The Marriage Vow

Pat Robertson opened a can of worms with his recent response to a question about a man whose wife has Alzheimer's disease.

“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, somebody looking after her.” 

Now, I remember this part in the marriage vow where we pledged to stay together "in sickness and in health" but of course I'm just a godless homosexual destroying marriage as we know it.

It gets better.

[Robertson] said the question presented an ethical dilemma beyond his ability to answer. “I certainly wouldn’t put a guilt trip on you if you decided that you had to have companionship,” Mr. Robertson said, apparently suggesting divorce as a way to avoid the sin of adultery.

That makes it even worse, in my opinion. Do you remember Robertson and his buddies running on about the tragic Terry Schiavo case?  They certainly excoriated Schiavo's husband for "moving on".   Seems Mr Robertson's views are rather fungible depending on who is doing the asking.

Unquestionably, this is a heart-rending issue and has many complexities, legal and financial as well as ethical and personal. But suggesting divorce should not be the first instinct of anyone.

 Sandra Weintraub, professor of neurology and psychiatry at the Alzheimer’s center of the Northwestern University school of medicine, said that many people develop new relationships while caring for a spouse in the last stages of Alzheimer’s, but that advising them to seek a divorce “strikes me as ludicrous.” 

Dr. Weintraub said that someone in Mr. Robertson’s public position should refrain from telling others how to solve such a complex problem.

Ya think?

And these people claim to value marriage so much that they deny it to faithful, loving gay couples.