Godless Guy 
For over 60 years, Pat Robertson was a prominent figure in the world of Christian media, leading the Christian Broadcasting Network and hosting its signature show, The 700 Club. While some may find amusement in the outlandish things he has said over the years, it is essential not to overlook the harm he has caused. This post delves into Pat Robertson’s controversial legacy and examines how his actions have contributed to the erosion of American civil society.
The Birth of Evangelical Media and the New World Order
Pat Robertson played a significant role in building and expanding the evangelical and fundamentalist alternative media ecosystem, launching the Christian Broadcasting Network long before Fox News Channel emerged. In 1991, he published a book that popularized New World Order conspiracy theories among evangelicals, contributing to the emergence of a post-truth political landscape where disinformation and conspiracy theories thrive.
Robertson’s Influence on American Politics
Robertson was a religious leader throughout his career and dabbled in politics. He founded an evangelical university, ran for president, and allegedly used humanitarian aid missions as fronts for questionable activities, as seen in the case of his diamond mining operation in Zaire under the oppressive rule of Mobutu Sese Seko. His influence has been instrumental in shaping the right-wing direction of the Republican Party.
Pat Robertson’s Anti-LGBTQ+ Rhetoric
One of Robertson’s most notorious and harmful stances was his relentless homophobia and transphobia. He made inflammatory comments, such as linking LGBTQ+ individuals and supporters of abortion rights to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. His harmful statements go beyond simple ignorance and have fueled discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community, perpetuating harmful stereotypes and misinformation.
The Danger of Robertson’s Influence
While some may dismiss Robertson as a clown, his harmful influence should not be underestimated. His views align with certain segments of American evangelicalism, which indoctrinates countless children in schools and through homeschooling. Robertson’s promotion of harmful ideologies has long-lasting consequences for democracy and human rights.
Here is my list of his top 12 worst:
1.Openly calling for the assassination of a foreign leader
In 2005, Robertson offhandedly remarked of then-Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, “If he thinks we’re trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it. It’s a whole lot cheaper than starting a war. And I don’t think any oil shipments will stop,” earning him a rebuke from then-US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld himself. His call for the US to assassinate Chavez is one of the remarks that public pressure eventually forced Robertson to walk back and apologize for.
2. Comments about hurricanes and “sin”
In 1998, Robertson had this to say to participants in Orlando’s Pride Festival, referring to rainbow flags: “I would warn Orlando that you’re right in the way of some serious hurricanes, and I don’t think I’d be waving those flags in God’s face if I were you.” In 2005, he also made some vague remarks on The 700 Club to the effect that legal abortion might have something to do with the prevalence of terrorist attacks and natural disasters.
3. Unfounded homophobic insinuations about judges and their clerks
When the Supreme Court overturned the federal Defense of Marriage Act in 2013, Robertson said the following to Christian Right lobbyist Jay Sekulow, who would later attain infamy as one of Donald Trump’s lawyers: “Jay, let me ask you about Anthony Kennedy, does he have some clerks who happen to be gays?” DOMA had defined marriage for federal purposes as the union of one man and one woman. Sekulow said he had “no idea.” Robertson’s insinuation was aggressively provocative but still pretty standard Robertson fare. In the same exchange with Sekulow, Robertson had some thoughts on overturning California’s Prop 8—a state ban on same-sex marriage that passed via ballot proposition in 2008—being overturned by a district court in 2013. (The Supreme Court allowed the district court’s ruling to stand.) Said Robertson to Sekulow, “I understand the district court judge there either was an advocate of homosexual activity or was a homosexual, had a wife. There was some connection. Can you elucidate that?”
4. Everything Robertson has ever said about Muslims and Islam
Robertson’s history of bigoted anti-Muslim comments dates to well before 2001. Still, after the September 11 attacks, he became more caustic in his anti-Islam bias, a general trend seen in the evangelical subculture. In 2005, Robertson claimed that Christian terrorism “just doesn’t happen” and asserted of Muslims that “those who believe [Islam] sincerely in their hearts are those that think Osama bin Laden is their great hero. And I think we need to recognize that.” In 2009, he brought back Cold War-era “domino theory,” replacing Communists with Muslims. “Islam is a violent—I was going to say religion—but it’s not a religion. It’s a political system. (It’s definitely a religion) It’s a violent political system bent on the overthrow of governments of the world and world domination,” adding, “I think you should treat it as such and treat its adherents as such. As we would members of the Communist party and members of some Fascist group.” In 2012, a viewer wrote in to The 700 Club to ask what he could do about his wife having “no respect for me as head of the house.” Without missing a beat, Robertson replied, “Well, you could become a Muslim; then you could beat her.” It’s clear from the video that he found his “joke” quite amusing.
5. Robertson’s definition of feminism
In a 1992 Christian Coalition fundraising letter, Robertson made feminism sound epic by describing it as follows: “The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians.” Alrighty, Pat.
6. Calling non-Christians “termites” who don’t belong in government
In his 1991 book The New World Order, Robertson wrote, “When I said during my presidential bid that I would bring only Christians and Jews into the government, I hit a firestorm. What do you mean? The media challenged me. Are you not going to bring atheists into the government? How dare you maintain that those who believe in Christian values are better qualified to govern America than Hindus and Muslims? My simple answer is, Yes, they are.” It’s telling that Robertson failed to add the faux-inclusive prefix “Judeo” to his call for Christian values in government. It is not, however, surprising, given that Robertson called non-Christians “termites” in 1986, claiming that “the great builders of our nation almost to a man have been Christians because Christians have the desire to build something. He [sic] is motivated by the love of man and God, so he builds. The people who have come into [our] institutions [today] are primarily termites. They are into destroying institutions that have been built by Christians, whether it is universities, governments, our own traditions…” He added chillingly, “The termites are in charge now, and that is not the way it ought to be, and the time has arrived for a godly fumigation.”
7. Calling for terrorism against the US State Department
Robertson, in 2003, suggested that a little good old-fashioned terrorism might improve US foreign policy: “Maybe we need a very small nuke thrown off on Foggy Bottom to shake things up like Newt Gingrich wants to do.”
8. Haiti’s “Pact with the devil”
Tell me you’re racist without telling me you’re racist. That’s what Pat Robertson did after Haiti’s devastating earthquake in 2010, which Robertson attributed to a “curse” tied to the malevolent spiritual forces with the help of which, he assured 700 Club viewers, enslaved Haitians overthrew their French colonizers in a late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century revolution. The clear subtext is that people of African descent couldn’t possibly have fought for and gained their independence without some help from Satan himself. This one is worth quoting at length:
“And, you know, Kristi, something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it. They were under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon III [sic] and whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, ‘We will serve you if you will get us free from the French.’ True story. And so, the devil said, ‘OK, it’s a deal.’ And they kicked the French out. You know, the Haitians revolted and got themselves free. But ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other. Desperately poor. That island of Hispaniola is one island. It’s cut down the middle. On the one side is Haiti; on the other side is the Dominican Republic. The Dominican Republic is prosperous, healthy, full of resorts, et cetera. Haiti is in desperate poverty. Same island. They need to have, and we need to pray for them a great turning to God. And out of this tragedy, I’m optimistic something good may come. But right now, we’re helping the suffering people, and the suffering is unimaginable.”
9. Nazis Were Gay, Feminists Are Witches
In 1990, Robertson claimed that many of the supporters of Adolf Hitler were gay, when in fact, Hitler and his Nazi government persecuted LGBTQ+ people, especially gay men, sending many to concentration camps. On The 700 Club, he said homosexuality “is a pathology,” he continued, “It is a sickness, and it needs to be treated. Many of those people involved with Adolf Hitler were Satanists; many of them were homosexuals. The two things seem to go together.” A fundraising letter sent out under his signature in 1992 included this language: “The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians.” As if being a lesbian or a witch is a bad thing.
10. Gays Cause Natural Disasters, Terrorist Attacks, and Nuclear War
In 1998, as Disney World in Florida was hosting Gay Days, Robertson said Orlando was inviting hurricanes, earthquakes, terrorism, “and possibly a meteor” by allowing the display of rainbow flags. “I would warn Orlando that you’re right in the way of some serious hurricanes, and I don’t think I’d be waving those flags in God’s face if I were you,” he said. However, none of those catastrophes happened. Then in 2001, he and fellow homophobic televangelist Jerry Falwell joined in blaming gays, abortion, and liberalism in general for 9/11. “I really believe that the pagans and the abortionists and the feminists and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America, I point the finger in their face and say, ‘You helped this happen,’” Falwell said as a guest on The 700 Club. Robertson replied, “I totally concur, and the problem is we have adopted that agenda at the highest levels of our government.” Within a few days, Falwell apologized for the comment, and Robertson issued a statement saying he did not fully understand Falwell’s remark and calling it “severe and harsh in tone.” But Robertson obviously hadn’t had a change of heart. In 2016, when 49 people were killed at Pulse, an LGBTQ+ nightclub in Orlando, by a shooter who’d pledged allegiance to a radical form of Islam, he said the nation should just let LGBTQ+ people and Muslims kill each other. “The left is having a dilemma of major proportions, and I think for those of us who disagree with some of their policies, the best thing to do is to sit on the sidelines and let them kill themselves,” he said. Three years later, he said the Equality Act, a sweeping LGBTQ+ rights bill, could bring nuclear war if passed. (It passed.) “This is a devastating blow to religious freedom and to the sanctity of America,” he said. “If you want to bring the judgment of God on this nation, you just keep this stuff up. … I think God will say, ‘I’ve had it with America; if you do this kind of stuff, I’m going to get rid of you as a nation.’” He went on to warn of “the potential of atomic war” and the possibility of an attack on the nation’s electric grid.
11. AIDS Crisis Fueled by Rings and Towels
Robertson made many bizarre and false statements about AIDS and the virus that causes it, HIV. In 2013, he claimed gay men in cities such as San Francisco would deliberately infect others with HIV by wearing rings that cut other people when they shook hands. “Really, it’s vicious stuff, which would be the equivalent of murder,” he said on The 700 Club. He reiterated the remark in a statement released a few days later. “In my own experience,” he said, “our organization sponsored a meeting years ago in San Francisco where trained security officers warned me about shaking hands because, in those days, certain AIDS-infected activists were deliberately trying to infect people like me by virtue of rings which would cut fingers and transfer blood. I regret that my remarks had been misunderstood, but this often happens because people do not listen to the context of remarks which are being said. In no [way] were my remarks meant as an indictment of the homosexual community or, for that fact, to those infected with this dreadful disease.” Whatever, Pat.
The following year, he advised a missionary worried about contracting the Ebola virus in Kenya to be more concerned about HIV and AIDS — and using towels. “You might get AIDS in Kenya,” Robertson said. “The people have AIDS. You gotta be careful. I mean, the towels could have AIDS. There are things — there are diseases in Africa.”
12. Transgender Equality Will Bring Nuclear War Too
In 2016, Robertson said advancing the rights of transgender people is somehow taking the nation’s attention away from the threat of nuclear war. He voiced concerns (likely overstated) about Iran developing nuclear weapons, then said, “We are facing thermonuclear annihilation and what are we debating in America? What are we debating? Where a little kid goes to the potty. I mean, this is nuts, absolutely nuts. It is crazy.” He added, “For the United States of America to put the power of the federal government and all of its money and resources behind this transgender movement, it is just nothing short of insanity.” In the same episode of The 700 Club, he claimed the acceptance of trans people has come about because women are serving in combat and are no longer considered “the weaker sex.” In 2013, he had surprisingly said he doesn’t consider being trans a sin. “I think there are men who are in a woman’s body,” he said. “It’s very rare, but it’s true. Or women that are in men’s bodies. And they want a sex change. And that is a very permanent thing, believe me, when you have certain body parts amputated, and you have shot up with various kinds of hormones, it’s a radical procedure. I don’t think there’s any sin associated with that — I don’t condemn somebody for doing that.” However, later the same year, he likened trans women to gelded horses, saying they weren’t really women but just less aggressive men.
Conclusion
Pat Robertson’s long history of ignorance is not merely an amusing anecdote but a testament to the dangerous power of misinformation and bigotry. From conspiracy theories to harmful remarks about marginalized communities, his legacy should serve as a warning of the impact of extreme ideologies on civil society. Robertson finally left this world at age 93. Still, it is crucial to remember his destructive impact and to challenge intolerance wherever it rears its head.
I’m all for laughing at delusional Christian theocrats. But we must take them seriously as a threat to democracy and human rights. CBN was given an unusual degree of access to Trump during his presidency, and Robertson supported Trump in 2020 (of course). While Pat himself will no longer be a fixture in the American public sphere from now on, his destructive influence will be long-lasting. One of the chief reasons televangelist Pat Robertson will be remembered is his long record of anti-LGBTQ+ statements.
May he Rest In Piss.
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