Televangelist Pat Robertson said on his TV show today that a woman's cancer was her own fault. The woman had serious issues with her father throughout her life and disowned him. These are Robertson's exact words:
Robertson asserted that the situation “could be the cause of that cancer.”
“You might have a feeling of loss, an emptiness, and you’ve sort of turned off the tremendous system that you have to prevent — there’s an immune system that will function when you are forgiving,” he opined.
The TV preacher pointed out that God would one day punish the father “horribly,” but “all you have to do is forgive him.”
“You cannot keep harboring it, it will hurt yourself,” he said. “So, let it go.”
First of all, Robertson is not a medical doctor. He has no training in medicine or biology, which means that he has no business giving out medical advice. Secondly of all, Jesus specifically scolded his disciples when they came upon someone who had been born blind and they asked whose sin it was that was responsible. Thirdly of all, Jesus refused to judge the woman who was caught in adultery by the Pharisees.
Scientifically, we are not at the point where we understand the relationship between life outlook and cancer. So for Pat Robertson to make claims of knowledge where science has not gotten to yet is ludicrous. Would Robertson blame a woman if they were raped by their father? Or physically abused?
This is the sort of mean-spirited behavior that cost Pat Robertson a shot at the presidency. His hubris was so bad when he ran in 1988 that kids who normally don't follow politics would volunteer to me about how Pat Robertson bragged too much and that they would never vote for him. People were open to voting for him, as evidenced by his second place finish in the Iowa primaries. But the more people looked at him, the more they disliked him. Lee Atwater didn't even need to do any of his trademark smear jobs in order to tank Robertson.
Pat Robertson's dismissive and judgmental attitude is an embarrassment to the Republican Party and an embarrassment to Christianity. This is exactly the sort of thing that people don't need as they seek closure for all the things that they went through in life. They need healing and forgiveness. This woman got neither. And then the GOP wonders why we think that there is a war on women going on in this country.