please, please, please do not support Pat Robertson, CBN, or The 700 Club
/
A year ago, I wrote a passionate post here titled "an open letter to Pat Robertson, from the adoptive mother of a child with brain damage," written as a response to Robertson's statements about adoption the day before on The 700 Club. These comments included "you don't know what problems" there will be when you adopt and a story of a family you know who adopted a "child [who] had brain damage, you know, grew up weird."
Two years ago, I wrote a post titled "Pat Robertson's view of Alzheimer's and divorce: Not just wrong but dangerous" on my special needs ministry blog. That post was my response to his on-air statements that a man could divorce his wife because Alzheimer's disease made it so she was "not there" anymore.
Three years ago, the Christian Alliance for Orphans blogged about when Mr. Robertson said on the air, " “It [adoption] can be a blessing, if you get the right child.”
I don't watch The 700 Club - nor should you, unless you want to support this sort of thing - so I'm not sure if he derails in hurtful and dangerous ways more than once a year. After my examples above from one, two, and three years ago, it was time for 2013's indiscretion, which came a few days ago:
Even if those gay HIV+ boogeymen existed, the facts of HIV transmission would render their attacks useless. For starters, those boogeymen would have to cease taking life-saving drugs so that their viral loads of HIV would increase enough for likely transmission. Then, the boogeymen would have to be actively bleeding from an open wound that would directly flow into the cuts made by the rings, because HIV is wimpy and can't survive outside of the body. After that, the boogeymen would need to prevent their victims from accessing the prophylactic meds that can be administered after HIV exposure to avoid infection.
But you know those wacky gays, right? They'll do anything to get us.
I'm past open letters at this point. I don't see remorse or repentance. I don't see any desire for wisdom or efforts toward education or enlightenment. In the absence of those things, I cannot support Mr. Robertson in any way. He is the founder and chairman of the Christian Broadcasting Network and the host of The 700 Club, so I can't support those either.
To be honest, I haven't supported either for quite some time. So what's the difference now? Now, I'm convicted enough of the damages rendered by such unChristlike statements from a very public professing Christian that I must speak up. Personal views aren't enough for me anymore. A public stance is necessary.
Please, please, please do not support Pat Robertson, CBN, or The 700 Club.
If no one listened to him, then Pat Robertson wouldn't be on the air anymore. But he is. That's why I'm asking this of you.
Too much harm is being done to people I love: children waiting for families because people listen to Pat's warnings about damaged kids, husbands who desert their wives when disease strikes because Pat said it was okay, and people who fear those with HIV because of misinformation about rogue infected criminals.
This is personal. I'm a wife who could be left using Pat's reasoning - that is, if I wasn't married to a godly man who would never heed such nonsense. My daughter from Taiwan was one of the brain-damaged orphans he warned against adopting. One of the three siblings we're currently adopting from Uganda has HIV.
I'll say it again: for me, this is personal.
So, please. Please. If you're one of the folks still tuning in to CBN and The 700 Club, please stop.
I won't have to write another post like this in 2014 if no one is listening to or supporting the harmful utterances. And that? That would be wonderful.
Update: Sadly, it's 2014, about a year later... and Robertson is warning viewers about the AIDS towels they should avoid if they travel to Kenya. If I could link to The 700 Club instead of Huffington Post, I would, but CBN's response to expressed concerns about their chairman's gaffes is simply to remove controversial episodes from their online archive. Sadly, trying to erase the internet record of his words isn't the same as the accountability and repentance needed here.
 |
| see that child with brain damage laughing with her sister at the beach? Weird? Maybe. But loved by a family while loving her family in return? Definitely. |
Two years ago, I wrote a post titled "Pat Robertson's view of Alzheimer's and divorce: Not just wrong but dangerous" on my special needs ministry blog. That post was my response to his on-air statements that a man could divorce his wife because Alzheimer's disease made it so she was "not there" anymore.
 |
| Neither of us have Alzheimer's, but I have some chronic diseases I didn't have when we married. Would that be grounds for divorce by Robertson's reasoning? |
Three years ago, the Christian Alliance for Orphans blogged about when Mr. Robertson said on the air, " “It [adoption] can be a blessing, if you get the right child.”
 |
| We're not counting on these three being the right children. We expect them to be kids. We're the responsible party as parents. |
I don't watch The 700 Club - nor should you, unless you want to support this sort of thing - so I'm not sure if he derails in hurtful and dangerous ways more than once a year. After my examples above from one, two, and three years ago, it was time for 2013's indiscretion, which came a few days ago:
“You know what they do in San Francisco, some in the gay community there they want to get people so if they got the stuff they’ll have a ring, you shake hands, and the ring’s got a little thing where you cut your finger. Really. It’s that kind of vicious stuff, which would be the equivalent of murder.”You can read more about it here.
Even if those gay HIV+ boogeymen existed, the facts of HIV transmission would render their attacks useless. For starters, those boogeymen would have to cease taking life-saving drugs so that their viral loads of HIV would increase enough for likely transmission. Then, the boogeymen would have to be actively bleeding from an open wound that would directly flow into the cuts made by the rings, because HIV is wimpy and can't survive outside of the body. After that, the boogeymen would need to prevent their victims from accessing the prophylactic meds that can be administered after HIV exposure to avoid infection.
But you know those wacky gays, right? They'll do anything to get us.
(Please note my sarcasm above!)
I'm past open letters at this point. I don't see remorse or repentance. I don't see any desire for wisdom or efforts toward education or enlightenment. In the absence of those things, I cannot support Mr. Robertson in any way. He is the founder and chairman of the Christian Broadcasting Network and the host of The 700 Club, so I can't support those either.
To be honest, I haven't supported either for quite some time. So what's the difference now? Now, I'm convicted enough of the damages rendered by such unChristlike statements from a very public professing Christian that I must speak up. Personal views aren't enough for me anymore. A public stance is necessary.
Please, please, please do not support Pat Robertson, CBN, or The 700 Club.
If no one listened to him, then Pat Robertson wouldn't be on the air anymore. But he is. That's why I'm asking this of you.
Too much harm is being done to people I love: children waiting for families because people listen to Pat's warnings about damaged kids, husbands who desert their wives when disease strikes because Pat said it was okay, and people who fear those with HIV because of misinformation about rogue infected criminals.
This is personal. I'm a wife who could be left using Pat's reasoning - that is, if I wasn't married to a godly man who would never heed such nonsense. My daughter from Taiwan was one of the brain-damaged orphans he warned against adopting. One of the three siblings we're currently adopting from Uganda has HIV.
I'll say it again: for me, this is personal.
So, please. Please. If you're one of the folks still tuning in to CBN and The 700 Club, please stop.
I won't have to write another post like this in 2014 if no one is listening to or supporting the harmful utterances. And that? That would be wonderful.
Update: Sadly, it's 2014, about a year later... and Robertson is warning viewers about the AIDS towels they should avoid if they travel to Kenya. If I could link to The 700 Club instead of Huffington Post, I would, but CBN's response to expressed concerns about their chairman's gaffes is simply to remove controversial episodes from their online archive. Sadly, trying to erase the internet record of his words isn't the same as the accountability and repentance needed here.