Televangelist Pat Robertson, the founder of Christian Broadcasting Network, recently passed away at the age of 93. With his daily show, The 700 Club, Robertson attracted over a million conservative Christian viewers. Robertson’s enormous influence on American politics has been discussed by scholars and authors in the past several years. He sought the Republican nomination for president in 1988 and was part of the Moral Majority founded by Jerry Falwell in 1979, which came to represent the Religious Right. Robertson’s evangelical school, originally known as the Christian Broadcasting Network University, was established in Virginia Beach in 1977 and changed its name to Regent University in 1990.
Many conservative Christian leaders, including Robertson, James Dobson, Tim LaHaye, and Phyllis Shlafly, aligned with the Moral Majority to have an impact on American politics. USC Dornsife scholar Richard Flory wrote that the group supported legislation for traditional family values, prayer in schools, opposition to LGBT rights, and other conservative issues. Robertson’s comments on his show have often been controversial and racially insensitive, such as when he compared gay people to thieves and murderers.
Christian nationalism and its influence were discussed by scholar Samuel Perry at the time of the January 6, 2021, US Capitol attack. Many Christian symbols were present that day as a sign of Christian nationalism’s reach. Perry noted that this type of nationalism, which suggests that Christians risk suppression unless they control the state, has been promoted by evangelical Christian media, including Christian radio stations. Perry also noted Robertson’s blending of politics and religion, which can contribute to conflating Christian identity with American identity.
Jason Bruner, a scholar at Arizona State University, wrote how Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network has been highly influential among evangelicals. Christian media has played a role in shaping world news and information through a Christian viewpoint since the 19th century. Christian missionary publications served as informal foreign correspondents for a broadly Christian public in the eastern United States and Western Europe, raising issues such as the genocide against Assyrian and Armenian Christians in the eastern Ottoman Empire and the Belgian king’s brutal reign. Robertson’s network has continued this tradition of creating a global Christian identity through knowledge production, leaving an enormous impact on both religion and politics in the US.
Robertson, despite his passing, leaves behind a legacy of combining religion and politics that has become a significant feature of American politics today.
