Pat Robertson

His father, A. Willis Robertson, spent 20 years in the United States Senate. The son grew up in Lexington, Virginia, went to boarding school in Chattanooga, and left Washington and Lee magna cum laude with a history degree and a Phi Beta Kappa key. He served in the Marine Corps during the Korean War and came home a first lieutenant, took a Yale law degree in 1955, then failed the only bar exam he ever sat, in New York. What followed was a conversion he dated to a dinner in Philadelphia with a Dutch missionary. He took a divinity degree in 1959 and was ordained a Southern Baptist minister in Norfolk in 1961. He reached the ministry from inside the political class, not outside it.

In 1960 he bought a dead UHF license in Portsmouth, Virginia, and put it on the air a year later as the Christian Broadcasting Network. The 700 Club began in 1966 and he hosted it 55 years. He ran for the Republican nomination in 1988, finished second in Iowa ahead of George H. W. Bush, and was spent by New Hampshire. The list survived. In 1989 it became the Christian Coalition, which Ralph Reed ran day to day and which organized evangelical voters into a dependable Republican constituency through the 1990s. That realignment, not the campaign, is the record.

The broadcasts also produced statements that drew condemnation far beyond his usual critics. In the week of the September 11 attacks he sat with Jerry Falwell, who blamed pagans, abortionists, feminists, gays and the ACLU, and told him, "I totally concur." President George W. Bush rebuked both men and Falwell apologized. In 2005 he suggested on air that the United States assassinate Venezuela's Hugo Chávez, then issued a written apology the same day. After the 2010 Haiti earthquake he said the country's founders had sworn a pact with the devil, and CBN put out a statement explaining the remark rather than withdrawing it. In the same years he was building an accredited university, a constitutional litigation firm and a cable channel he sold for 1.9 billion dollars.

He died at home in Virginia Beach on June 8, 2023, at 93. The obituaries agreed on the scale of the political result and on little else. Some described the architect of a Republican Party organized around religious conservatives. Others described a broadcaster whose own machine came apart, the Christian Coalition having shrunk and fallen into debt after Ralph Reed left in 1997. What nobody disputes is what is still standing: CBN, now run by his son Gordon, Regent University, the American Center for Law and Justice, and a clause in the 1997 sale of the Family Channel that still requires its successor, Freeform, to carry CBN programming every weekday.

Pat Robertson's life against the full span of the corpus.

• Christian Broadcasting Network other
  Started with the license of a defunct Portsmouth UHF station, on air October 1, 1961 1960
• The 700 Club television
  He hosted it until October 2021 — the machine behind everything else 1966
• Regent University other
  Founded as CBN University in Virginia Beach and renamed in 1990 1977
• The Secret Kingdom book
  His best-selling statement of applied Christian principle 1982
• American Center for Law and Justice other
  The conservative constitutional litigation firm tied to Regent's law school 1990
• The New World Order book
  A New York Times best seller, and the book critics cited for its conspiracy sources 1991

• 1955 aged ~25 Takes a Yale law degree, then fails the New York bar exam It was the only bar exam he ever attempted.
• October 1, 1961 aged 31 WYAH-TV signs on in Portsmouth, Virginia He had bought the dead station's license in 1960. It became the Christian Broadcasting Network.
• 1966 aged ~36 The 700 Club goes on the air Named for a telethon goal of 700 members giving 10 dollars a month to keep the station on the air.
• 1977 aged ~47 Founds CBN University on the Virginia Beach campus Renamed Regent University in 1990.
• February 8, 1988 aged 57 Finishes second in the Iowa caucuses, ahead of George H. W. Bush Bob Dole won. Robertson faded in New Hampshire and left the race before the primaries ended.
• 1989 aged ~59 The Christian Coalition opens with Ralph Reed running it Built on the campaign's list of volunteers and donors.
• 1997 aged ~67 Sells International Family Entertainment to Fox Kids Worldwide for 1.9 billion dollars The Family Channel became Fox Family, then ABC Family, then Freeform — still carrying CBN programming.
• October 1, 2021 aged 91 Retires from The 700 Club at 91 Announced on the 60th anniversary of the first broadcast.
• June 8, 2023 aged 93 Dies at his home in Virginia Beach at 93

• Jerry Falwell 1933–2007
  Pastor and political organizer who helped make conservative evangelicalism a major Republican constituency. ally on the religious right
• Billy Graham 1918–2018
  Evangelist whose mass crusades, media reach, and presidential relationships made him a defining figure in modern American Protestantism. the model he politicized
• Oral Roberts 1918–2009
  Moved Pentecostal healing services from the revival tent onto national television, and built a university on the proceeds. precedent in broadcast ministry
• Ronald Reagan 1911–2004
  40th president whose conservative domestic program and assertive Cold War strategy reshaped American politics. served on his crime task force
• George W. Bush b. 1946
  43rd president who led the country after the September 11 attacks and launched wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. rebuked by
• Joel Osteen b. 1963
  Built his father's Houston church into the largest congregation in the United States and preached it to millions on television. successor generation