It is a great loss for conservative American evangelical circles. The famous televangelist Pat Robertson died Thursday at the age of 93, after having contributed to the rise of the religious right on the American political scene. He stood out for his often extreme positions, tried his luck in politics and founded a Christian media empire. 20 minutes returns to this figure of the American far right, who founded the Christian Coalition fiercely opposed to abortion.
A Christian media empire
His death was announced by the television channel The Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), which he founded in 1960 and on which he hosted for years an ultra-conservative daily program The 700 club which was widely followed around the world.
Pat Robertson “television presenter, educator, humanitarian and former presidential candidate, died at his Virginia Beach residence early Thursday morning,” she wrote in a statement without specifying the causes. of his death. In addition to the CBN channel, he had founded a media empire present in the publishing of books and videos in particular, which reported, according to the Washington Post, up to 300 million dollars a year.
extreme words
In a courteous, polite tone, he nevertheless aroused controversy with extremist remarks. In particular, he claimed in 2002, a year after the September 11 attacks, that Muslims were worse than Nazis. In 2003, he aroused the disapproval of the State Department by suggesting: “Maybe we should launch a small nuclear bomb… to stir things up” on the diplomatic level. In 2005, he called for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, whom the televangelist accused of having financed Osama bin Laden. “You know (…) if he thinks we’re trying to assassinate him, I think we really should go and do it. It is cheaper than starting a war,” he said on his show.
The following year, Pat Robertson implied that Ariel Sharon owed his stroke to divine vengeance, before finally apologizing, reporting CNN at the time. “God feels enmity toward those who divide His land […] And to every Prime Minister of Israel who decides to cut it up and give it up, God says, “No, this is Mine.” Ariel Sharon was dividing the earth from God. »
Brief political adventure
The son of a congressman, Pat Robertson was one of the first evangelists to take religion out of the private sphere and put it at the heart of ultra-conservative, often radical political discourse. “Pat Robertson was a televangelist who knew politics well,” commented on Twitter Larry Sabato, professor of political science at the University of Virginia. He personally ventured into the electoral arena only once, in the 1988 presidential election, but failed to win the Republican nomination.
In 2016, Pat Robertson put his influence at the service of Donald Trump, helping this divorced billionaire to conquer evangelical voters. He distanced himself from it when the Republican denied his defeat in the 2020 presidential election against Democrat Joe Biden. “The president still lives in an alternate reality,” he said then. 2024 Republican primary candidate Nikki Haley on Thursday honored a man who “fought for America, and more importantly, for truth and faith.” »
A Christian coalition
But he founded the Christian Coalition, an organization known for its fierce opposition to abortion and its fight for prayer in schools, which in the 1990s became an essential political pressure group.
The Christian Coalition numbered nearly 4 million in 1994, according to the New York Times, but had lost half of its membership by the 2000s and much of its influence. He had also founded a Christian university, the CBN University renamed Regent University, in the State of Virginia, which provided many collaborators to the republican governments.