The Rev. Pat Robertson prayed in his New York apartment early in his marriage, while his wife and children were visiting her parent’s Ohio home, asking God what he should do to better follow the Holy Spirit.
Seeking to follow Christ’s injunction in Luke 12:33 to “sell your possessions and give to the poor,” Mr. Robertson wrote a letter to his wife, Dede. “Do whatever the Lord leads you to do,” she replied.
He sold their furniture for $600 and decamped to the crime-plagued Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in Brooklyn, the televangelist recounted in his 2020 memoir.
“I guess I should have read your letter more closely,” his wife said in a phone call after his decisive action.
“From now on, you should,” Mr. Robertson said. “It’s too late to turn back now.”
The phrase “turning back” was largely absent from the vocabulary of Pat Robertson, the pugnacious conservative whose Christian Broadcasting Network defined televangelism for decades. He died Thursday at his home in Virginia Beach, Virginia, at age 93.
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Spokesman Chris Roslan said via email that Mr. Robertson died of natural causes.
The broadcaster’s “greatest treasure in life was knowing Jesus Christ and having the privilege of proclaiming Him and His power to others. His life was lived to the glory of God,” Mr. Roslan said.
Mr. Robertson was a 1988 Republican presidential candidate whose base of 3 million evangelical supporters formed the nucleus of the Christian Coalition, one of several organizations he founded to impact the culture.
His campaign was always viewed as a long shot, but his second-place finish in the Iowa caucuses surprised establishment Republicans, including Vice President George H.W. Bush, who went on to win the presidency.
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, a candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, said Thursday: “Pat Robertson touched so many lives and changed so many hearts. He stood for America — and, more importantly, for truth and faith. He did the Lord’s work, and we will always remember his witness.”
“Pat Robertson showed us that Belief in God produces results that can change the course of History. Pat’s legacy lives on in the many endeavors and lives that he touched,” former President Donald Trump said on his Truth Social website.
Along with CBN and the Christian Coalition, Mr. Robertson founded Regent University in Virginia Beach, the Washington-based American Center for Law & Justice and a charity, Operation Blessing International Relief and Development Corp.
Mr. Robertson was also the founder and chairman of International Family Entertainment, whose Family Channel on cable TV was sold to News Corp. in 1997. News Corp. sold the network to ABC, operating as the ABC Family cable network.
Mr. Robertson hosted the daily Christian talk show “The 700 Club” for 55 years before stepping down in 2021. The show captured a substantial U.S. and international audience, featuring commentary on the day’s news, political and social trends, and interviews with those who said a personal relationship with Jesus Christ had changed their lives.
Mr. Robertson marked the program with periodic pronouncements about events’ ties to God’s judgments. Hosts made frequent interruptions to pray for viewers and those wishing to make a Christian commitment.
Historian Paul Matzko said in 2021 that Mr. Robertson’s broadcasts represented “a large group of religious conservatives who were alienated from what was changing about society in the 1960s and ’70s, who didn’t feel represented and what they saw and heard on the airwaves, who felt alienated from America’s governing and social institutions. And he spoke to them.”
Marion Gordon “Pat” Robertson was born March 22, 1930, in Lexington, Virginia, the son of A. Willis Robertson and Gladys Churchill Robertson. His father represented a Virginia district in the House of Representatives for 14 years and then represented the commonwealth in the Senate for 20 years.
Pat Robertson recalled an undergraduate career at Washington and Lee University that was far different from his later accomplishments.
“Although I worked hard at my studies, my real major centered around lovely young ladies who attended the nearby girls schools …,” he wrote on the CBN.com/PatRobertson website. “I joined the [Sigma Alpha Epsilon] fraternity my freshman year and quickly received what seemed a postgraduate course in wild partying.”
His U.S. Marine Corps hitch during the Korean War and his failure to pass the bar exam after earning a Yale Law School degree changed Mr. Robertson’s life plans. A nominal Southern Baptist, he had a religious conversion that led him to New York Theological Seminary, where he earned a master of divinity degree.
Mr. Robertson and his wife, Adelia, known as “Dede,” moved to Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood to begin ministry. In 1959, the Robertsons moved to Tidewater, Virginia, “with just $70 and a vision of establishing the first Christian television network” in the U.S.
The Robertsons were married for 67 years before Dede died in April 2022 at age 94. The couple had four children: Timothy Brian Robertson of Virginia Beach, Elizabeth Robertson Robinson of Dallas, Gordon Perry Robertson of Chesapeake, Virginia, and Ann Robertson LeBlanc of Portsmouth, Virginia. They had 14 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren.
In 1961, WYAH-TV, a UHF station, began operations. Mr. Robertson started soliciting viewers in 1963 to be among a group of 700 supporters pledging $10 each month to keep the broadcaster going. That 700 “club” became the name of Mr. Robertson’s talk show.
CBN has claimed a place as “one of the world’s largest evangelistic ministries, proclaiming the Good News in over 100 countries and dozens of languages, including Russian, Arabic, Spanish, French and Chinese,” a network statement said.
Gordon Robertson, president and CEO of the Christian Broadcasting Network, now hosts “The 700 Club.”
Pat Robertson incorporated CBN University in 1977, and classes began the following year. The school, later renamed Regent University, has more than 30,000 alumni. Regent offers online classes to a global student cohort and in-person instruction at its Virginia Beach campus. Former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell is among the school’s alumni.
“We are deeply saddened by the loss of our beloved founder,” William L. Hathaway, the school’s executive vice president for academic affairs, said in a statement. “Dr. Robertson was a globally-renowned leader, broadcaster, philanthropist, educator, author, accomplished businessman, and — most importantly — a faithful servant of God who dedicated his life to glorifying the Lord and sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
Although a staunch conservative, Mr. Robertson could surprise antagonists and allies with his political moves. More than a decade ago, he joined liberal New York pastor the Rev. Al Sharpton in a broadcast commercial promoting solutions to climate change.
University of Virginia political analyst Larry J. Sabato told The Washington Times in 2013 that Mr. Robertson was what could be described as a political liberal earlier in his career.
“Pat was very active in the national Young Democrats, and he organized for Adlai Stevenson in 1952,” Mr. Sabato said. The Christian Coalition founder “had a long political involvement as a young person. He was drenched in politics because of the home in which he grew up.”
The Christian Coalition pioneered the use of spreadsheet-style pamphlets that graded candidates on their political positions. Mr. Sabato said that changed the dynamics of electioneering.
“No question voting scorecards had a major, major impact in 1994 when Republicans took over the House and Senate. Everybody on both sides agrees with that,” he said in the 2013 interview.
Mr. Robertson’s critics, who lambasted his later political positions, were unimpressed.
Rob Boston, a senior adviser at Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a Washington-based group often at odds with the Christian Coalition, titled his 1996 book on the broadcaster “The Most Dangerous Man in America?”
Mr. Boston said Thursday in an email that Mr. Robertson “repeatedly attacked separation of church and state and was a founding father of today’s Christian Nationalist movement that aims to force everyone to live by their narrow beliefs.”
Colleagues and supporters praised Mr. Robertson as a trailblazer whose impact will be long-lasting.
“Dr. Robertson was a titan of the Christian faith and he will be dearly missed by millions around the world,” said former Attorney General John Ashcroft, now a distinguished professor at Regent University. “His legacy is a life well-lived in loving and faithful obedience to Jesus Christ and His glorious gospel.”
Jay Sekulow, chief counsel at the American Center for Law and Justice, said Mr. Robertson’s “tenacious obedience to a call from God [had] the opportunity to change the lives of millions around the world.”
Mr. Robertson “will be remembered as a giant among other Christian leaders,” said Steve Strang, founder and publisher of Charisma magazine. “He was an early charismatic and helped that movement get off the ground. Then over the years he was a voice of reason. He was also an example of integrity. Even though his critics loved to trash him, he lived a life of virtue and righteousness.”
Mr. Strang, who published Mr. Robertson’s memoir, “I Have Walked With the Living God,” praised the late broadcaster as “an example to emulate.”
Troy A. Miller, president and CEO of the National Religious Broadcasters, also lauded Mr. Robertson’s work.
“Pat Robertson’s influence on the field of Christian television broadcasting cannot be overstated, and we commend his lifetime of leadership in global media ministry and humanitarian outreach,” Mr. Miller said. “We were blessed to have Robertson and CBN as veteran members of the NRB.”
• Mark A. Kellner can be reached at mkellner@washingtontimes.com.
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