PHILADELPHIA - Repent America (RA) is calling for the immediate resignation of CBN Founder and President Pat Robertson who recently counseled on his television broadcast that a man can divorce his wife over a debilitating disease.
On Tuesday's edition of the 700 Club, which reaches an estimated 360 million people worldwide, Robertson was presented with a question from a viewer that asked how they should advise a friend who had been having an affair after his wife began suffering with Alzheimer's Disease. Robertson responded, "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 someone looking after her." He continued, "I certainly wouldn't put a guilt trip on you if you decided that you had to have companionship [because] you're lonely." When co-host Terry Meeuwsen inquired about spouses honoring their vows, Robertson replied that he knows that husbands and wives promise "til death do us part," but claimed, "This is a kind of death."
Robertson's statements are clearly in direct conflict with the Word of God, which declares, "What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. ... Whosoever putteth away his wife and marrieth another, commiteth adultery against her." (Mark 10:9,11) "[M]en ought to love their wives as their own bodies." (Ephesians 5:28)
"It is disgraceful that a minister would use the pulpit of international television to advise viewers that illness and loneliness are sufficient grounds for divorce," Repent America Director Michael Marcavage stated. "Marriage is one of the cornerstones of any healthy society, and is under attack in this nation. Robertson's ungodly counsel adds to the further degradation of marriage, and is a direct assault on the word of God," he added. "Disposing of your spouse due to illness is something that you would have expected to have heard from the likes of Jack Kevorkian, not a minister of the Gospel. Marriage is in sickness and in health until death. There is no justification to dispose of your spouse because of disease. God hates divorce," Marcavage continued. "We call on Pat Robertson to publicly repent or resign his post as President and host of the 700 Club immediately," he concluded. "Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them, according to knowledge, giving honor unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life..." - 1 Peter 3:7
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