Robertson steps down as coalition falters

Christian Century, Dec 19, 2001

With the resignation of religious broadcaster M. G. "Pat" Robertson from the presidency of the Christian Coalition, some critics are writing the end of the organization that mobilized millions of evangelicals for conservative politics in the 1990s. A number of prominent staffers had already departed, starting with the articulate executive director Ralph Reed a few years ago. The group has seen its budget drop sharply.

"The Christian Coalition has been a sinking ship for several years, and now the captain's jumped overboard," said Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. "Without Robertson's money and political clout, it's only a matter of time before the organization collapses outright."

Robertson, who will turn 72 in March, said he wanted to devote more time to ministry, to spirituality and to the Christian Broadcasting Network, of which he is chairman. The time is right "with the few years left to me of active service" to focus on the things that would "bring forth the greatest spiritual benefit," he said in his December 5 announcement.

Besides his work with the network he founded in 1960, he will continue humanitarian efforts with Operation Blessing, a relief organization he began, and his role as chancellor of Regent University, a graduate school he started on the same campus with CBN in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

The son of a onetime U.S. senator, Robertson ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 1988, which was eventually captured by George W. Bush's father. Under increasing pressure during the primary campaign about his charismatic religious views and his status as an ordained minister, Robertson vacated his clergy credentials (only to be reordained in the spring of 2000). Having failed to win the GOP nomination, Robertson founded the Christian Coalition in 1989 with an emphasis on regional and local chapters and voters guides on moral issues that critics said invariably favored conservative candidates.

"Without us, I do not believe that George Bush would be sitting in the White House or that Republicans would be in control of the U.S. House of Representatives," said Robertson. He said he could step down with the knowledge that "we are seeing an outpouring of revival power in the United States that exceeds anything that I have known in my lifetime."

Randall Balmer, who teaches U.S. religious history at Barnard College and Columbia University in New York City, said that given Robertson's love of public attention, it was doubtful Americans had seen the last of the broadcaster's participation in American politics. "Anybody who underestimated Pat Robertson as a political force," he said, "did so at their own peril."

Robertson's successor at the Christian Coalition, Roberta Combs, said Robertson's vision to give Christians "a seat at the table was the inspiration for millions who are now in their communities actively defending America's godly heritage."

C. Welton Gaddy, executive director of the liberal Interfaith Alliance, a group formed in 1994, said, "The Religious Right in this nation is much bigger than any one person." It is a "broad-based movement that has power centers in the U.S. government itself," Gaddy said. "I think [Robertson] feels an administration is in place and at least one branch of Congress in place that carry his agenda." --ENI