Box Turtle Bulletin
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyAugust 27th, 2013
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Terry Meeuwsen: This is Mary, who says, “My Sunday school was asked to give transportatin for a man from a nursing home to Sunday services because ‘his elderly father could not drive anymore.’ I drove him 20 plus times over several months. I found out 2 weeks ago he is dying of AIDS. I think those driving him should have been told his diagnosis in a private way. A few people in church knew; I did not know. I feel deceived — what if we had had an accident? Did someone have a moral obligation to tell the drivers the truth? I haven’t been back to church since I found out. I’m going somewhere else until I sort this out. — Mary.”
Pat Robertson: You know, I must confess I don’t know all of the ramifications of infection with AIDS. I used to think it was transmitted by saliva and other things. Now they say it may be sexual contact, so… What do you want to say if you’re driving an elderly man whose got AIDS? Don’t have sex with them. But that’s a little too simplistic. I don’t necessarily think … you didn’t get AIDS, so unless there’s a cut or some bodily fluid transmission, I think you’re not going to catch it. But it’s a horrible thing and I don’t know what to say.
There are laws now, I think the homosexual community has put these draconian laws on the books that prohibit people from discussing this particular affliction, you can tell somebody you had a heart attack, you can tell them they’ve got high blood pressure, but you can’t tell anybody you about AIDS. … So you didn’t catch anything so keep going to church and praise the Lord. You got any thoughts on that one?
Meeuwsen: Well, you know I think you were doing a good thing by transporting this man. I have known many people with AIDS and have never felt fearful of a scenario like this. I guess I think even if you have had a car accident …
Robertson: You know what they do in San Francisco, some in the gay community there they want to get people so if they got the stuff they’ll have a ring, you shake hands, and the ring’s got a little thing where you cut your finger?
Meeuwsen: Really?
Robertson: Yeah, really. I mean it’s that kind of vicious stuff, which would be the equivalent of murder. But anyhow, for that one, you go back to your church, you’re fine.
[via Right Wing Watch]
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Sandhorse
August 27th, 2013
You know, I used to think PR was just stuck in the 1950s.
Now I see he’s stuck in 1984 as well.
Every once in awhile it looks like he is going to take a ride in his DeLorean and join the rest of us, but then I think he sees his shadow and dives back into his tree stump.
Timothy Kincaid
August 27th, 2013
It’s such an odd conversation. He’s actually almost kind of compassionate at first, but then he dives off into the deep end of the crazy pool.
jerry
August 27th, 2013
Robertson is a sick man who should be in a rubber room with enough happy pills to keep him calm until he drops dead.
Marcus
August 27th, 2013
They only keep him on air for entertainment, right?
To “Mary”: Caregivers who believe AIDS can be transmitted by carpooling have a moral responsibility to tell their clients the truth about their level of ignorance and paranoia.
Ben in Oakland
August 27th, 2013
Corinthians 6:9, the very same passage that a certain class of so called Christians claims condemns gay people, also condemns people who revile and slander others. Unlike the alleged condemnation of gay people, using words that we don’t know the meaning of, the meaning of revile and slander are quite clear, without needing them to be “magicked” into clarity.
What else is Robertson doing here but reviling and slandering innocent people, something he has done multiple times–all on record. Where are the legions of moralists, damners-to-hell, and all the rest of that certain class of so called Christian? Here is a man who will clearly NOT inherit the kingdom of heaven, who continues to sin, who refuses to repent his sin.
Where are you people? why is it that we only hear your fingernails-on-a-chalkboard whining and condemnations for gay people, but all of the rest of the so-called sins get a resounding tsk-tsk, if not a complete pass? Where are your political campaigns, your fundraisers, your holier than thou politicians condemning the evils of reviling and slandering, your Tony Perkinses and Bryan Fischers and Marcus Bachana, your calls for constitutional amendments and statewide elections?
Could it be that you’re not REALLY concerned about sin, St, Paul, morality, and goin’ to heaven? could it be that all of your goddamming is just another way to put a thin condom of moralizing hypocritical respectability on the big F-you you’ve been delivering to gay people under the guise of “loving the sinner and hating the sin?”
Liars, Pharisees, hypocrites!
Neil
August 27th, 2013
This sounds like a variation on the urban legend about “drug pushers.” The tale told warned against sitting in the aisles of cinemas. It was there the pushers were rumoured to roam and jab people with their addictive concoctions, getting patrons hooked and turning them into new customers.
This new folk tale about HIV rings is even less credible. As unlikely as it is, at least the mechanics of the pusher story makes a kind of sense. How on earth are these rings supposed to work? Wouldn’t there be a lot of blood? Wouldn’t such dramatic behaviour become a major news story?
And what about the claim there are laws that prohibit anyone mentioning their HIV status? Pat Robertson seems to be almost quaintly innocent, believing without question whatever nonsensical gossip is passed along, a bewildered child in a geriatric body.
What an incredibly strange man.
Ben in Oakland
August 27th, 2013
You’re a kinder man about this vicious fantasist than I could ever be.
Ray
August 27th, 2013
Breathtaking. He just piles on one lie after the other and racks in the money.
Richard Rush
August 27th, 2013
Pat Robertson didn’t become one of the most successful and wealthy Christian hucksters of all time by underestimating the gullibility of his followers. He knows exactly how to push the buttons that open their checkbooks. And lucky for Pat now that he has dementia, his followers can’t tell the difference.
Joseph Singer
August 28th, 2013
Pat Robertson is an evil old senile bigot. Why people seek his opinion on anything baffles me.
Jean-Michel
August 28th, 2013
“They only keep him on air for entertainment, right?”
Funnily enough (well, I guess it’s not that funny), ABC Family only keeps him on the air because it was part of the deal when Disney bought the Family Channel–they can never, ever cancel “The 700 Club.” Of course, even if they did, it would still be syndicated and on CBN.
Sir Andrew
August 28th, 2013
You absolutely have to admire this guy. Even though he’s been dead for nearly 15 years, he keeps doing his TV show. Better, he manages, with amazing regularity, to come up with ideas that are each more inane than the previous inane ideas. That is a special talent.
I won’t deny this pisses me off just a little bit. We’re supposed to be better at keeping secrets in our community. Someone talked. We need to find him and take away his special gay ring. He obviously can’t be trusted with it. The good news is that no one actually watches the 700 Club, so the secret to how we’re planning take over the world one straight boy at a time is safe. But we need to be careful.
Also, Pat appears to have heard the rumor that some people think HIV/AIDS MAY be transmitted by sexual contact. We certainly don’t want That to get out or we’ll Never meet our recruiting numbers. Let’s add this to the agenda for our next meeting.
Odie
August 28th, 2013
Sounds like that dude reads too many spy novels or something.
iDavid
August 28th, 2013
I can’t think of better advertising for disenfranchisement of the religious right than this ad copy. The old Dino keeps dropping more teeth every day.
He’s just a dumb ‘ol ignorant sin’n fool on some subjects, e.g. judging ad nauseam, things that should not be judged.
Let’s remember, “love the sinner, hate the sin.” And “forgive them for they know not what they do”.
Seems to fit.
AlexH
August 28th, 2013
A ring that cuts you and infects you with HIV at the same time; now that’s innovation!
Putin would kill for it.
gar
August 29th, 2013
And I promptly changed my Facebook avatar to a photo of my partnership ring with the headline: Fear. My. Gay. Ring.
Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!!!!
KZ
August 29th, 2013
“One Ring to infect them all…
…and in the darkness bind them!”
David
August 30th, 2013
Gads. It’s the ring that Alberich cursed in “Das Rheingold”!
revchicoucc
September 2nd, 2013
Mary’s question was not about AIDS. It was about whether or not someone who knew this man had AIDS should have told her.
It’s a real question: should someone have told her this man’s medical condition, who should it have been, and when should she have been told? Does the condition make a difference — if he was dying of lung cancer, should she have been told?
At the end, Robertson tells her to go back to her church because “you’re fine.” Meaning, I think, she didn’t get AIDS from driving the man so there’s no reason to be afraid she will infect someone else. But she’s not fine — she still feels deceived by people in her church who knew this man has AIDS.
Talk about adventures in missing the point!
Andrew
September 2nd, 2013
Actually, there’s a clear answer: no.
I think we can rest assured that Mary wasn’t asking so that she could take a safer route to church, or so that she could also stop to help the man pick up his medications en route.
From one angle, we have a right to medical privacy per HIPAA. In no small measure, precisely because of people like Mary who, we should point out, was at zero risk.
Secondly, public accommodation laws prohibit discrimination on the basis of HIV status. Granted, this was charitable giving, but the principle is the same – if he wants you to know, or if you are placing yourself at elevated / imminent risk, you’ll be told. Otherwise, it’s none of your damn business.
So, no, she doesn’t have a right to know his HIV status. Nor does the ambulance driver who scrapes them all off the road in the event of an accident – they use “universal precautions” for a reason.
Ironically, if anyone’s health history should have been disclosed, it was Mary’s – the passenger had a compromised immune system. The only person placing anyone at risk was Mary herself.
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