Televangelist, conservative advocate and former presidential candidate Pat Robertson died Thursday at 93, bringing an end to one of the most influential U.S. voices in religion and conservative politics. Robertson was a Southern Baptist who was initially interested in politics and the law, but he failed the bar exam after graduating from law school and…
Televangelist, conservative advocate and former presidential candidate Pat Robertson died Thursday at 93, bringing an end to one of the most influential U.S. voices in religion and conservative politics.
Robertson was a Southern Baptist who was initially interested in politics and the law, but he failed the bar exam after graduating from law school and soon after found religion. He embarked on a more than six-decade career as a Christian broadcaster, sharing his religious views with millions of audience members regularly.
But Robertson, who was the son of a former senator, eventually would come back to politics, tying it closely together with religion. His role helped enshrine the religious right to become a key part of the modern Republican Party.
But his views were often not without widespread controversy and criticism.
Here are five of the biggest political moments from Robertson’s career: Launches Christian Broadcasting Network
After receiving a master’s degree in divinity from New York Theological Seminary in 1959, Robertson bought a bankrupt television station in Portsmouth, Va. He reportedly only had $70 on him at the time, but he was able to find investors for a tax-exempt religious nonprofit station, which went on air as the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) in October 1961.
Robertson initially led a telethon on the station in which he asked his viewers, which numbered less than 1,000, for a $10 monthly donation, but he soon turned it into what would become CBN’s flagship program, “The 700 Club.” The daily show included interviews with newsmakers and current events with a religious angle.
CBN brought in hundreds of millions of dollars in donations over the years, including $321 million in “ministry support” last year.
It also eventually established a satellite network in 1977 that included secular programming. It became known as “The Family Channel” and was later sold first to Fox and then to Disney, which rebranded it as ABC Family and then Freeform.
