... from one (deluded) Robertson ...
We have become accustomed to weird, and sometimes other-worldly, responses from Pat Robertson. This time he counselled a man to divorce his wife with Alzheimer’s in order to marry another woman, “because,” Pat Robertson said, the dementia-riddled wife was “not there” anymore and could no longer provide him with companionship! How opposite to the gospel of Christ and the symbolism of marriage in Christ as the husband and the church as His wife!
... to another (loving) Robertson ...
On the other hand we find Robertson McQuilkin, a college and seminary president, torn between two commitments when his wife was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, and his response to this “trial” of love and care.
Part of his story goes like this:
“She is such a delight to me. I don't have to care for her, I get to. One blessing is the way she is teaching me so much—about love, for example, God's love. She picks flowers outside—anyone's—and fills the house with them.
“Lately she has begun to pick them inside, too. Someone had given us a beautiful Easter lily, two stems with four or five lilies on each, and more to come. One day I came into the kitchen and there on the window sill over the sink was a vase with a stem of lilies in it. I've learned to ‘go with the flow’ and not correct irrational behavior. She means no harm and does not understand what should be done, nor would she remember a rebuke. Nevertheless, I did the irrational—I told her how disappointed I was, how the lilies would soon die, the buds would never bloom, and please do not break off the other stem.
“The next day our youngest son, soon to leave for India came from Houston for his next-to-last visit. I told Kent of my rebuke of his mother and how bad I felt about it. As we sat on the porch swing, savoring each moment together, his mother came to the door with a gift of love for me: she carefully laid the other stem of lilies on the table with a gentle smile and turned back into the house. I said simply, ‘Thank you.’ Kent said, ‘You're doing better, Dad!’”