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Pat Robertson
Marion Gordon "Pat" Robertson (born March 22, 1930) is a televangelist from the
United States. He is the founder of numerous organizations and corporations,
including the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), Christian Broadcasting
Network (CBN), the Christian Coalition, Flying Hospital, International Family
Entertainment, Operation Blessing International Relief and Development
Corporation, and Regent University. He is the host of The 700 Club, a Christian
TV program airing on channels throughout the United States and on CBN affiliates
worldwide.
He is opposed to abortion and gay rights. Robertson is a supporter of the
Republican Party and campaigned unsuccessfully to become the party's nominee in
the 1988 presidential election.
He is a Southern Baptist and was active as an ordained minister with that
denomination for many years, but holds to a Charismatic theology not
traditionally common among Southern Baptists. As a result of his seeking
political office, he no longer serves in an official role for any church.
Despite this, his media and financial resources make him a recognized and
influential, albeit controversial, public voice for conservative Christianity in
the United States.
Life and career
Family
Robertson was born in Lexington, Virginia, into a prominent political family.
His parents were Absalom Willis Robertson, a conservative Democratic United
States Senator, and his wife Gladys Churchill Robertson. He married Adelia "Dede"
Elmer in 1954. His family includes four children, among them Gordon P.
Robertson, and at the time of writing (mid-2005) fourteen grandchildren.
At a young age, Robertson was given the nickname of Pat by his six-year-old
brother, Willis Robertson, Jr., who enjoyed patting him on the cheeks when he
was a baby while saying "pat, pat, pat". As he got older, Robertson thought
about which first name he would like people to use. He considered "Marion" to be
effeminate, and "M. Gordon" to be affected, so he opted for his childhood
nickname "Pat". His strong awareness for the importance of names in the creation
of a public image showed itself again during his presidential run when he
threatened to sue NBC news for calling him a "television evangelist", which
later became "televangelist", at a time when Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Baker were
objects of scandal. He insisted upon being called a "religious broadcaster".
Pat Robertson is the great-great-great-great grandson of the 23rd US President,
Benjamin Harrison, and the great-great-great-great grandson of the 9th US
President, William Henry Harrison.
Education and military service
When he was eleven, Robertson was enrolled in the military preparatory McDonogh
School outside Baltimore, Maryland. From 1940 until 1946 he attended the
McCallie School in Chattanooga, Tennessee. McCallie, now a college preparatory
school, was at the time a military school. He graduated with honors and enrolled
at Washington and Lee University, where he majored in history and was elected to
Phi Beta Kappa, a prestigious national honor society. He also joined Sigma Alpha
Epsilon fraternity. Robertson has said, "Although I worked hard at my studies,
my real major centered around lovely young ladies who attended the nearby girls
schools." [1]
In 1948 the draft was reinstated, and Robertson was given the option of joining
the Marine Corps or being drafted into the army. He opted for the former, which
allowed him to finish college under the condition that he attend OCS during the
summer at Quantico, Virginia. He graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of
Arts degree and was the first person to be commissioned as a Second Lieutenant
at a graduation ceremony at the university. In January 1951, Robertson served
four months in Japan, "doing rehabilitation training for Marines wounded in
Korea."
In his words, "We did long, grueling marches to toughen the men, plus refresher
training in firearms and bayonet combat." In the same year he transferred to
Korea, "I ended up at the headquarters command of the First Marine Division,"
says Robertson. "The Division was in combat in the hot and dusty, then bitterly
cold portion of North Korea just above the 38th Parallel later identified as the
'Punchbowl' and 'Heartbreak Ridge.' For that service in the Korean War, the
Marine Corps awarded me three battle stars for 'action against the enemy.'"[2]
However, former Republican Congressman Paul "Pete" McCloskey, Jr., who served
with Robertson in Korea, claimed that Robertson was actually spared combat duty
when his powerful father, a U.S. Senator, intervened on his behalf, claiming
that instead Robertson spent most of his time in an office in Japan. According
to McCloskey, his time in the service was not in combat but as the "liquor
officer" responsible for keeping the officers' clubs supplied with liquor.
Paul Brosman, Jr., another veteran who had served with Robertson, claimed in a
deposition that Robertson had sexual relations with prostitutes and sexually
harassed a cleaning girl. Robertson has described these allegations as "an
attack by liberals to discredit me."
Robertson was promoted to First Lieutenant in 1952 upon his return to the United
States. He then went on to receive a Bachelor of Legal Letters degree from Yale
University Law School in 1955. However, he failed to pass the bar exam[3],
shortly thereafter underwent his religious conversion, and decided against
pursuing a career in law. Instead Robertson went to the New York Theological
Seminary, and was awarded a Master of Divinity degree in 1959.
Religious career
The staff of Robertson's television show, The 700 ClubIn 1956 Robertson found
his faith through Dutch missionary Cornelius Vanderbreggen, who impressed
Robertson both by his lifestyle and his message. Vanderbreggen quoted Proverbs
(3:5, 6), "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own
understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths",
which Robertson considers to be the "guiding principle" of his life. Soon
afterwards, he 'spoke in tongues' for the first time. He was ordained as a
minister of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1961.
In 1960, Robertson established the Christian Broadcasting Network in Virginia
Beach, Virginia. He started it by buying a small UHF station in nearby
Portsmouth. It is now seen in 180 countries and broadcast in 71 languages. In
1977, he founded the CBN Cable Network, which was renamed the CBN Family Channel
in 1988 and later simply the Family Channel. When the Family Channel became too
profitable for Robertson to keep it under the CBN umbrella without endangering
CBN's nonprofit status, he formed International Family Entertainment, Inc. in
1990 with the Family Channel as its main subsidiary. Robertson sold the Family
Channel to the News Corporation in 1997, which renamed it Fox Family. A
condition of the sale was that the station would continue airing Robertson's
television program, The 700 Club, twice a day in perpetuity, regardless of any
changes of ownership. The channel is now owned by Disney and run under the ABC
Family title.
Robertson founded CBN University in 1977 on CBN's Virginia Beach campus. It was
renamed Regent University in 1989. Robertson serves as its chancellor. He is
also founder and president of the American Center for Law and Justice, a public
interest law firm that defends Christians whose First Amendment rights have
supposedly been violated. The law firm, headquartered in the same building that
houses Regent's law school, focuses on "pro-family, pro-liberty and pro-life"
cases nationwide.
1988 presidential bid
In September, 1986, Robertson announced his intention to seek the Republican
nomination for President of the United States. Robertson said he would pursue
the nomination only if three million people signed up to volunteer for his
campaign by September, 1987. Three million responded, and by the time Robertson
announced he'd be running in September 1987, he also had raised millions of
dollars for his campaign fund. He surrendered his ministerial credentials and
turned leadership of CBN over to his son, Tim. However, his campaign against
incumbent Vice President George H. W. Bush was seen as a longshot.
Robertson ran on a very conservative platform. Among his policies, he wanted to
ban pornography, reform the education system, eliminate Conrail and Amtrak, and
eliminate departments such as the Department of Education and the Department of
Energy. He also supported a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced
federal budget.
During the presidential primary election season started in early 1988,
Robertson's campaign was attacked because of a statement he had made about his
military service. In his campaign literature, he stated he was a combat Marine
who served in the Korean War. Other Marines in his battalion contradicted
Robertson's version, claiming he had never spent a day in a combat environment.
Instead of fighting in the war, Robertson's primary responsibility was supplying
alcoholic beverages for his officers. (see Education and military service)
Robertson's campaign got off to a strong second-place finish in the Iowa caucus,
ahead of Bush.[4]
Robertson did poorly in the subsequent New Hampshire primary, however, and was
unable to be competitive once the multiple-state primaries began. Robertson
ended his campaign before the primaries were finished; his best finish was in
Washington. He later spoke at the 1988 Republican National Convention in New
Orleans and told his remaining supporters to cast their votes for Bush, who
ended up winning the nomination and the election. He then returned to CBN and
has remained there as a religious broadcaster, since then, even though he never
renewed his ministerial credentials.
Books
Robertson's books have been very successful and well-selling. The Secret
Kingdom, Answers to 100 of Life's Most Probing Questions, and The New World
Order were each in their respective year of publication the number one religious
book in America.
Business interests
He is the founder and chairman of The Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) Inc.,
and founder of International Family Entertainment Inc., Regent University,
Operation Blessing International Relief and Development Corporation, American
Center for Law and Justice, The Flying Hospital, Inc. and several other
organizations and broadcast entities. Robertson was the founder and co-chairman
of International Family Entertainment Inc. (IFE). Formed in 1990, IFE produced
and distributed family entertainment and information programming worldwide.
IFE's principal business was The Family Channel, a satellite delivered
cable-television network with 63 million U.S. subscribers. IFE, a publicly held
company listed on the New York Stock Exchange, was sold in 1997 to Fox Kids
Worldwide, Inc. for $1.9 billion. Disney acquired the Fox Family Channel in 2001
and named it ABC Family.
He is a global businessman with media holdings in Asia, the United Kingdom, and
Africa. He is the nation's number three cable operator, behind Ted Turner and
HBO. Politicians know him as the founder of the 1.7 million member Christian
Coalition, one of the largest and most powerful lobbying groups in the United
States. He struck a deal with Pittsburgh, PA-based GNC to produce and market a
weight-loss shake he created and promoted on the 700 Club TV show.
In 1999, Robertson entered into a joint venture with the Bank of Scotland to
provide financial services in the United States. However the move was met with
criticsm in the UK due to Robertson's views on homosexuality. After Robertson
commented that Scotland was "a dark land overrun by homosexuals", the Bank of
Scotland cancelled the venture.
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