Tell most people your son is having extreme stomach pains, and they will tell you to get to a hospital as soon as possible. Pat Robertson on the other hand might say, "Check your family for witchcraft," as he told a mother on a recent episode of The 700 Club.
Viewer Dianne wrote in to the show asking Robertson:
"My son heard sounds that send painful shock-waves thru [sic] his body as I was praying for him and I called on the name of JESUS. My son said it felt like something hit him very hard in the stomach. I know this is not of God. He is a Christian. Can Christians be attacked by demons?"
Robertson responds that demons might be causing the boy's stomach pains but warns the woman about seeking help from "quacks" who will try to exorcise non-existent demons. Instead, he says, the woman should look to her own family to see where the influence might be coming from.
“If I were you, I would look back at your family," Robertson suggests.
"What in your family — do you have anybody involved in the occult, somebody in witchcraft or tarot cards or psychic things? Has there something been there that you don’t know about. Some grandparent, great grandparent or something. Look into the family tree, and then get some people in there and cast this stuff out. But that does not sound like normal.”
Wiccan priestess Courtney Weber told HuffPost, "It deeply saddens me that in a man as wealthy and powerful as Mr. Robertson who could be using his resources to inspire and uplift is touting superstitions and inspiring fear in the mother of a young boy who clearly needs medical attention."
This isn't the first time Robertson has expressed disdain for so-called witchcraft. In a famous 1992 letter attacking "the feminist agenda," Robertson wrote:
"[Feminism} is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians."
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