Evangelist Pat Robertson is not known for his solidly biblical relationship advice. This was true in 2011, when he said that divorcing a spouse suffering from Alzheimer’s is justifiable because the disease is “a kind of death” and that if the husband was going to divorce a wife suffering from brain disintegration so he could date someone else, that he should at least divorce her first and “make sure she has custodial care and somebody looking after her.”
Well, the soothsayer of the 700 Club is back in business. One of the questions lobbed his way on a recent episode was from a woman who was distraught and upset because her husband was going online and creeping women’s Facebook pages
“liking photos of other women on social media and complimenting them on their looks. He’s telling them things he wouldn’t dare say to a woman in front of me.”
This has resulted in the wife feeling upset, betrayed, and feeling as if she’s being cheated upon because she’s not good enough for him. She wants to know if she’s “wrong for feeling this way?” and whether or not she “overreacting?” Robertson replies:
I suggest the best thing to do is to be so loving, he cannot overcome the amount of love you’re going to give him. Just be a wonderful wife. And the fact that he’s a man and he appreciates beauty is not necessarily a bad thing. I mean, that’s the male… the way they are! They just appreciate beauty! But you be the one — you’ve got the inside track. So you be so loving that he ain’t about to leave you and go look at somebody else, okay?
Its at this point that co-host Terry Meeuwse jumps in, quickly seeking to throw Robertson a lifeline and offering him a chance to clarify his position and address the salient portion, clearly expecting him to say “no.”
But do you think it’s okay if he’s telling them things online that he wouldn’t say to a woman in front of her?
Robertson obliviously doesn’t take the bait. Rather, he doubles down on his response, laying much of the blame on the wife for the husband’s sin and perversity. At no point does Robertson acknowledge that the husband is doing anything wrong, but instead offers the gem that if the husband is straying with his heart, the solution is to flatter him more and give him more sex.
Well, I don’t know what he’s saying to them online. Maybe he and his wife don’t share the intimacy they need. And they need to… She needs to… You make him a man. You build him up. Make them feel so good to be with you that he wouldn’t think of anybody else! That’s the way you do it. She’s got the inside track.
I remember playing football a long time ago. I missed a block and the coach jumped all over me, and I said, “Well, he got past me!” And he said, “You had the angle on him”… You’ve got the angle on him, honey. Use it. You are there every night. It’s your deal. Make it work, all right?
Our advice for anyone listening is to never take advice from Robertson.
H/T to the hive of scum and villainy known as the Friendly Atheist for the lead.
