Pat Robertson tells man he should move to Saudi Arabia so he can beat his wife

Legendary televangelist Pat Robertson courted controversy today when he apparently advised a man to move to Saudi Arabia so he could beat his wife.

The Christian leader, who joined Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney at a campaign appearance last week, was giving advice to followers on his cable television network.

He joked that a caller who was having problems with his marriage should 'become a Muslim' and lamented that we no longer 'condone wife-beating'.

Mr Robertson made the controversial comments on Monday during an appearance on The 700 Club on CBN, which he was co-hosting with Terry Meeuwsen.

The pair were responding to a message from 'Michael', who felt he was being disrespected by his wife.

'My wife has become a real problem,' he wrote. 'She has no respect for me as the head of the house. She insults me and she even went as far as stretching her hand to beat me.

'I've lost my self-confidence. Her words hurt so much and she refuses to talk through our problems. Please tell me what I can do.'

Mr Robertson immediately replied: 'Well, you could become a Muslim and you could beat her.'

He then added: 'This man's got to stand up to her and he can't let her get away with this stuff. I don't think we condone wife-beating these days but something has got to be done.

'She's rebellious, the chances are she was rebellious with her father and mother, she's a rebellious child and she doesn't want to submit to any authority.'

The 82-year-old preacher concluded, 'You can't divorce her according to the Scripture, so I say: move to Saudi Arabia.'

Ms Meeuwsen attempted to play down her co-host's remarks, saying that Michael should not deal with his marital problems 'physically'.

When CBN posted footage of the programme on its website, the references to Islam, Saudi Arabia and wife-beating had been edited out.

Mr Robertson has been a prominent figure on the Christian Right for several decades, and even launched a presidential campaign in 1988.

Last Saturday, the preacher appeared alongside Mr Romney at a campaign stop in Virginia Beach, where the GOP hopeful attacked Democrats for initially removing references to God from their party platform.