Talk about straight talk: Touchstone senior editor Russell Moore on the Pat Robertson scandalous remarks, as reported in the NYTimes, about divorcing one's wife if she has Alzheimer's. Moore is divorcing Robertson:
A woman or a man with Alzheimer’s can’t do anything for you. There’s no romance, no sex, no partnership, not even companionship. That’s just the point. Because marriage is a Christ/church icon, a man loves his wife as his own flesh. He cannot sever her off from him simply because she isn’t “useful” anymore.
Pat Robertson’s cruel marriage statement is no anomaly. He and his cohorts have given us for years a prosperity gospel with more in common with an Asherah pole than a cross.
I have tried to preach solid biblical truth so that my congregation would not need to resort to listening to charlatans like Robertson!!
Posted by: B Cody | September 19, 2011 at 07:54 AM
The notion that a spouse with Alzheimer's "can't do anything for you" is pretty disgusting. I've worked for the last year in an Alzheimer's/dementia care unit, and I can tell you that my patients almost universally love and remember their spouses. I have patients who search every night for a husband or wife who passed away years before. I cannot count the number of nights I have sat up holding hands with one patient after another, trying to deal with the questions "Why isn't my bride here?" and 'Where did my John go?" Those patients who still have living spouses revolve their consciousness around visits from home.
Most beautiful, though, are the couples we have in our facility in which one spouse has advanced dementia, but the other does not. Rather than be separated, the healthy member of these marriages has chosen to follow their husband or wife into long term care, walking with them through the most difficult thing they will ever go through. They know that the person they have loved is slipping away, but there is still something there until the last breath. As long as one is willing to be a friend and companion, friendship and companionship will be found, even when your best friend is on their deathbed.
Posted by: RMC | September 19, 2011 at 11:42 AM
As one of those pagan "homosexualists" who support gay marriage, even I'm a bit offended by Robertson's comments! Love means biting the bullet and sticking through it, in "sickness and in health". However, I've wondered for years if Robertson himself isn't suffering from some form of progressing dementia. Let's hope his wife doesn't share his sentiments!
Posted by: James Bradshaw | September 24, 2011 at 09:08 PM
I agree that he's wrong about this, but I also think it unfortunate that this man has probably written or spoken over a billion things over a period of many years, and I can't remember anything that is noted outside of CBN except something to which his detractors can rejoice about. I'd like to see something different for a change, for instance a mention that volunteers manning his prayer line in a recent year have brought back 14,000 people from the brink of suicide.
Posted by: J Donovan | September 25, 2011 at 03:09 PM
J Donovan:
No one is rejoicing, friend.
Posted by: MargaretD | September 25, 2011 at 11:52 PM