VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Pat Robertson, founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network and Regent University, died Thursday at age 93.
A religious broadcaster who turned a tiny TV station in Virginia into a global broadcasting network and turned a failed run for president into a religious political coalition, Robertson is credited as having a major influence on religion becoming central to Republican Party politics in America.
Robertson's death Thursday was confirmed in an email by his broadcasting network, which said he passed away in his home, surrounded by family.
No cause of death was given.
Pat Robertson's Virginia roots ran deep
Robertson was born in Lexington, Virginia on March 22, 1930 to Absalom Willis Robertson and Gladys Churchill Robertson. His father, a conservative southern Democrat, served for 36 years as a U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator from Virginia.
While he is known worldwide as "Pat" Robertson, his real name is Marion Gordon Robertson. He got the nickname "Pat" from an older brother who liked to pat him on the cheeks.
Robertson didn't stray far from home to attend college, earning his first degree from Washington and Lee University. From there he went on to serve two years active duty in the US Marine Corp before earning a law degree from Yale University Law School. Though, he failed the bar exam and chose not to pursue a law career.
At the end of his second year in law school, Pat married his wife, Dede Elmer. Together they had four children, 14 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren.
Dede Robertson, who was a founding board member of CBN, died last year at the age of 94.
What Pat Robertson was known for
Robertson always said his priorities in life were God first, family second and work third. But it's his work that he's most known for.
In 1960, he founded the first Christian television network in the United States. Today CBN is one of the world's largest television ministries. It produces programming viewed in 90 nations and heard in 50 different languages.
For many years, Robertson hosted CBN's flagship program, The 700 Club, which is one of the longest running religious television shows in history, reaching an average of one million American viewers daily.
In later years, he made televised pronouncements of God’s judgment, blaming natural disasters on everything from homosexuality to the teaching of evolution.
He also founded Regent University, an evangelical Christian school in Virginia Beach, in 1977 and served as its president and chancellor.
A year later, he started nonprofit Operation Blessing, an international humanitarian organization.
From the pulpit to politics, Robertson was known as a very public voice for conservative Christianity in the United States.
He unsuccessfully campaigned to become the Republican Party's nominee in the 1988 U.S. Presidential Election. Robertson lost and ended up endorsing George H.W. Bush, who was elected President.
Robertson used the remainder of his campaign resources to launch the Christain Coalition in Chesapeake in 1989 and served as its president until 2001. The coalition became a major political force in the 1990s, mobilizing conservative voters through grass-roots activities.
Robertson also co-founded the American Center for Law and Justice in 1990, which defends the First Amendment rights of religious people.
He was founder and chairman of International Family Entertainment Inc., parent of The Family Channel basic cable TV network. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. bought IFE in 1997.
Robertson also wrote 15 books, including “The Turning Tide” and “The New World Order.”
How Pat Robertson started his ministry
Robertson was interested in politics until he found religion, his wife told the Associated Press in 1987. He stunned her by pouring out their liquor, tearing a nude print off the wall and declaring he had found the Lord.
They moved into a commune in New York City’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood because Robertson said God told him to sell all his possessions and minister to the poor. She was tempted to return home to Ohio, “but I realized that was not what the Lord would have me do ... I had promised to stay, so I did,” she told the AP.
Robertson received a master’s in divinity from New York Theological Seminary in 1959, then drove south with his family to buy a bankrupt UHF television station in Portsmouth, Virginia. He said he had just $70 in his pocket, but soon found investors, and CBN went on the air on Oct. 1, 1961. Established as a tax-exempt religious nonprofit, CBN brought in hundreds of millions, disclosing $321 million in “ministry support” in 2022 alone.
One of Robertson’s innovations was to use the secular talk-show format on the network’s flagship show, the “700 Club,” which grew out of a telethon when Robertson asked 700 viewers for monthly $10 contributions. It was more suited to television than traditional revival meetings or church services, and gained a huge audience.
His guests eventually included several U.S. presidents — Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump.
Pat Robertson's controversial statements on television
At times, Robertson's on-air pronouncements drew criticism.
He claimed that the terrorist attacks that killed thousands of Americans on Sept. 11, 2001 were caused by God, angered by the federal courts, pornography, abortion rights and church-state separation. Talking again about 9-11 on his TV show a year later, Robertson described Islam as a violent religion that wants to “dominate” and “destroy,” prompting President George W. Bush to distance himself and say Islam is a peaceful and respectful religion.
Robertson called for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in 2005, although he later apologized.
Later that year, he warned residents of a rural Pennsylvania town not to be surprised if disaster struck them because they voted out school board members who favored teaching “intelligent design” over evolution. And in 1998, he said Orlando, Florida, should beware of hurricanes after allowing the annual Gay Days event.
In 2014, he angered Kenyans when he warned that towels in Kenya could transmit AIDS. CBN issued a correction, saying Robertson “misspoke about the possibility of getting AIDS through towels.”
Robertson also could be unpredictable: In 2010, he called for ending mandatory prison sentences for marijuana possession convictions. Two years later, he said on the “700 Club” that marijuana should be legalized and treated like alcohol because the government’s war on drugs had failed.
Robertson condemned Democrats caught up in sex scandals, saying for example that President Bill Clinton turned the White House into a playpen for sexual freedom. But he helped solidify evangelical support for Donald Trump, dismissing the candidate's sexually predatory comments about women as an attempt “to look like he’s macho.”
After Trump took office, Robertson interviewed the president at the White House. And CBN welcomed Trump advisers, such as Kellyanne Conway, as guests.
But after President Trump lost to Joe Biden in 2020, Robertson said Trump was living in an “alternate reality” and should “move on,” news outlets reported.