Pat Robertson, founder of The Christian Broadcasting Network, has died at the age of 93.
His passing was announced on Thursday (June 8) by the Christian Broadcasting Network. A cause of death is yet to be made public, The Guardian reports.
Robertson, known for his 700 Club TV show, had a major hand in making religion central to Republican Party politics. He spoke on topics such as homosexuality and the teaching of evolution.
The TV personality started hosting the show in 1972 and retired from it in 2021 at the age of 91.
Robertson, who was previously a Southern Baptist minister and was also the son of a US senator, founded CBN in 1960. CBN was the first television network devoted to Christian broadcasting in the US.
CBN is one of the largest television ministries on the planet, as per Robertson's website, producing content in 200 countries and in 70 different languages.
As reported by the Daily Mail, after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people, Robertson claimed that God was ultimately responsible for the devastation due to his anger over the federal courts, adult films, abortion rights and church-state separation.
He described Islam as a violent religion, which prompted former President George W. Bush to distance himself from the controversial host.
He was born in Lexington, Virginia, on March 22, 1930. His father, Absalom Willis Robertson, served nearly forty years as a US Representative and Senator from Virginia.
Robertson served in the Korean War after he graduated from Virginia institution Washington and Lee University. He had a law degree from Yale following his service but failed the bar exam and ultimately did not attain a career in law.
Robertson met his wife, Adelia "Dede" Elmer at Yale in 1952, where she was pursuing a master's degree in nursing. They were married by a justice of the peace without any family present. They knew their parents would not support the marriage due to Robertson being a Southern Baptist and his wife being a Catholic.
In 1961, after he bought a bankrupt TV station in Portsmouth, Virginia, Robertson revived the Christian Broadcasting Network.
It was set up as a tax-exempt religious nonprofit, which still brings in hundreds of millions of dollars in "ministry support" each year.
His wife Dede, who he was married to for almost 70 years, passed away last year at the age of 94. They had four children, 14 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren together.
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