The blogosphere has more fuel, ladies and gentlemen.
Behold, Pat Robertson, king of the soundbyte. This looks really, really bad, I have to admit.
But let me get this real straight: Pat Robertson finally says that he would not judge somebody for their actions and we all freak out? Pat Robertson has been flying off the handle pre-judging situations on-air for years!
So now, once in his life he says “I’m not gonna throw a guilt trip on him” about a guy in a really tough situation, and we all get out our fine-toothed theological combs to pick at all the nits.
Pat is reacting on-air to a question about a real person, who is REALLY already seeing another woman. He is counseling an emailer to not guilt-trip his friend. That’s actually pretty good advice. When he says “divorce her and move on” he’s encouraging a person who has already mentally divorced her to put his money where his heart is. What more shocking way to perhaps jolt the fellow into seeing the reality of his actions?
Maybe by divorcing her, this guy will really see that his heart has completely missed the gospel. He’s missed the point of marriage, as a self-sacrificial picture of Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice for his diseased bride. In light of a clear cultural taboo like divorce, the reality of Jesus’ gospel might actually be seen more clearly for this man.
Maybe that’s what Pat meant.
This is not me condoning Pat Robertson’s remarks. I think they were way off base and pretty much antithetical to the gospel. This is me not reacting as though a 2-minute video clip of Pat Robertson incorrectly answering a question is representative of his entire worldview. It’s as close as I can get to assuming the best.