson) say stupid shit like that aggravates me to no end.
Pat Robertson is a dick. Plain and simple.
Savage, are you really saying that “till death do you part” should be taken seriously? Isn’t that discarding lots of valid reasons why people shouldn’t stay together (domestic abuse, marrying to legitimize children, etc)…people get married for lots of reasons, not all of them should be “until death” sentences. I agree that divorcing a woman with Alzheimers is some cold shit, but let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater…divorce has liberated a lot of really unhappy people from some very disturbing relationships. There’s enough oppression out there, do you need to reinforce the one that oppresses so many? Come on…
This is Robertson’s idea of “the sanctity of marriage”? Seriously, if that’s the kind of insane shit he advocates, why on earth would anyone listen to his ideas about marriage over yours?