[1]VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (BP) — Television host Pat Robertson said Sept. 26 that comments he made about divorce and Alzheimer’s disease were “misinterpreted.”
“I was not giving advice to the whole world and nor was I counseling anybody to be unscriptural and leave their spouse,” Robertson said on the “700 Club,” as reported by Breathecast.com.
Robertson received criticism earlier in September, when, commenting on a situation involving a man who started dating another woman when his wife’s Alzheimer’s began progressing, said, “I know it sounds cruel, but if he’s going to do something he should divorce her and start all over again.”
Robertson called Alzheimer’s a “kind of death.”
On Sept. 26, Robertson said he was misunderstood.
“Basically I’m saying, adultery is not a good thing and you might as well straighten your life out and the only way to do it is to kind of get your affair with your wife in order.”
[2]He also said, according to Breathecast.com, “Please know that I believe the Bible. Please know that I never would tell anybody to leave their sick spouse. I never, never would say such a thing because I need my spouse when I get sick and she needs me when she gets sick.” He continued, “In sickness and in health, I believe it!”
Russell D. Moore, dean of the school of theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., wrote a column calling Robertson’s earlier comments a “repudiation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
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Compiled by Michael Foust, associate editor of Baptist Press.