Thursday, April 3, 2008

Robertson's empire

Virginia Quarterly Review presents "The Christian With Four Aces", a Pat Robertson bio piece. Very good. Interesting episode about his full-bore entry into politics -- after the death of his father.

To avoid the risk of alienating potential givers, Robertson’s one on-air rule was no discussion of politics. Even when Robertson’s father was running for reelection to the Senate in 1966, Robertson stayed decidedly out of the political arena. He later explained that God had told him not to get involved by campaigning for his father. “You cannot tie my eternal purpose to the success of any political candidate,” God said. Robertson insisted his role was to save souls and not to influence voters.

That political neutrality changed with two events—Watergate in 1972, and his father’s death in 1974; the first outraged him, and the second, perhaps, freed him to express that outrage. Robertson covered the Watergate scandal extensively on the network, repeatedly voicing his sense of betrayal and anger toward the White House. When Jimmy Carter—a fellow Baptist—ran for office, Robertson interviewed him and followed his campaign with great interest, but he soon grew dissatisfied by Carter as well. Eventually, as the Carter administration faltered, Robertson began to offer, to what he saw as the alienated Christian right, his own politics as an alternative.

So this is a key point, though it's hard to see how to interpret his relationship with his father without more details. Maybe there's a full-length bio about it.

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