Pat Robertson dismisses mother whose child was sexually abused: ‘Get over it’

Pat Robertson continued his legacy of giving bad advice to viewers this Wednesday when a viewer wrote in to his 700 Club show to share her story about a daughter being sexually abused at the hand of a neighbor.

“My daughter just told me she was sexually abused by a neighbor boy at the age of six, and she is now 35. How do I forgive and deal with this?” the woman asked. “The guilt and helplessness is overwhelming.”

Robertson couldn’t see what the fuss was all about. After all, little kids “don’t know what they’re doing.”

“May I say, I think you’re making too big a deal of it,” Robertson replied. “Little kids don’t know what they’re doing. They don’t have any sexual identity, and they like to play doctor, and they do all this stuff.”

“Your daughter is six. Your friend is probably 6 or 7… So that was, 35 — 30 years ago,” Robertson continued, assuming details about the case that has no way of knowing.

“So, I mean, get over it. … I can’t imagine that has had some kind of a scar in her life. She was a little kid and they do these things. And I think what you do is forgive and forget.”

As he went on, Robertson was genuinely stumped as to how a woman could still be upset over her child being molested.

“Why would you harbor this thing? I mean, little children do what little children do. And they’re just exploring and they don’t know any better. And I’m sorry if this neighbor’s child, or whatever, you can’t bring — the statute of limitations has run — I think it’s something else if a priest, or somebody like that, an authority, has molested your kid. That’s a whole other matter. But a couple of little kids trying to experiment? I mean, little children are little children! You just gotta say, ‘Okay, I forgive them.’ And ‘There but by the grace of God go I,’ and get on with life.”

Again, Robertson assumes that the person who molested the child was of a similar age without any evidence.

Writing for the Friendly Atheist blog, Hemant Mehta points out that Robertson’s advice is “heartless and cruel.”

Forgiveness isn’t the issue. The legal ramifications aren’t the issue. It’s helping the daughter and mother grieve over what they believe is a serious invasion of their privacy… and Robertson’s got nothing for them but a dose of “get over it.”

Watch the video below:

Featured image via screen grab

Sky Palma

Before launching DeadState back in 2012, Sky Palma has been blogging about politics, social issues and religion for over a decade. He lives in Los Angeles and also enjoys Brazilian jiu jitsu, chess, music and art.