Yesterday, I started out by explaining a bit of a hubbub I caused via a statement made on Facebook regarding Pat Robertson’s latest debacle. In case you missed any of that or Robertson’s statements from last week, “let me ‘splain,” as Inigo Montoya once said. “No, there is too much. Let me sum up.”
Robertson received a call or a letter from a man, whose wife has been in the deep throes of Alzheimer’s. He now wants to know if it would be morally permissible for him to divorce her in order to marry another woman. Robertson said it would be fine, since his present wife isn’t “really there” anymore.
I question whether Robertson realizes how much he repudiated the gospel in these short comments. Others have cautioned me about being too harsh toward someone who preaches the gospel and I’m wondering what gospel Robertson preaches. Here’s another man’s words, stated far more eloquently than I could ever do:
At the arrest of Christ, his Bride, the church, forgot who she was, and denied who he was. He didn’t divorce her. He didn’t leave.
The Bride of Christ fled his side, and went back to their old ways of life. When Jesus came to them after the resurrection, the church was about the very thing they were doing when Jesus found them in the first place: out on the boats with their nets. Jesus didn’t leave. He stood by his words, stood by his Bride, even to the Place of the Skull, and beyond.
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.
Russell Moore goes on to take Robertson to task, in what I think is a justifiable manner. You can discern for yourself by going here.
Tomorrow, I want to provide some examples of which Mr. Robertson may be unaware, but you won’t (at least, not if you check in again).