67 Facts About Pat Robertson

Marion Gordon "Pat" Robertson was an American media mogul, televangelist, political commentator, presidential candidate, and charismatic minister.

Pat Robertson was associated with the Charismatic movement within Protestant evangelicalism.

Pat Robertson served as head of Regent University and of the Christian Broadcasting Network.

Pat Robertson was a best-selling author and the host of The 700 Club, a Christian News and TV program broadcast live weekdays on Freeform from CBN studios, as well as on channels throughout the United States, and on CBN network affiliates worldwide.

The son of US Senator A Willis Robertson, Robertson was a Southern Baptist and was active as an ordained minister with that denomination for many years, but held to a charismatic theology not traditionally common among Southern Baptists.

Pat Robertson unsuccessfully campaigned to become the Republican nominee in the 1988 presidential election.

Pat Robertson remained a controversial figure, especially known for evangelical religiocentrism.

Marion Gordon Pat Robertson was born on March 22,1930, in Lexington, Virginia, into a prominent political family, the younger of two sons.

Pat Robertson's parents were Absalom Willis Robertson, a conservative Democratic Senator, and Gladys Churchill, a housewife and a musician.

At a young age, Robertson was nicknamed 'Pat' by his six-year-old brother, Willis Robertson Jr.

Later, Pat Robertson thought about which first name he would like people to use.

When he was eleven, Pat Robertson was enrolled in the preparatory McDonogh School outside Baltimore, Maryland.

Pat Robertson was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, the nation's most prestigious academic honor society.

In 1948, the draft was reinstated and Pat Robertson was given the option of joining the US Marine Corps or being drafted into the US Army; he opted for the former.

Pat Robertson was promoted to First Lieutenant in 1952 upon his return to the United States.

Pat Robertson then went on to receive a law degree from Yale Law School in 1955, near the top of his class.

Pat Robertson became a born again Christian while having dinner at a restaurant in Philadelphia with author and World War II veteran, Cornelius Vanderbreggen.

In 1956, Pat Robertson met Dutch missionary Cornelius Vanderbreggen, who impressed Pat Robertson both with his lifestyle and his message.

In 1960, Pat Robertson established the Christian Broadcasting Network in Virginia Beach, Virginia, by buying the license of a defunct UHF station in nearby Portsmouth.

The network became known for producing the long-running TV series The 700 Club, starting in 1966, which Pat Robertson served as a long time co-host.

The venture became extremely lucrative, so Pat Robertson spun off The Family Channel as a commercial entity that was sold to News Corporation for $1.9 billion in 1997.

Pat Robertson announced his retirement at the age of 91 from The 700 Club in October 2021, on the sixtieth anniversary of the first telecast on October 1,1961, of what eventually became CBN.

Pat Robertson founded CBN University, a private Christian university, in 1977 on CBN's Virginia Beach campus.

In 1994, in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide, Pat Robertson solicited donations to provide medical supplies to refugees in neighboring Zaire, where Pat Robertson had exploratory diamond mining operations.

Pat Robertson was the founder and chairman of The Christian Broadcasting Network Inc.

Pat Robertson was the founder and co-chairman of International Family Entertainment Inc.

Pat Robertson was a global businessman with media holdings in Asia, the United Kingdom, and Africa.

Pat Robertson struck a deal with Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based General Nutrition Center to produce and market a weight-loss shake he created and promoted on The 700 Club.

In 1999, Pat Robertson entered into a joint venture with the Bank of Scotland to provide financial services in the United States.

The Bank was forced to cancel the deal when Pat Robertson described Scotland as a "dark land overrun by homosexuals".

On February 4,2010, at his war crimes trial in the Hague, Taylor testified that Pat Robertson was his main political ally in the US, while Pat Robertson has denied ever meeting or speaking to Charles Taylor.

Pat Robertson's gelding named Tappat won the 1999 Walter Haight Handicap at Laurel Park and the 2000 Pennsylvania Governor's Cup Handicap at Penn National Race Course.

Pat Robertson was nominated for, but did not run in, the 2000 Kentucky Derby.

Pat Robertson was a past president of the Council for National Policy.

Pat Robertson was a governing member of the Council for National Policy and served on its Board of Governors in 1982, was the President of its Executive Committee from 1985 to 1986, and a member in 1984,1988, and 1998.

On November 7,2007, Pat Robertson announced that he was endorsing Rudy Giuliani to be the Republican nominee in the 2008 Presidential election.

Pat Robertson appeared in a commercial with Al Sharpton, joking about this, and urging people to join the We Can Solve It campaign against global warming.

In January 2009, on a broadcast of The 700 Club, Pat Robertson stated that he was "adamantly opposed" to the division of Jerusalem between Israel and the Palestinians.

Pat Robertson repeatedly called for the legalization of cannabis, saying that it should be treated in a manner analogous to the regulation of alcoholic beverages and tobacco.

In September 1986, Pat Robertson announced his intention to seek the Republican nomination for President of the United States.

Pat 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 Pat Robertson announced he would be running in September 1987, he had raised millions of dollars for his campaign fund.

Pat Robertson surrendered his ministerial credentials and turned leadership of CBN over to his son, Tim.

Pat Robertson ran on a standard conservative platform, and as a candidate he embraced the same policies as Ronald Reagan: lower taxes, a balanced budget, and a strong defense.

Pat Robertson's campaign achieved a strong second-place finish in the Iowa caucuses, ahead of Bush.

Pat Robertson did poorly in the subsequent New Hampshire primary and was unable to be competitive once the multiple-state primaries began.

In 1954, Pat Robertson married Adelia "Dede" Elmer, a fashion model and beauty queen in the Miss Ohio State contest, who was studying for her masters in nursing at Yale University.

Pat Robertson had been a nursing student at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.

On February 2,2018, Pat Robertson suffered an embolic stroke at his home in Virginia Beach.

Pat Robertson was then taken to the nearest stroke center where he was administered the clot-busting drug tPA.

Pat Robertson was responsive, awake, and moving all of his limbs about eighty minutes after his stroke began.

Pat Robertson was discharged two days later and recovered at home.

Pat Robertson resumed his hosting duties on The 700 Club on February 12,2018.

In June 2019, Pat Robertson was absent from The 700 Club for several days after he broke three ribs in a fall.

On June 8,2023, Pat Robertson died at his home in Virginia Beach, Virginia, at the age of 93.

Pat Robertson denounced left-wing views of feminism, activism regarding homosexuality, abortion, and liberal college professors.

Critics claim Pat Robertson had business dealings in Africa with former president of Liberia and convicted war criminal Charles Taylor, and former Zaire president Mobutu Sese Seko, both of whom had been globally denounced for claims of human rights violations.

Pat Robertson was criticized worldwide for his call for Hugo Chavez's assassination, and for his remarks concerning Ariel Sharon's ill health as an act of God.

Less than two weeks after Hurricane Katrina killed 1,836 people, Pat Robertson implied on the September 12,2005, broadcast of The 700 Club that the storm was God's punishment in response to America's abortion policy.

In 2006, Pat Robertson claimed to have leg pressed 2,000 lbs three years earlier at the age of 73.

In 2009, Pat Robertson said that Islam is "a violent political system bent on the overthrow of the governments of the world and world domination".

Pat Robertson went on to elaborate that "you're dealing with not a religion, you're dealing with a political system, and I think we should treat it as such, and treat its adherents as such as we would members of the communist party, members of some fascist group".

Pat Robertson claimed that Haiti's founders had sworn a "pact to the Devil" in order to liberate themselves from the French slave owners and indirectly attributed the earthquake to the consequences of the Haitian people being "cursed" for doing so.

CBN later issued a statement saying that Pat Robertson's comments "were based on the widely-discussed 1791 slave rebellion led by Dutty Boukman at Bois Caiman, where the slaves allegedly made a famous pact with the devil in exchange for victory over the French".

In March 2015, Pat Robertson compared Buddhism to a disease on The 700 Club.

In October 2003, Pat Robertson was interviewed by author Joel Mowbray about his book Dangerous Diplomacy, a book critical of the United States Department of State.

Pat Robertson said that Americans could change American diplomacy by ridding America of a large part of the State Department.