Pat Robertson has always been a very big fan of Right Wing Watch, so as we celebrate our 10th anniversary, we decided to reminisce about our many “favorite” moments with the “700 Club” host and conservative culture warrior.
Here are just 10 of our favorite Robertson moments of the last decade:
10) Divorce Your Wife With Alzheimer’s
Robertson fashions himself as a “pro-family” leader who is quick to scold anyone who he thinks is undermining the traditional family, but he apparently doesn’t mind recommending that a man divorce his wife who has Alzheimer’s since the disease “is a kind of death”:
On the other hand, Robertson once told a woman whose husband committed adultery to “stop talking about the cheating” and instead remember that “he’s a man” and to be proud that “you live in America.”
Robertson, after imagining vivid details about the husband’s affair, urged the wife to “make a home so wonderful that he doesn’t want to wander” and succumb to temptation.
9) Down on Adoption
When a viewer asked Robertson why men seemed hesitant to date her after finding out that she has three adopted children, his then-cohost Kristi Watts said that such men are “dogs” and “just wrong.”
But Robertson disagreed, saying that men who decline to date the women with adopted children just don’t want to “take on somebody else’s problems.”
“No, it’s not wrong,” he said. “I mean, man doesn’t want to take on the United Nations and this woman’s got all these various children, a blended family, I mean, what is it? And you don’t know what problems there are. I’m serious. I’ve got a dear friend, adopted some little kid from an orphanage down in Colombia, child had brain damage, grew up weird. You just never known what’s been done to a child before you get that child.”
8) ‘I Don’t Think We Condone Wife-Beating These Days But Something’s Got To Be Done’
Here is some more of that “pro-family” advice:
7) Gay People Don’t Exist
Robertson’s guidance on building relationships with gay family members is nothing short of appalling: recommending ex-gay conversion therapy; blaming homosexuality on demonic possession, movies and pedophilia; calling for the rejection of gay loved ones and denying that gay people exist.
As he explained, gays are just confused straight people who “just need to come out of that”:
6) Watch Out For Demons In Your Clothing
On rare occasions, Robertson gives some actually useful advice, such as counseling viewers to pray over clothing that they buy secondhand just in case a witch has placed a curse over it:
5) President Mitt Romney
Before the 2012 election, Robertson reported that God had revealed to him that Mitt Romney would not only defeat President Obama in November but also become a successful two-term president.
“Romney will win the election,” he said. “I absolutely believe it because the Lord told me.”
He recounted: “I told Mitt a long time ago, I called him and said, ‘Listen, I’ve been in prayer and number one, you’re going to win the nomination and number two, you’re going to win the general election.’ He said, ‘Well, what can I do for you?’ I said, ‘Give me a seat on the platform during your inauguration, give me a ticket to your inauguration.’ And recently the Lord said he’s going to have a second term.”
Oops.
4) Why Didn’t You Pray Away The Tornadoes?
Back in 2012, as tornadoes ravaged parts of the South and Midwest, Robertson gave some good advice to people who built “houses in a place where tornadoes are apt to happen”: Try asking God to stop them.
“If enough people were praying He would’ve intervened,” he said. “You could pray. Jesus stilled the storm, you can still storms.”
3) Earthquake In Haiti
He blamed Hurricane Katrina on legal abortion, 9/11 on liberals and a potential meteor collision on gay people.
So while it was revolting, it certainly wasn’t surprising when Robertson linked the deadly 2010 Haiti earthquake to what he claimed was a pact the country made with Satan centuries ago.
2) Gays Will Force You To Like Anal Sex
When gay people aren’t busy destroying the economy, they are trying to compel people to “say you like anal sex” and “like bestiality,” at least according to Robertson:
1) Secret HIV/AIDS Ring
In 2013, Robertson tried to warn his viewers that gay people wear sharp, special rings that they use to cut people in order to give them HIV/AIDS for no apparent reason.
However, Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network undercut his efforts by editing Robertson’s statements out of the “700 Club” program and then attempting to remove our videos of Robertson making the comments from the internet.
But CBN was unsuccessful in censoring its own founder and you can still watch Robertson’s bizarre outburst today:
BONUS: A Thanksgiving Special.
Robertson celebrates Thanksgiving the old fashion way: by asking family members awkward questions.
After “The 700 Club” aired an interview that Watts, Robertson’s then-cohost, had conducted with Condoleezza Rice, in which the two briefly mentioned that macaroni and cheese was their favorite Thanksgiving dish, Robertson was dumbfounded: “What is this ‘mac and cheese,’ is that a black thing?”
Fortunately, this eventually led CBN to produce a segment on Watts’ mac and cheese recipe.
