Posted on 09/15/2011 11:20:05 AM PDT by Sopater
Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson told his "700 Club" viewers that divorcing a spouse with Alzheimer's is justifiable because the disease is "a kind of death."
During the portion of the show where the one-time Republican presidential candidate takes questions from viewers, Robertson 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.
"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," Robertson said.
The chairman of the Christian Broadcasting Network, which airs the "700 Club," said he wouldn't "put a guilt trip" on anyone who divorces a spouse who suffers from the illness, but added, "Get some ethicist besides me to give you the answer."
Most Christian denominations at least discourage divorce, citing Jesus' words in the Gospel of Mark that equate divorce and remarriage with adultery.
Terry Meeuwsen, Robertson's co-host, asked him about couples' marriage vows to take care of each other "for better or for worse" and "in sickness and in health."
"If you respect that vow, you say `til death do us part,'" Robertson said during the Tuesday broadcast. "This is a kind of death."
A network spokesman said Wednesday that Robertson had no further statement.
Divorce is uncommon among couples where one partner is suffering from Alzheimer's, said Beth Kallmyer, director of constituent services for the Alzheimer's Association, which provides resources to sufferers and their families.
"We don't hear a lot of people saying `I'm going to get divorced,'" she told The Associated Press. "Families typically respond the way they do to any other fatal disease."
The stress can be significant in marriages though, Kallmyer said, because it results in the gradual loss of a person's mental faculties.
"The caregiving can be really stressful on a couple of levels," she said. "There's the physical level. There's also the emotional level of feeling like you're losing that person you love."
As a result, she said, it's important for couples to make decisions about care together in the early stages of the illness, when its effects aren't as prominent. (AP)
Is Pat still jumping horses and crashing into gates?
Love the man for all those he has helped thru counsel and prayer..
I could follow his line of logic to the mind and body being gone but where is the line between a spirit and a soul being gone?
Heck, We have many in Congre$$ today who are borderline and worse.. If you really want to poke at angels.
Robertson is a jerkwad, and he needs to go away. He embarrasses other Christians with the crap he says.
If she gets the flu real bad can I cheat in her just once? What do you think, huh Pat?
As far as I’m concerned, Pat Robertson jumped the shark back in 1988 when he sued former Rep. Pete McCloskey (R-Calif.) for libel after McCloskey claimed that Robertson had used his political connections to avoid combat in Korea. After McCloskey rounded up some witnesses, Robertson asked that his own lawsuit be dismissed—which is was, with prejudice to McCloskey.
Does anyone know the actual facts of this matter? If so, please set me straight.
I'm not saying that this alters the moral and ethical situation — just that it might explain some things.
Pat Robertson is in need of a “word of wisdom”, so here it is: SILENCE!
Could Pat be in the early stages himself? I mean really.
Not much of a man to make the statement he did.
LOL. Maybe even the Billy Carter,too.
You can have all of the joint assets reallocated to the two individuals. That protects the other spouse.
You are right. Newt and Santorum would be his man, as both are Catholic and this premise is Catholic doctrine. Either should be able to explain Pat’s premise better than he himself did to other Protestants.
Just wondering if Robertson suffers from some type of dementia.
Is Pat married? If so maybe his wife should be filing on grounds of him not being there anymore.
” I didn’t say it, Jesus did. Crystal clear. “
He also said “let the dead bury the dead”. This woman remains a live woman, Soapster, but she is no longer a “wife”, in any sense of the word, but now becomes only a woman, and we all know it. The lengths you take here with our Lord’s context, content and sure truth sets aside all three. We all know what He was speaking about. Alzheimers wasn’t it.
Sad, but not surprising. Pat went off the reservation decades ago when he abandoned Sola Scriptura.
Wow, that is harsh.
Always a good idea to agree with God.
Fornication is sexual immorality BEFORE marriage. So, the husband has found something in her past that causes him to reject her, correct? Adultery is sexual immorality WHILE married and is CORRECTED BY STONING.
Divorce for abitrary reasons is not addressed here.
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