Marion Gordon (Pat) Robertson is the leading religious broadcaster in the U.S. His success has made him not only a television celebrity, but a successful media owner, a well known philanthropist and a respected Conservative spokesman. Born the patrician son of a Democratic senator, Robertson graduated from Yale Law School in 1958. Robertson experienced a religious conversion while running his own electronics company in New York, and became increasingly certain that God wanted him to buy a television station to spread the gospel. Robertson brought his family to Portsmouth Virginia in November 1959, with only $70 in his pocket, and a year later bought a $500,000 bankrupt UHF station in Portsmouth for a mere $37,000. He went on the air the following year with an evangelistic religious format. Robertson's decision to ask for 700 supporters to contribute $10 a month led to the 1963 birth of the 700 Club, his religious talk show. Robertson, an ordained minister of the Southern Baptist church, resigned his ordination in 1986 before his Presidential bid. Robertson has authored several books including The Secret Kingdom which contains his "Kingdom" principles for a healthy wealthy life.

Robertson can claim to have built the popularity of the religious talk-show format, a format that has proved consistently popular over the last thirty years. The 1995 version of the 700 Club talk-show is a mixture of news, in-depth feature reports on current ethical and moral issues like school prayer, the agenda of the New Christian Right, and Christian evangelism with a charismatic flavor. The program is an important indicator of what evangelicals and pentecostals believe about current moral and political issues.

Robertson was the first religious broadcaster to understand the importance of having his programs carried on a satellite transponder so that they could be down-loaded to the nation's 600, rising to 800, cable television systems, coast-to-coast. His cable audience was unexpectedly literate; the Annenberg/Gallup Survey of 1981 showed that one quarter of his audience had some college education, and that among religious broadcasts the 700 Club had the highest proportion of viewers between 30 and 50 (47%); the highest share in the Mid-West (40%) and the greatest number of viewers who regularly attend church.

In 1986 when Robertson celebrated CBN's 25th Anniversary he could thank God and satellite technology for a quarter century of remarkable growth. Thanks to his broadcasts, CBN's gift income was running in excess of $139 million a year; CBN's humanitarian arm Operation Blessing (founded 1978) was providing aid world wide, CBN University (founded 1978 and renamed Regent University in 1990) was a fully accredited graduate institution, and the now-defunct Freedom Council was promoting Conservative values. At this moment Robertson decided that he was to answer a higher call and run for the Presidency against Republican Vice-President George Bush. The press was mainly hostile, and major scandals in two unrelated religious television organizations fatally weakened his bid for the Republican nomination. When Robertson returned to the 700 Club in May 1988, donations had fallen by 40%. Major staff reductions solved the financial crisis, and slowly income returned to about 60% of the giving that had existed before the Presidential bid. Undismayed by political defeat and fiscal stringencies, Robertson founded the Christian Coalition, a political education organization (tax-code 503C4) in 1988, which grew to a one and half million membership by 1995.

With daily audiences for the 700 Club averaging one million households, Robertson's contribution to American broadcasting has been more influential than that of many other more popular talk-show hosts. Though not the founder of the Christian Right, he spearheaded a religious concern for Conservative values before Reagan, Bush and Gingrich made such concerns politically popular. His was the only religious broadcast to finance a Washington newsroom, and CBN has included a news element providing balance and objectivity since 1980. His programs, books and public speeches helped to unite supporters as varied as the traditional Southern Baptist and fundamentalist Christians, Pentecostal and charismatic churches. Unlike many Protestant evangelists, Robertson has always welcomed Catholic conservatives and attracted some Jewish supporters with his conservative viewpoints. Critical comment on his Conservative position against abortion, homosexuality and the Equal Rights Amendment and in favor of safeguarding religious liberties has come from the "People for the American Way", from the Jewish Anti-Defamation League, and from Gay and Homosexual organizations. The Christian Coalition grew in power and influence within the Republican party, and Robertson replaced the Rev Jerry Falwell as the voice of the Christian Right.

What will happen to CBN as Robertson begins to take less of an active role is uncertain, since no successor has been appointed. So large an organization with so many overseas outlets needs at least $100 million a year income to continue at its current level. Pat Robertson's combination of religious fervor and political rhetoric is unusual, and if he retires, there seems no-one else likely to replace him.

-Andrew Quicke

Pat Robertson
Photo courtesy of Broadcasting and Cable

PAT ROBERTSON. Born Marion Gordon Robertson in Lexington, Virginia, U.S., 22 March 1930. B.A., Washington and Lee University, 1950; J.D., Yale University, 1955; MDiv, New York Theological Seminary, 1959; ThD. (honorary), Oral Roberts University, 1983. Married: Adelia Elmer; children: Timothy, Elizabeth, Gordon and Ann. Founder, president of Christian Broadcasting Network, Virginia Beach, Virginia from 1960; ordained minister, Southern Baptist Convention, 1961-86; author of numerous books from 1972; on board of directors, National Broadcasters, from 1973; founded CBN (now Regents) University, 1977; president from 1977; started relief organization Operation Blessing, 1978; founder, president of Continental Broadcasting Network, from 1979; co-founded Freedom Council foundation, 1981; board of directors, United Virginia Bank, Norfolk; member, Presidential Task Force on Victims of Crime, Washington, D.C., 1982; candidate for Republican nomination for president of the U.S., 1988. Recipient: National Council of Christians and Jews Distinguished Merit citation; Knesset Medallion; Religious Heritage of America Faith and Freedom Award; Southern California Motion Picture Council Bronze Halo Award; Religion in Media's International Clergyman of the Year, 1981; International Committee for Goodwill's Man of the Year, 1981; Food for the Hungry Humanitarian Award, 1982; Freedoms Foundation George Washington Honor Medal, 1983. Address: The Christian Broadcasting Network, CBN Center, 1000 Centerville Turnpike, Virginia Beach, VA 23463.

TELEVISION SERIES

1968-- The 700 Club (host)

PUBLICATIONS (selection)

The Secret Kingdom. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982; "revised and expanded for the '90s." Dallas: Word, 1992.

Beyond Reason. New York: Morrow, 1984.

Answers to 200 of Life's Most Probing Questions. Virginia Beach, Virginia: CBN University Press, 1985.

America's Date with Destiny. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1986.

The New World Order. Dallas: Word, 1991.

The Turning Tide. Dallas: Word, 1993.

The End of the Age: A Novel. Dallas: Word, 1995.

FURTHER READING

Boston, Rob. The Most Dangerous Man in America?: Pat Robertson and the Rise of the Christian Coalition. Amherst, New York: Prometheus, 1996.

Donovan, John B. Pat Robertson: The Authorized Biography. New York: Macmillan; London: Collier Macmillan, 1988.

Harrow, David Edwin. Pat Robertson: A Personal, Religious, and Political Portrait. Harper and Row, 1987.

Hertzke, Allen D. Echoes of Discontent: Jesse Jackson, Pat Robertson, and the Resurgence of Populism. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Press, 1992.

Peck, Janice. The Gods of Televangelism. Crosskill, New Jersey: Hampton, 1993.

Straub, Gerard Thomas. Salvation for Sale: An Insider's View of Pat Robertson. Buffalo, New York: Prometheus, 1988.

See also Christian Broadcasting Network/The Family Channel; Religion on Television