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Pat Robertson (Credit: PatRobertson.com)
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Religious leader Pat Robertson, the ex-Baptist minister and political activist for the Christian Right, announced today during his program “700 Club” that it’s okay to divorce your spouse if they get Alzheimer’s.
During the show, a viewer asked Robertson what advice he should give his friend who had been seeing another woman after his wife was suffering from the effects of Alzheimer’s. “That is a terribly hard thing,” Robertson said.
“I hate Alzheimer’s. It is one of the most awful things because here is a loved one—this is the woman or man that you have loved for 20, 30, 40 years. And suddenly that person is gone. They’re gone. They are gone. So, what he says basically is correct. But I know it sounds cruel, but if he’s going to do something he should divorce her and start all over again. But to make sure she has custodial care and somebody looking after her,” he said, adding that the “til death do us part” portion of their vows were still intact because the disease was “a kind of death.”
The former prospective Republican presidential candidate’s (he lost the party nomination to President George Bush) comments have garnered controversy as people discuss whether leaving your loved one because of a disease is morally and ethically okay.
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Do you think divorce is okay if your spouse gets a life-altering disease?
