The founder of Christian Broadcasting Network and one-time presidential candidate was for decades a leading voice in Evangelical and conservative circles.
Pat Robertson passed away this morning at his home in Virginia Beach, VA, at the age of 93. Having founded Christian Broadcasting Network in 1960 and launched the 700 Club talk show on the channel six years later, he will ever be remembered among those who were in the vanguard of early faith-based television in the United States.
Born Marion Gordon Robertson in 1930 - Pat was a nickname given to him by an older brother - he would graduate from Yale law school with an eye toward joining New York's high society. That changed, however, after he became a Christian in the 1950s and felt God's call to television ministry. He moved with his wife, Dede, and their children to Virginia, purchased a TV station and launched CBN.
A political conservative whose father had been a U.S senator, Roberston himself ran for president in 1988 as a Republican. While he failed to win the party's nomination, which went to George H.W. Bush, he did manage a surprisingly good second-place finish in the Iowa caucuses. His interests were not confined to just broadcasting and politics either: in 1977 he even founded a Christian college - Regent University in Virginia - in the hopes that it would produce "Christian leadership to change the world," as its motto states.
But it was through his television channel that Robertson had his most far-reaching impact, being featured continuously on air from CBN's founding until his retirement in late 2021, after nearly 60 years of broadcasting and just months before the death of his wife. Robertson leaves behind four adult children, 14 grandchildren and 24 great grandchildren and we at Christian Film Blog lift them up in prayer at this time of their bereavement.
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