TV preacher Roberston undergoes surgery for prostate cancer

Church & State, Apr 2003

PEOPLE & EVENTS

TV preacher Pat Robertson claims the power to heal people from sickness and disease through faith alone, but he didn't take any chances when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer recently. Robertson availed himself of the best doctors his money could buy and promptly had surgery.

Robertson, who is 72, underwent surgery to remove a cancerous prostate Feb. 17. He recuperated for a week before returning as host of his "700 Club" program. He was declared cancer free after the surgery.

Although Robertson does not recommend that his followers refrain from consulting doctors or taking medicine, he emphasizes faith-healing in his broadcast ministry. His program and his books are full of stories of alleged miraculous recoveries from serious illness, although the details are often sketchy. In his 1984 book Answers to 200 of Life Most Probing Questions, Robertson writes about a man "who went to bed blind, but a prayer request came in to our television program for him, and when he woke up, he could see."

More recently, in his 2003 book Bring It On: Tough Questions, Candid Answers, Robertson writes about a man in Ghana whose leg was cut off at the knee. While attending a revival service, Robertson writes, "God brought faith in his heart, and miraculously, spontaneously, his leg began to grow, his foot and toes grew, his entire leg was restored like new!"

Less than a month after his surgery, Robertson and his son Gordon were on "The 700 Club" claiming to heal other types of cancers. On the March 13 show, Gordon Robertson announced that he had received a "word of knowledge" from God about a man preparing to receive surgery for cancer of the colon. The man had been fully healed, Gordon Robertson declared, and would no longer need the operation.

In other news about the Religious Right:

Focus on the Family leader James Dobson has launched a new program to recruit 50,000 pastors across the country. The effort, called The Shepherd's Covenant, is being coordinated by the Rev. H.B. London Jr., who runs pastoral ministries at Focus. It was officially launched during a Promise Keepers rally in Arizona in February.

London says the program will focus on keeping pastors accountable and lead them to renewal.

"We just become like robots," he said. "We just go from one day to the next, to one crisis to the next, and we don't really stop and let God's quiet voice speak to us at our need."