Pat Robertson to woman whose disease came back: You didn’t pray hard enough

On the May 15 edition of the 700 Club, host Pat Robertson took a question from a listener who was having a serious spiritual dilemma. She was sick with an illness and prayed to be healed and thought God answered her when the illness went away. But it soon came back.

“I believed I was healed by God, but my sickness came back,” the viewer identified as “Cathy” said. “Why would God heal you and then give the ailment back to you after you praised Him for healing you?”

The question in and of itself is heartbreaking. Here’s a woman who’s been instilled with false hope, wondering what went wrong. But instead of trying to soften her confusion, Robertson gave her a combination more false hope with a touch of shame. According to the televangelist, Cathy only has herself to blame.

“Jesus gave a teaching about a demon,” Robertson said. “He said, you know, after the demon is cast out of a person, he goes in the air and land, seeking someplace, and then he goes back to the house that he left. And he finds it swept and garnished, and he brings seven more worse than Himself.”

“So disease, you know, has a certain life to it,” he continued. “Some diseases, they’re like animate creatures, and they want to go back to the house where they live. And you have to fill that void with something.”

Robertson informed her that she wasn’t sufficiently “filled with the spirit of God,”  and that deficiency caused her to “welcome it back.”

“It isn’t God putting it back. The disease wants to come back, and you receive it. So you have to begin to stand against these things.”

Watch the video below:

[Friendly Atheist] 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.