# Pat Robertson: Sharon's stroke is God's punishment. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 5, 2006, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pat-robertson-sharons-stroke-is-gods-punishment/338652 "2006-01-05T22:52:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pat-robertson-sharons-stroke-is-gods-punishment/338652/41 "2006-01-06T03:30:47Z")
So I wonder who’s responsible for Pat’s [prostate cancer](http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/South/02/13/robertson.cancer/) (and why didn’t God just say “POOF!” and make it vanish)? ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pat-robertson-sharons-stroke-is-gods-punishment/338652/42 "2006-01-06T03:49:49Z")
Wait. I’m confused. I always thought Sharon was a Southern Baptist. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pat-robertson-sharons-stroke-is-gods-punishment/338652/43 "2006-01-06T03:59:06Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > “fag-infested West Virginia”? I had no idea WV was a hotbed of homosexuality. He must be talking about the tobacco industry. ---
**Author:** ![lonesome\_loser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c68b51/32.png) [@lonesome\_loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lonesome_loser)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pat-robertson-sharons-stroke-is-gods-punishment/338652/44 "2006-01-06T04:24:10Z")
So I guess his theme park is out then. [http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=97717&ran=124161&tref=po](http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=97717&ran=124161&tref=po) ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pat-robertson-sharons-stroke-is-gods-punishment/338652/45 "2006-01-06T04:24:22Z")
> [@Captain Amazing](#): > > The Israelites of biblical times didn’t own the Gaza Strip, though. The Phillistines did. You’re right, I forgot they did not actually occupy it (I should know the OT better). However, [Gaza had been assigned to the tribe of Judah](http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06399c.htm) even though it was not actually possessed by the Hebrews (although have been a tributory state during the reign of Solomon). Later, [Gaza _was_ included as part of Herod’s kingdom](http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06399c.htm)–which, I think may be the model for what the fundies think Israel’s borders must be like for the “end times” to occur. And recently, of course, it was captured by the Israelis during the Six Day War in 1967. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pat-robertson-sharons-stroke-is-gods-punishment/338652/46 "2006-01-06T04:53:55Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > …and the ear of the Republican Party. I don’t know. How long are patriotic, America-loving people going to listen to religious nuts (Phelps, Robertson, blah blah blah) go on about how bad America is? ---
**Author:** ![uglybeech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/82dd89/32.png) [@uglybeech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/uglybeech)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pat-robertson-sharons-stroke-is-gods-punishment/338652/47 "2006-01-06T05:20:10Z")
> [@marymargaret](#): > > I thought Sharon’s obesity may be to blame… No, it wasn’t punishment for the sin of eating too much either. Robertson’s not alone in trying to find the sin that causes illness, is he? It’s an American tradition. If you’re perfectly healthy until you’re 78 and then get sick - must be your fault _somehow_. Same mindset - different religion. And just to be exact, it wasn’t the heart defect itself that technically got him in trouble. It was the blood-thinners he took to reduce his stroke risk until they could repair the heart defect. Which would make it iatrogenic. Every so often people on blood thinners stroke out - it’s just bad luck. ---
**Author:** ![marymargaret](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@marymargaret](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marymargaret)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pat-robertson-sharons-stroke-is-gods-punishment/338652/48 "2006-01-06T05:31:32Z")
Can they really point to a single thing that caused his stroke? And isn’t obesity linked with increased risk of stroke? Sin or no, there are health consequences to being overweight. ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pat-robertson-sharons-stroke-is-gods-punishment/338652/49 "2006-01-06T05:32:54Z")
> [@Sequent](#): > > You guys can laugh but this shit’s for real. I realized just today: [I am being punished by God.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=352751) We’ll see how funny you think it is when you’re **buring in the lake of fire!** Pat Robertson will be along shortly to tell you that God hates you, then. Just once, I’d like to attend one of his televised rallies or speeches with a really rotten, really juicy tomato and fabulous aim… _sigh_ ---
**Author:** ![uglybeech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/82dd89/32.png) [@uglybeech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/uglybeech)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pat-robertson-sharons-stroke-is-gods-punishment/338652/50 "2006-01-06T05:55:50Z")
> [@marymargaret](#): > > Can they really point to a single thing that caused his stroke? > > And isn’t obesity linked with increased risk of stroke? Sin or no, there are health consequences to being overweight. As far as I know, stroke risk is one of the things not associated with obesity, but I’d have to look it up to be sure. But anyway the type of stroke he had (both times) is - at least as sure as you can with these type of things - not a result of his weight. My point is it’s just so human to want to deny that people eventually die no matter how hard they work out or how hard they pray. And bad luck just happens. Whether you tend to blame God or karma or McDonalds, it’s the same mindset, IMHO. But seriously I’m not trying to harsh on you. I always figured too the fat bastard would definitely die either from being fat or from being a bastard (somebody would shoot him in the head). It’s probably going to turn out to be none of the above. Who’d have thunk it? ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pat-robertson-sharons-stroke-is-gods-punishment/338652/51 "2006-01-06T06:26:29Z")
> [@asterion](#): > > Here’s the two quotes I’m seeing on the Fox News website. > > Iran President: I Hope Sharon Dies > Robertson: Stroke Was God’s Wrath So here is an issue that imbecilic fundamentalist assholes from all faiths can agree on, I guess. Yeah for unity! Stranger ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pat-robertson-sharons-stroke-is-gods-punishment/338652/52 "2006-01-06T06:32:58Z")
> [@uglybeech](#): > > And just to be exact, it wasn’t the heart defect itself that technically got him in trouble. It was the blood-thinners he took to reduce his stroke risk until they could repair the heart defect. Which would make it iatrogenic. Every so often people on blood thinners stroke out - it’s just bad luck. This is a side issue but now I’m confuxed. I have an off-and-on irregular heart beat resulting from occasional atrial fibrillation. Along with this condition there is an increased risk of stroke, so I take a mild blood thinner (aspirin) as a precaution. And now I’m told that blood thinners taken to reduce the risk of stroke also _cause_ stroke? ---
**Author:** ![Leviosaurus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Leviosaurus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leviosaurus)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pat-robertson-sharons-stroke-is-gods-punishment/338652/53 "2006-01-06T06:33:18Z")
I just saw a amazing clip I’d missed… when the voters of Dover, Pennslyvania kickeed out the Intelligent Design pushing schoolboard, Robertson went on his show and said “I’d like to tell the good citizens of Dover, if a disaster happens in your area, don’t turn to God… you just voted God out of your city!” I was all ready to start a thread called **Pat Robertson= Nutcase** when I saw someone had beat me to it. (Somehow, I think Pat will give me another chance soon.) ---
**Author:** ![kinoons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a698b9/32.png) [@kinoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kinoons)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pat-robertson-sharons-stroke-is-gods-punishment/338652/54 "2006-01-06T08:54:21Z")
> [@David Simmons](#): > > This is a side issue but now I’m confuxed. I have an off-and-on irregular heart beat resulting from occasional atrial fibrillation. Along with this condition there is an increased risk of stroke, so I take a mild blood thinner (aspirin) as a precaution. And now I’m told that blood thinners taken to reduce the risk of stroke also _cause_ stroke? Yes and no. The blood thinner you are taking is to combat blood clots, which are a common complication of A-fib. The most common type of stroke is an occlusive one, in which something, most commonly a clot, blocks blood flow to the brain. The stroke that Sharon had was a hemorrhagic stroke. A blood vessel in his brain broke and he then bled into his skull. Bad times. These types of strokes are much less common (I think its about an 80/20 split, but don’t quote me on that) ---
**Author:** ![uglybeech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/82dd89/32.png) [@uglybeech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/uglybeech)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pat-robertson-sharons-stroke-is-gods-punishment/338652/55 "2006-01-06T09:22:11Z")
> [@David Simmons](#): > > This is a side issue but now I’m confuxed. I have an off-and-on irregular heart beat resulting from occasional atrial fibrillation. Along with this condition there is an increased risk of stroke, so I take a mild blood thinner (aspirin) as a precaution. And now I’m told that blood thinners taken to reduce the risk of stroke also _cause_ stroke? (IANAD disclaimers, etc.) Basically there are two main types of strokes - hemhorragic and ischemic. Ischemic is when something blocks the blood flow (e.g. a clot) and parts of your brain die off from lack of oxygen. Hemorrhagic is when you start bleeding in the brain and parts of your brain die off mainly from the pressure. You’re probably seeing the Catch 22 now. Things you do to treat or prevent ischemic stroke (e.g. blood-thinners or clot-busters) tends to make you more likely to have a hemorrhagic stroke. It’s an odds game. If you have a big risk of having an ischemic stroke you’re probably be better off putting yourself at a small risk of hemorrhagic stroke to mitigate that. Well better off unless you actually have a hemorrhagic stroke - which Sharon did. I don’t think you need to worry so much if you’re on aspirin, though. I’m guessing that Sharon got something much more hard-core like rat poison - I mean Coumadin - or at least Plavix. [/end hijack] Actually I back off from what I said earlier because it’s dumb - we can’t really know what caused Sharon’s stroke or if being fat had anything to do with it. Maybe it did. My apologies \*\*marymargaret \*\*. But I still stand by the general notion that the kneejerk blaming of lifestyle for any illness in a 78 year old man is not that fundamentally different in spirit from Pat Robertson’s blaming it on God’s wrath. Actually it reminds me most of the SNL joke when George Burns died at 100: “thus proving: smoking kills.” We kind of want to believe that if we do everything right we won’t get sick, but it ain’t in the cards. If we live long enough we all get sick and die. And I don’t think it’s in particularly good taste to lay it all on the victim’s personal failings when it happens. But it’s the culture we live in - it’s offensive to say it’s God’s punishment. It’s perfectly fine to say it’s nature’s. ---
**Author:** ![Rune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e68b1a/32.png) [@Rune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rune)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pat-robertson-sharons-stroke-is-gods-punishment/338652/56 "2006-01-06T09:29:15Z")
I’m piggybacking! If we were to start a new thread each time a religious spokesman or indeed a national leader expresses anti-Semitic views, the Pit wouldn’t have any space left for anything else. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez decided to use his Christmas speech to spread the good message that the dirty Jesus-crucifying Jews control the world’s riches. > [@Hugo Chavez](#): > > “the descendants of those who crucified Christ… have taken ownership of the riches of the world, a minority has taken ownership of the gold of the world, the silver, the minerals, water, the good lands, petrol, well, the riches, and they have concentrated the riches in a small number of hands.” [http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/mideastdispatches/archives/000625.html](http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/mideastdispatches/archives/000625.html) ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pat-robertson-sharons-stroke-is-gods-punishment/338652/57 "2006-01-06T13:09:48Z")
> [@KarlGauss](#): > > [anal compulsive nitpick] > I think the lesion in Sharon’s heart is more likely to be a [patent foramen ovale (PFO)](http://www.msnj.org/pdfs/NJMJune%2002/CurrentConcepts.pdf#search='patent%20foramen%20ovale%20stroke'). You’re probably right. But God’ll get you for that. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![gum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bbe5ce/32.png) [@gum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gum)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pat-robertson-sharons-stroke-is-gods-punishment/338652/58 "2006-01-06T14:13:57Z")
[http://www.parool.nl/columnisten/joep\_bertrams/beeld/010506-joep.jpg](http://www.parool.nl/columnisten/joep_bertrams/beeld/010506-joep.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pat-robertson-sharons-stroke-is-gods-punishment/338652/59 "2006-01-06T14:15:02Z")
I probably ask this in every Robertson verbal-diarrhea thread, but is he really getting wackier, or was he always saying this wacky shit but the press only recently discovered his entertainment value? ---
**Author:** ![Neurotik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/91b2a8/32.png) [@Neurotik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neurotik)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pat-robertson-sharons-stroke-is-gods-punishment/338652/60 "2006-01-06T14:25:19Z")
> [@Rune](#): > > I’m piggybacking! If we were to start a new thread each time a religious spokesman or indeed a national leader expresses anti-Semitic views, the Pit wouldn’t have any space left for anything else. Robertson’s comment had little to do with anti-Semitism. In fact, it has to do with Robertson’s support for the state of Israel and feelings of disdain towards Muslims. The reason Robertson thinks God is the cause of Sharon’s stroke is because Sharon had Israel withdraw from Gaza and Robertson believes that God disapproves of any land concessions to the Palestinians for any reason. He also said God struck down Rabin because he agreed to pull Israel out of the occupied territories in return for peace. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pat-robertson-sharons-stroke-is-gods-punishment/338652.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pat-robertson-sharons-stroke-is-gods-punishment/338652.md?page=4)