Pat Robertson has flapped his tongue with nonsense again, this time about tattoos. A false teacher gives extra-biblical teachings. Do not dismiss these as simply foolish words, they are wrong and can be harmful to blind followers.
I get really annoyed when people in a position of Christian leadership or expertise utter nonsense from their mouths, throw in a little scripture to make it sound good, all in an attempt to make a big deal about their personal pet peeves.
Pat Robertson is no stranger to whacked-out ideas and he has not let us down this week. During the “Bring it On” segment of his show, a viewer mentioned that his friend was getting a tattoo with Jesus on the cross on his upper back and asked Robertson whether getting tattoos was a sin or was okay for Christians to do. Robertson said that it “doesn’t make it okay because it’s religious, believe me.”
Robertson continued:
“I mean it could be just the same as a tattoo of some hoochie-cooch girl. I mean, it doesn’t really make any difference,” said Robertson.
“You look at the Bible, the people are told not to mark their bodies and cut themselves like the heathen did. Tattooing is a heathen practice, it is not a Christian practice.”
“It is a heathen practice and is prohibited in the Old Testament, and so the fact that it is Jesus doesn’t make a bit of difference.”
We must not forget that while he is saying obnoxious things, others are blindly following this man, clinging to his words, rather than seeking scripture for themselves. When we were at BGBC, there were practices there were off. The pastor tried to justify them and at the time, we blew them off because other teachings were right. When you have a pastor giving you extra-biblical rules, it might be time to vote with your feet: walk out that door and don’t return.
***
Spiritual Sounding Board 
I wonder if he believes in the Boogeyman …
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Leviticus 19:28
“Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, NOR PRINT ANY MARKS UPON YOU: I am The Lord”
Surprise, surprise…it’s there…
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So are multiple wives, not eating pork and shellfish. If you are a guy, do you have multiple wives? If not, why not?
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Robertson needs to retire. Period.
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JA… I guess you’re right.
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“Hoochie-cooch girl”? Hubba-hubba. 23 Skidoo.
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LOL, Jeff. I was wondering what that meant.
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I’m a heathen 3 times over! I would repent, but I’m not about to get them removed.
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Well screw that. I’m proud of my CS Lewis quote tattoo! If nothing else, it’s opened the door for more conversations about faith when people ask what it means.
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Shoot, I hate it when I forget there are no like buttons here. That’s awesome, Beth.
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Apparently, Jesus has a tattoo.
Revelation 19:16
And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”
Those words were not written with a BiC.
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Well, ja, go find us a like button so we can freely use it. :-). There have been so many times I’ve wanted to “like” the comments and posts here.
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Yeah, this controversy always troubles me. People hone in on that one verse while not even mentioning the verse directly above the tattoo verse?
Lev 19:27 “‘Do not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard.
I have seen this at a homeschool conference where the speaker was vehemently stating that tattoos are wrong and the teenagers that get them are sinful. All the while, the speaker himself, had very short hair and no side burns or a beard at all. I don’t mind someone having a conviction to stay as close to following the Law as they wish. I know some that do this that are humble and loving. However, I don’t trust the ones that beat you up with the tattoo verse, while ignoring others….smells fishy to me!
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@yewnique:
“on His thigh”?
Sounds more like a Cutie Mark than a tat….
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We are under a new covenant. Jesus changed many things when he came. If I didn’t already have the world’s worst tat, I wouldn’t do it again. I wouldn’t give up my pierced ears though.
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“Multiple wives”… Do a little research. Polygamy was never authorized by God–0ld or New Testament. I am tired of Christians who think it was. Read David Mace’s book Hebrew Marriage. It wasn’t even common in the OT.
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Godith, True. God didn’t authorize that. One woman, one man. That was his creation. Kings mostly had that practice, but it didn’t make it right.
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@Just Look and See,
You know what else is “there”? Colossians 2:20 —
Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules: “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings.
I’d point this out to Robertson, but I’ve got better and more enjoyable things to do than play “dueling bible-bullets” with him. I stopped taking him seriously long ago, anyway. Personally, I think he’s gotten batty, kinda like John Piper. Not sure when he started say such bizarre things or why, but I agree with tiquatue — it’s long past time for Robertson to retire.
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I would like to gently make a point. Natural aging often affects our thought process. I have recently noticed John MacArthur publicly expound unbiblical “doctrine.” Pat Robertson used to speak within the norm (as did John Piper), but somewhere they got kind of loopy, yet continue to have a public platform where they teach with all authority. If they are allowed to continue without severe accountability to someone, they do more harm than good. These giant public ministries with entrenched “leaders” are a setup for huge damage within a fragile body that Christ died for.
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When Pat Robertson first surfaced on the national scene (CBN cable network and perennial GOP presidential primary runner), he had a reputation as one of the moderates in the Christian whirl. Now he shoots off his mouth at any incident.
Someone on the Web a couple years ago commented that Robertson was starting to sound and act like a former boss of his who turned out to be in early-stage Alzheimers. His opinion was that Robertson was losing it from age — extreme “hardening of the attitudes” if not Alzheimers or other end-of-life dementia.
Yet he’s the Big Name Christian CELEBRITY, heading a “Ministry” surrounded by an Inner Ring of yes-men like so many others, and NOBODY tells the Big Name CELEBRITY anything the CELEBRITY doesn’t want to hear. Especially that it’s time to step down. (Never mind that in a lot of such cases, the CELEBRITY IS the Ministry, and without the CELEBRITY everything would just fall apart. Most cults don’t survive long without their Founder and Leader.)
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jkpvarin, I liken it less to age (as many mature believers often become even more wise) but more to the progressive insulation brought on by their position. They don’t have many around them who dare to question them daily. Even on little things. They are “great men” in their domains. I saw this first hand with some mega church leaders. As time goes on and their cult of personality grows, they are surrounded with mostly yes men, and spend most of their public time on stages or in front of cameras (no actual interaction that is not staged) and they live less and less in a real world situation brought on by the comforts of fame in their domains.
In reality, there is very little they can share with us about Jesus Christ. They have less and less practical experience as believers living out the kingdom now in the real world most of us live in. They are surrounded by people who constantly affirm them in many little and big ways.
Actually I feel the same way to a lesser extent about most pastors. Do they go to work each day in a situation where they might work along side a lesbian, for example? Are they ever subjected to a bullying boss where they bite their tongue so they can pay their mortgage? I would pay money to see Piper report to a Lesbian boss.
There really isn’t much they can teach us if we are doing our own homework as Bereans. They surely cannot use their real world trench experience as wisdom for us, can they? We usually have more than they do. Most of them live in bubbles and would not last 5 minutes in the real world making a living.
Now, Bi-voc pastors are a totally different story.
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I would love to see everyone’s favorite tattoos! Maybe on the FB page?
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(Part 1)
Oh, that is just the TIP OF THE ICEBERG with Robertson.
Oh Julie Anne, Julie Anne. (I will have to make this a 2 or 3 part post about this, I think that would be more considerate for readers than making one super, long post. I am sorry. I don’t mean to take over your blog, but this is one of those topics for me.) LOL. Where to start?
Forget about all the most-reported gaffes the guy makes. The liberal media tend to ignore many more of Robertson’s weird or insensitive bon motts and only focus on the very extreme remarks, or anything having to do with homosexuality.
I’m conservative too, so I occasionally agree with Robertson on some social, religious, or political topics, but other times, heck no!
(All the stuff I am about to discuss can be found via clips on You Tube, or news articles, or on Robertson’s show’s own site, either CBN, 700 Club, or 700 Club clips on You Tube.)
One time, there was a book author on Robertson’s program, The 700 Club, about the decrease in the American birth rate and how lowered birth rates will impact America. Robertson then said that Americans should “outbreed their opponents.”
A few years ago, a man wrote to Robertson’s show for advice saying his wife had dementia. Robertson said that because dementia was a form of death, that the husband would be justified to divorce the wife.
There was a show about a year ago where a woman wrote about her husband cheating on her or something. Robertson got into this thing where he blamed wives for their husbands cheating.
Robertson has no idea what these women look like who write him. We do not see photos of these women. But Robertson never-the-less tells them they need to stay skinny, look nice, etc, because if their man is cheating it’s obviously because they are slovenly and dumpy looking.
(This is very similar to comments Mark Driscoll made several years ago, where he blamed wives for their husband’s cheating, he pretty much said men only cheat if the wife “lets herself go” and gains weight, etc).
“According to Pat Robertson, It’s Your Fault Your Husband Cheated on You”
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/05/pat-robertson-cheating-advice.html
If you have read old archived news articles about Pat Robertson, they mention his first child was conceived out of wedlock. I mention this because I have noticed that Robertson is very easy on people who have pre-martial sex, even though the Bible says pre-marital sex is a sin.
Robertson will sometimes condemn adultery on his television show but give a free pass to fornication (ie, pre-marital sex.).
I do seriously wonder if the guy takes a “meh, so what’s the big deal, who cares” approach to hetero, pre-marital sex because it looks like he himself is guilty of that particular shortcoming.
In several different episodes, Robertson has besmirched the idea of staying a virgin until marriage by saying things like virginity was only for Mary (mother of Jesus Christ), but that it’s not important for other Christians to stay virgins until marriage. I was shocked he feels that way or would say it.
Roberston has made other, similar anti-virginity statements on his show, which betrays and contradicts the Bible’s teachings on sexual matters.
Robertson has said on his show before that adultery can or will send a person to hell, but not pre-marital sex, because EVERYONE gets “turned on” with desire, so they cannot help it if they cave in and “do it,” but that adultery is hell-worthy.
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(Part 2)
On one show, Robertson referred to divorced people as “losers.”
This one lady wrote in to his show to say her first two husbands were mean jerks, or whatever, so she divorced them, and I think she was on husband #3, and that #3 was a jerk, what should she do, she should divorce husband 3? And Robertson called her a “loser” because she keeps picking “losers.”
Robertson is a gender complementarian. He believes the husband gets the final say-so in big decisions in a marriage.
Robertson supports transgenderism. Folks who are down with transgenderism will be happy to hear that, but I would suspect a lot of Christians who don’t feel transgenderism is oakey doakey might be upset with his views on that.
When doing a news segment about Petraeus having an affair on his wife, Robertson opened with the comment, “Well, he’s a man.”
-As if that excuses a husband having affairs on his wife.
(I think Robertson also added comments about how the mistress of Petraeus was younger and prettier than Petraeus’ wife, etc., as if that also excuses it too. Hey, if you’re a married man, and you spot a woman who in your view is prettier and younger than your wife, of course you can’t help it if you fall into bed with her, according to Robertson.)
Robertson’s views on divorce are sometimes a tad more open and compassionate than most Christians, but can also be all over the place at times, where he is not very lenient or understanding. He is okay with folks divorcing in cases of adultery, or where there has been abandonment, like where the husband has walked out on the wife, for instance.
In other cases though, where it sounds to me like the wife should indeed divorce (for example, the husband has a non- stop naughty web site addiction that routinely causes him to neglect his wife, or the husband refuses to get a job and pay bills), Robertson’s attitude to these women is, “sorry dear, that is the man you are married to, you are stuck to him no matter what.”
Robertson has also told a couple women in the past that they have the (direct quote) “discernment of a slug” when they write to say stuff like,
“When I was dating my husband, he was so sweet and nice, but after we married, he sleeps around with other women all the time, he ignores me, and has a dirty site addiction. I want to leave him, what should I do.”
Robertson has never heard that sometimes abusive men PRETEND to be nice during the dating phase but then turn abusive after marriage. He blamed these women for marrying jerks. He actually puts them down and says, “You have the discernment of a slug.”
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(Part 3)
There was a weird episode where Robertson went on and on about football player Tim Tebow’s (this is a paraphrase of his comments, I don’t remember his exact words, but it was close to this:), “broad chest, massive muscular arms, and incredible physique”
– Robertson was describing Tebow’s looks and body in a way I would expect a hetero woman or homosexual man to. It was so weird. His female co host managed to keep a relatively straight face during that weirdness.
In opening a segment about the erotica novel “50 Shades of Grey,” Robertson once asked his female co-host Kristi Watts on air if she views dirty books and sites or if enjoys them. She sat there stunned. She was clearly embarrassed.
On either that show or another one, Robertson expressed shock and amazement that women like sex and enjoy dirty books and sites.
(See, Christians have so fully bought into the stereotypes that all women are emotional and only men want sex and are visually oriented, they go into shock when they hear studies that women like sex and like looking at in shape nude men).
On occasion, Robertson actually makes a point I agree with, but more often than not, the guy says some very freaky, weird things, and things that have no, or next to no, biblical support. He does sometimes try to make his personal opinions on topics on par with Thus Saith The Lord.
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That would be fun, Kathi. Have at it!
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jkpvarin said: “I have recently noticed John MacArthur publicly expound unbiblical “doctrine.””
Ok, now I’m curious as to what you are referring to here. I know he got a lot of flack about the Strange Fire conference.
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Lydia said,
That could be, but I wonder if just getting older emboldens people.
As I’ve gotten older, I tend to care less and less if my views upset other people, and I’m only in my early 40s and do not have dementia or anything.
(Not that I try to be a big jerk, I do try to strike a balance between expressing my views and being polite to other people’s views and feelings, but I no longer reign my views in because if I don’t it might offend or hurt someone’s feelings. I try to be polite, but I don’t care if the boat gets rocked a little.)
I’m also coming out of years of codependency. My mother taught me to hold all my anger inwards, to not speak up and disagree with people, but when I reached the milestone birthday of 40, I realized I have nothing to show of a lifetime of holding my opinions in and trying to placate everyone around me all the time.
Pat Robertson is in his 80s, now, he’s around 84 or 85. I figure he’s got ten times more my attitude now about expressing opinions than I do now in my 40s.
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I think it’s both both age – losing sense of appropriate boundaries, and also the sense of entitlement that comes from being a celebrity leader where no one will dare to question your position. Combine the two and you’ve got a disaster. Robertson is a disaster.
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Oh yea, I’ve definitely seen this.
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Julie Anne said, in the original post,
Yeah, I’ve noticed the people who write to Roberston for advice act like he’s an all- knowing sage, which is alarming.
Even funnier is that sometimes you can tell the person writing the question has about zero biblical knowledge – they ask him stuff Christians should already know, stuff that is ‘Christianity 101,’ but I don’t think many Christians actually read their Bibles anymore these days.
Even Robertson makes that comment. He will say, “Why is this person writing me asking me this, don’t they read the Bible, it’s in the Bible? Aren’t churches teaching the Bible anymore?” He is also appalled at how ignorant some self professing believers are even on basic doctrines.
I also don’t know why people still write the man questions over important life choices. They are too, too trusting. Some of his views are either totally false and unbiblical or else very questionable.
Sometimes, Pat’s son Gordon hosts the show and answers viewer questions, and Gordon is usually ten times more compassionate and biblical in his answers than his father. They should give Pat an early retirement and have Gordon permanently take over.
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@ HUG said
If you saw one of my long posts, Robertson is all over the place, he is actually kind of hard to peg down.
Robertson is NOT YEC. He mocks and insults YEC people and YECism itself, which bothers me because I am YEC. Robertson thinks the earth is millions of years old.
I watch Robertson’s show almost every single day and have watched it daily for about seven or eight years now. I often see and hear his kooky comments long before they get picked up by the left wing media, who skewer him for it.
Robertson is actually very liberal- to- moderate on some issues, including sexual ones, so it’s hard to say.
He supports sex change surgery and supports transgender people, for instance.
Sometimes, he supports women who want to divorce their husbands, but at other times, he says “no, you are stuck with him, you can’t divorce.” I haven’t quite figured out Robertson’s criteria on when and if a person may divorce his/her spouse because he seems to change every other month.
Robertson does not support being a virgin until marriage – not usually. He usually ridicules that notion as though it’s not biblical and impossible or wrong to ask people to abstain from marriage.
As I said above, if Robertson retires, his son Gordon can take over, so I don’t think his TV show or ministry would collapse. Gordon has been filling in for Pat about twice per week for several years now – that sometimes varies, though, last week I think Pat was on 100% of the week, but usually, Gordon fills in one to two days per week.
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I’m wondering if Robertson is a “difficult” man to be married to.
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I’ve got family members who still hold him in high esteem like he’s got all the answers. I need a muzzle for my mouth sometimes.
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About this:
I wonder why that commandment was in the Old Testament to start with?
It seems to me that some of the OT commandments were intended only for the ancient Israelites. Maybe the tattoo thing was only for them but not binding on believers in Jesus today? The ancient Israelites were told not to eat ham sandwiches but by the NT times, God told Peter he could now eat ham sandwiches.
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Julie Anne said,
My condolences 😆
Luckily, I don’t have anyone in my family who hangs on his every word.
Part of the reason I watch his show at all is that I enjoy some of the personal testimonies, depending on what they are.
At other times, I find his show’s testimonies of people who said God solved their problem two seconds after they prayed very depressing.
My mother was a very devout Christian lady who prayed for a physical healing for years (and I prayed for her too), but she still died a few years ago.
Robertson’s show, like many other Christian shows, actually do damage to people by only high lighting “success” stories, where God immediately answered someone’s prayers in the affirmative.
What of people who pray and never get a healing or reply, or people who only get a “yes” after decades of praying? Not everyone gets a miracle, or not after three seconds.
I do not like the flim flam, financial scam on Robertson’s show, either. He’s one of those guys who gets into the “plant a seed with my ministry” stuff, only he uses the term “the law of reciprocity.”
Robertson will regularly have shows where married couples talk about having dire financial problems, but they say after they started sending Robertson $20 to $100 a month, lo and behold if “X” months later God did not give them six figure incomes, a new great paying job, or a million dollars, and/or a big nice house and fancy new car.
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I thought the original verse in Leviticus was against tattoos because that’s how pagans honored their gods? I was taught it was the intention behind the tattoos that was bad, not tattoos themselves. Otherwise Pat should be criticizing anyone with pierced ears, dyed hair, painted nails, and makeup, too.
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Carmen S.
He probably is, but I bet he spends so much time riding horses he’s not around his wife enough to bug her?
Every so often, his show will air clips of him riding his horses. It’s his hobby. Maybe he spends so much time with the horses he’s not around enough to annoy his wife.
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Re:
Beth Caplin / JUNE 27, 2014 @ 9:40 AM
That is a good point.
I also wonder if guys like Robertson would put down Christian artists who paint portraits of Jesus?
The Old Testament had a commandment that the Jews were not to try to depict God in drawings and paintings.
Or maybe Robertson is not against this, because every Easter, Robertson shows old footage from the 1970s or 80s, I think, of an artist making a bust of Jesus out of clay.
On other shows, Robertson has featured stories about Christian artists, like Ron DiCianni, who did a huge mural of Jesus Christ leaving the tomb.
Why would Robertson be fine with people sculpting Jesus or other Christian imagery or painting Jesus on a huge canvas, but draw the line at a tattoo of Jesus or the cross? Why is Jesus on a canvas okay, but a drawing of Jesus on someone’s arm is not okay?
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jkpvarin, Very valid point. I don’t know how old any of those guys are, but perhaps it is time to retire and find a shady spot down by the lake.
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Lydia, I will chip in to see that show. I never was a Piper fan and never will be.
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Daisy,
All good reasons why I never watch television evangelists. They are all about money and themselves. Heaven forbid they should preach the Bible. I see no where in scripture that it is ok for a man to commit adultery if his wife “lets herself go”. The one about the dementia–he will definitely be answering to God for that one. People with dementia can live a long time. I wonder what other diseases he considers a form of death.
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Brenda, like I said, there are You Tube videos and articles verifying all this stuff, but if you want to see one video (about the Alzheimer’s/dementia) comments:
Robertson: Divorce Your Wife With Alzheimers
About the only out I see in this, is that Robertson was replying to a situation where the man wants to cheat on his wife who has Alzheimers with other women, so Robertson is saying if he wants another woman, he needs to divorce the wife to shack up with the love bunny rather than see the love bunny on the side.
If it were not for the Alzheimer’s part of this equation, I might actually agree with Robertson on this point, but given the wife does have this health problem, I think the husband needs to stop the affairs and stay with the wife.
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P.S. I almost forgot.
About a year or more ago, Pat Robertson told a woman who wrote to his show that used sweaters can be demon possessed. You can listen to his comments here:
Robertson: Worth it to Pray Away Demons on Clothes, Inanimate objects:
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“It’s only in the Old Testament” Bestiality, forbidding prostitution of a daughter, and human sacrifice of children is only found in the Old Testament.
Jesus does not have a tattoo. He is without spot or blemish. The correct reading is “on His robe and on His banner”.
Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible; Coffman Commentaries on the Old and New Testament; Jameison-Faussett-Brown Commentray; Charles R Eerdman commentary on the Book of Leviticus; Nave’s Topical Bible all list tattoos as a forbidden practice of paganism.
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Daisy, Most definitely, if anyone wants to cheat on their spouse, PLEASE be big enough to say so, divorce them and move on. Robertson telling someone that his wife is dead anyways because of Alzheimer’s is totally wrong. He may as well have said kick her while she’s down or give her a lethal injection–she’d dead anyways.
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Daisy said: “About a year or more ago, Pat Robertson told a woman who wrote to his show that used sweaters can be demon possessed”.
Oh, I guess that means that I am in a whole bunch of trouble. Cause most of my sweaters (& many other clothes items) come either from Salvation Army, or my church’s rummage sales. (Hey!! Maybe that’s why my cats are so busy doing stuff I have told them & TOLD them “no,no” to).
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Zooey, My cat just knocked over my glass of tea for probably the third time this week. I keep telling her to stay down off my chair side table and she won’t do mind. She has bright green eyes, I am sure she is possessed. It’s probably some kind of incantation on the Purina One.
He did say that although he believed that items could be possessed by witchcraft that items from the Salvation Army and such were mostly safe. Of course, there is always the possibility of a witch hanging out and casting spells almost anywhere.
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Alright- this is a topic I have to weigh in on! Pat Robertson is such an embarrassment to Christianity.
I tend to agree with Lydia on this one in that this kind of off the wall, out of touch, unloving and just plain mean rhetoric is far more than a result of old age and instead is born and fostered in a dangerous culture of isolation.
I hear comments like this (his sexist steteotyping of women with tattoos as “hoochie coochies”- really?!!) can not be excused by old age. Perhaps that has contributed to his boldness to flap his gums more freely the more loony he becomes, but this kind of talk reveals a deep seeded hatred and FEAR of “the other”.
I saw this fear permeating the culture in SGM. I’ve read about it on this blog in many other churches and institutions. Fear of the other, isolating yourself, highfiving each other within the holy huddle… this kind of Christianity is the exact opposite of what Jesus was about.
PS. After leaving SGM, I got my tattoo that simply says “Beloved”. It has been beautiful and powerful symbol of healing and a reminder of who I am in GOD’S eyes. I wish Pat Robertson would learn that kind of love so he would spend the time he wastes hating people instead on loving them.
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Ok, Kathi posted a picture of her tattoo on the SSB Facebook page and others have also posted theirs. Here is the thread if you want to check them out: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=568462206607580&id=266400143480456
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jkpvarin said: “I have recently noticed John MacArthur publicly expound unbiblical “doctrine.”’
Julie Anne said, Ok, now I’m curious as to what you are referring to here. I know he got a lot of flack about the Strange Fire conference.
At the T4G 2014 conference: http://t4g.org/media/2014/03/mass-defection-the-great-physician-confronts-the-pathology-of-counterfeit-faith/
I listened to this in its entirety and two points were repeated:
1. Hell is much like Dante’s, not the bible’s, version, with a more horrible level for those who have heard the gospel and “walk away” than those who have never heard it. (And while I disagree with the popular exegeses of sheol and hades, Dr. Mac Arthur cannot and did not cite scripture to make his point).
2. Those who remove themselves from a physical church location are apostates. Unbelievable. Bad theology or poor leadership are never cited as legitimate reasons for leaving.
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I wish people would have a little more empathy for well spouses of dementia patients. There are some dementias like Huntington’s Disease that last fifteen to twenty years or more. Your spouse’s judgment is impaired but they don’t know it and by the time you can get any legal control, if ever, you may not have any assets left for your old age. Irritability outbursts are common and so is abuse; caregivers are under constant stress from walking on eggshells. One study of Alzheimer’s caregivers showed that they die eight years sooner than their non-caregiving peers. It is one thing to sacrifice much of your life to caregiving (enduring poverty, fear, and stress related illnesses) but to do it for someone who hates you much of the time (albeit because of their illness) makes it nearly unbearable.
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“I tend to agree with Lydia on this one in that this kind of off the wall, out of touch, unloving and just plain mean rhetoric is far more than a result of old age and instead is born and fostered in a dangerous culture of isolation.”
I said that because I couild not believe some of the things I heard out of mega church pastors mouths in small closed door meetings or small social gatherings where they felt comfortable. They were not the same person. And, for the most part, they were under 60. I remember one who was known as the most “humble” pastor and wore that persona to the nth degree in public at a small gathering said he could not stand to visit his mother in the nursing home. It disgusted him. No love, no empathy just his own feelings of revoltion at “having” to make appearances there. They also made fun of people with biting sarcasm, etc. . Trust me, most do not respect the pew sitters at all. It is almost as if they resent them even though taking money from them.
If people only knew what took place back stage…..
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@ Marsha.
I’m sure it is stressful. I helped my father take care of my mother in the two years before she died, she was bed ridden, had to wear adult diapers, sometimes use a port o potty. It was physically and mentally exhausting. Lifting her to clean her and such was hard, even though she got down to real skinny, like 90 lbs.
The last few months before my mother passed, she was kind of “out of it” to the point the doctors thought she might have dementia. (They were using terms such as “sun downing” etc.)
It just doesn’t sit right with me that a husband has a wife with a mental handicap and has affairs on her, and that Robertson is saying the guy should divorce her on top of that.
I’m looking at it like this: what if that were me? I would not want my spouse, if I had one, cheating on me and/or dumping me because he felt stressed, over burdened, or resentful at God for “allowing it to happen” (to quote the letter on the show).
The guy took a vow which contains the phrase “in sickness and in health.”
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Marsha, I hear you. When my mom was in a nursing home one of the patients was a mid 50’s woman with Alz and in excellent health. her husband was in his early 60’s and came every day after work to have dinner with her. She never knew him. This went on for 3 years and I often wondered what became of them. He was very young at heart. I really admired his devotion. And you know, you could tell what it meant to their grown children when they came to visit. They really respected their dad.
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Amen, Daisy, Amen.
My step father was one of the meanest, abusive men I have ever known, yet my mother took care of him until the day he died. At first he just couldn’t do things anymore like use a toaster, then he’d wander off. He’d walk miles to the bank to get money, the people in there already knew that he had Alzheimer’s so they would simply call my mom and tell her where he was. She moved all of their money to another bank. The last 2 years he was bedridden and had to be taken care of just like a baby.
The man who lives across the hall from me is in his 80’s and is still working as an attorney. His wife is in a nursing home and has been for years with Alzheimer’s. He goes and sees her every day, sometimes all day. She is his sweetheart and he is not looking for anyone else. This person I have empathy and compassion for, not the one who would leave his bride because she was sick and would remain that way.
Robertson has it all wrong. I have to wonder if these celebs think before opening their mouths. Maybe a little Bible study might help and a little less choreographing their road shows.
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I kind of like this take on the tattoo issue:
“Behold, I have indelibly imprinted (tattooed a picture of) you on the palm of each of My hands; [O Zion] your walls are continually before Me.” Isaiah 49:16, Amplified Bible
http://www.todayschristianwoman.com/articles/2007/september/5.24.html
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You know, I honestly feel for Pat Robertson like a grandpa. With that said, I love my grandpa, but I don’t necessarily agree with my grandpa, and would not give him a public forum to speak in past a certain point.
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Julie Anne,
Tattoo? Really.
Not sure if Pat Robertson’s opinion is worthy of this kind of attention.
My daughter got a tattoo of the Star of David and to my surprise my wife flipped out as it didn’t bother me.
Both my wife and Pat Robertson are entitled to their opinion.
My wife is glimpsing while I’m typing and she just called me a “tattle-tale”.
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Mark, lol I love your wife.
Both of my daughters have tats. One has an entire picture with flamingoes on her chest that could be a portrait on a wall (It is real pretty) and a heart that says MOM in it amongst others. She thought I would like that one. I asked her if she had been out with a drunken sailor. My older daughter has angel wings on her back and a bracelet on her wrist. I have told them both to please stop the insanity. They have stopped, but for a time it seemed like an addiction. I used to give myself injections. Needles hurt. Why you’d want to go through all of that pain over and over again is beyond me.
I don’t think tats are the worst thing you can do, but the body is the temple of the Lord. What do we want that body to say about God.
I am guilty too though. I have a very small tat on my shoulder that has been there for over 40 years. It is suppose to be a small flower and all it looks like is a birthmark. Worst tat ever.
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I’m a little late to the party, but I want to thank Pat Robertson for his timely advice as this 30 something mom of six is contemplating what her first tattoo should be. 😉
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Let us know what you decide. Send me the picture and I’ll post it 🙂
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“hoochie-cooch girl” – And there we have his high opinion of women.
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