# Pat Robertson

Marion Gordon "Pat" Robertson (March 22, 1930 – June 8, 2023) was an American media mogul, televangelist, political commentator, former Republican presidential candidate, and former Southern Baptist minister. Robertson advocated a conservative Christian ideology and was known for his activities in Republican party politics. He was associated with the Charismatic Movement within Protestant evangelicalism. He served as chancellor and CEO of Regent University and chairman of the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN). He appearsed daily on The 700 Club, CBN's flagship television program.

## Quotes

* That guy was a homo — as sure as you're alive.
** Robertson describing a caller during his appearance on the Larry King Show (Windows Media Video)
* Just like what Nazi Germany did to the Jews, so liberal America is now doing to the evangelical Christians! It's no different! It is the same thing! It is happening all over again! It is the Democratic Congress, the liberal-based media and the homosexuals who want to destroy the Christians! Wholesale abuse and discrimination and the worst bigotry directed toward any group in America today! More terrible than anything suffered by any minority in history! … And it is happening here and now! Same thing, but directed against Christians by the liberal government and media! Send money today or these liberals will be putting Christians like you and me in concentration camps!
** quoted in Ivins, Molly (15 September 1993), "Toss (some of 'em) to the lions", The Tuscaloosa News: 6A
* [After Ariel Sharon's severe stroke] Ladies and Gentlemen I said last year that Israel was entering into the most dangerous periods of its entire existence as a nation. That is intensifying this year with the loss of Sharon. Sharon was personally a very likeable person, and I am sad to see him in this condition, but I think we need to look at the Bible and the Book of Joel. The prophet Joel makes it very clear that God has enmity against those who "divide my land." God considers this land to be His. You read the Bible and He says "this is my land" and for any Prime Minister of Israel who decides he is going to carve it up and give it away, God says "no, this is mine." I had a wonderful meeting with Yitzhak Rabin in 1974. He was tragically assassinated, it was a terrible thing that happened but nevertheless he was dead. And now Ariel Sharon who again was a very likeable person, a delightful person to be with, I prayed with him personally, but here he's at the point of death. He was dividing God's land and I would say woe unto any Prime Minister of Israel who takes a similar course to appease the EU, the United Nations, or the United States of America. God says "this land belongs to me. You'd better leave it alone."
** (2006)
* 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." — 1992 Iowa fundraising letter opposing a state equal-rights amendment ("Equal Rights Initiative in Iowa Attacked", Washington Post, 23 August 1992); it is sometimes claimed that this statement appeared in Robertson's 1992 GOP convention speech, but this is not the case (see also transcript)
* "If I could just get a nuclear device inside Foggy Bottom, I think that's the answer." (talking about the United States State Department)
* "If you go all the way back to the days just following creation, men lived nine hundred years or more." — Answers to 200 of Life's most Probing Questions
* "It is clear that God is saying, 'I gave man dominion over the earth, but he lost it. Now I desire mature sons and daughters who will in My name exercise dominion over the earth and subdue Satan, the unruly, the rebellious. Take back My world from those who would loot it and abuse it. Rule as I would rule.'" — The Secret Kingdom
* "I'm not necessarily saying it's going to be nuclear. The Lord didn't say nuclear. But I do believe it will be something like that." -- Pat Robertson, speaking about an upcoming "mass killing," on The 700 Club January 2, 2007
    One justice is 83 years old, another has cancer, and another has a heart condition. Would it not be possible for God to put it in the minds of these three judges that the time has come to retire?" — Letter on the Pat Robertson website posted in 2003
* [Planned Parenthood] "is teaching kids to fornicate, teaching people to have adultery, every kind of bestiality, homosexuality, lesbianism – everything that the Bible condemns." (The 700 Club, variously dated as 9 Apr. 1991 or 14 Jan. 1991).
* Presbyterians are "the spirit of the Antichrist." (Greg Palast, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, p. 239)
* "Satan is a tool of God's love in the sense that he forces us to see God's loving patience." — Answers to 200 of Life's most Probing Questions
* "The Islamic people, the Arabs, were the ones who captured Africans, put them in slavery, and sent them to America as slaves. Why would the people in America want to embrace the religion of slavers."
* "The media challenged me. `You're not going to bring atheists into the government? How dare you maintain that those who believe the Judeo-Christian values are better qualified to govern America than Hindus and Muslims?' My simple answer is, `Yes, they are.'"
* "They have kept us in submission because they have talked about separation of church and state. There is no such thing in the Constitution. It's a lie of the Left, and we're not going to take it anymore."
* "[Hugo Chávez is] going to make Venezuela a launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism all over the continent... he is an out-of-control dictator... a dangerous enemy to our south, controlling a huge pool of oil that could hurt us very badly."
* "We're importing Hinduism into America. The whole thought of your karma, of meditation, of the fact that there's no end of life and there's this endless wheel of life, this is all Hinduism. Chanting too. Many of those chants are to Hindu Gods — Vishnu, Hare Krishna. The origin of it is all demonic. We can't let that stuff come into America. We've got the best defense, if you will — a good offense."
* “You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if [President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela] 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. [...] We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability. We don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator. It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with.” — 22 August 2005, in a broadcast of his Christian Broadcasting Network's program, The 700 Club
* "You say you're supposed to be nice to the Episcopalians and the Presbyterians and the Methodists and this, that, and the other thing. Nonsense, I don't have to be nice to the spirit of the Antichrist." — Pat Robertson, The 700 Club, January 14, 1991
* "I want to say it again, and again, and again: Islam is not a religion, it's a political system meant on — bent on world domination, not a religion. It masquerades as a religion, but the religion covers a worldwide attempt to exercise power and to subjugate the world into their way of thinking."
* They were under the heel of the French, you know Napoleon the third 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 prince.' True story. And so the devil said, 'Ok it’s a deal.' And they kicked the French out. The Haitians revolted and got themselves free. But ever since they have been cursed by one thing after another.
** The 700 Club, January 13, 2010, discussing the 12 Jan 2010 7.0 earthquake in Haiti (see 2010 Haiti earthquake)
* What is this "mac and cheese"? Is that a black thing?
** The 700 Club, CBN, 23 November 2011 , quoted in "Quoted: Pat Robertson on Condi Rice’s mysterious Thanksgiving dish", The Reliable Source (Washington Post), 23 November 2011
** after an interview segment where guest Condoleezza Rice named it as her favorite Thanksgiving dish
* "People who are atheists, they hate God, they hate the expression of God, and they are angry with the world, angry with themselves, angry with society and they take it out on innocent people who are worshiping God. And whether it's a Sikh temple, or a Baptist church, or a Catholic church, or a Muslim mosque – whatever it is – I just abhor this kind of violence, and it's the kind of thing that we should do something about. But what do you do?"
** The 700 Club, CBN, 6 August 2012 , quoted in "Quoted: Pat Robertson Links 'Hate' of God to Wis. Sikh Temple Shooting", CP U.S. (The Christian Post), 6 August 2012
* Pat Robertson: He's going to have a second term. He's going to win. Romney will win the election. Benny Hinn: You believe that. Pat Robertson: I absolutely believe that. Benny Hinn: What makes you believe that? Pat Robertson: 'Cause the Lord told me.
** This Is Your Day, 31 October 2012, 10:47 , quoted in Tashman, Brian (9 May 2013), "Pat Robertson, Who Said 'The Lord Told Me' that 'Romney Will Win,' Urges Viewers to Beware False Prophets", Right Wing Watch
** Regarding 2012 US presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
* So, can demonic spirits attach themselves to inanimate objects? The answer is yes. But I don't think every sweater you get from Goodwill has demons in it. But, in a sense, you're mother's just being super cautious, so hey, it isn't going to hurt you to rebuke any spirits that happen to have attached themselves to those clothes.
** The 700 Club, 25 February 2013 , quoted in "Colbert Report Consumer Alert - Demonic Goodwill Items", The Colbert Report, 28 February 2013
** Responding to letter asking "I buy a lot of clothes and other items at Goodwill and other second-hand shops. Recently my mom told me that I need to pray over the items, bind familiar spirits, and bless the items before I bring them into the house. Is my mother correct? Can demons attach themselves to material items?"
* God is going to supply a million dollars, somebody is praying right now, right this second, you’re praying for a million dollars and God said, "I have heard your prayer, I know your need, and I'm going to supply the need that you requested," it's done, in Jesus' name.
** The 700 Club, 28 February 2013 , quoted in Tashman, Brian (28 February 2013), "Pat Robertson's Prayers Can Make You A Millionaire", Right Wing Watch and Gryboski, Michael (1 March 2013), "Pat Robertson Claims God Will Give One of His Viewers $1M", The Christian Post
* Those people overseas didn't go to Ivy League schools... Well, we're so sophisticated, we think we've got everything figured out. We know about evolution, we know about Darwin, we know about all these things that says God isn't real, we know about all this stuff. And if we've been in many schools, in the most advanced schools, we have been inundated with skepticism and secularism. And, uh, overseas they're simple, humble. You tell 'em God loves 'em and they say, "Okay, he loves me". You say God will do miracles and they say, "Okay, we believe him". That's what God's looking for, that's why they have miracles.
** The 700 Club, 1 April 2013 , quoted in Tashman, Brian (1 April 2013), "Robertson: 'Simple' Foreigners More Likely to Experience Miracles than 'Sophisticated' Americans", Right Wing Watch
** Answering a viewer question from Ken: "Why do amazing miracles (people raised from the dead, blind eyes open, lame people walking) happen with great frequency in places like Africa, and not here in the USA?"
* You've got a couple of same-sex guys kissing, do you "like" that? Well, that makes me want to throw up. To me, I would punch "vomit" not "like", but they don't give you that option on Facebook.
** The 700 Club, 8 July 2013 , quoted in Tashman, Brian (8 July 2013), "Robertson: Facebook Should Have 'Vomit' Button for Pictures of Gay Couples", Right Wing Watch
** Answering a viewer question from Tyza: "When we "like" things on Facebook, if it's something that goes against what is written in the Bible—such as pictures of same sex couples—is that considered condoning the behavior?"
* I don't think there is any harm in it, but I tell you, there are demons and there are evil people in the world, and you post a picture like that and some cultist gets hold of it or a coven and they begin muttering curses against an unborn child. [...] You never know what somebody's going to do.
** The 700 Club, 16 February 2015 , quoted in Tashman, Brian (17 February 2015), "Pat Robertson: Satanic Covens Use Facebook To Curse Your Family", Right Wing Watch
** Answering a viewer question from Cynthia: "Young parents now regularly post fetal ultrasound photos as their Facebook photo. From a spiritual point of view is there any harm in doing this?"
* As far as God's concerned, he knows the end from the beginning and He sees a little baby and that little baby could grow up to be Adolf Hitler, he could grow up to be Joseph Stalin, he could grow up to be some serial killer, or he could grow up to die of a hideous disease. God sees all of that, and for that life to be terminated while he's a baby, he's going to be with God forever in Heaven so it isn't a bad thing.
** Answering a viewer asking how to respond to a coworker who asked "Why did God allow my baby to die?" about their dead three-year-old child.
** The 700 Club, 9 June 2015 , quoted in Tashman, Brian (9 June 2015), "Pat Robertson: Tell Bereaved Mother Her Dead Baby Could've Been The Next Hitler", Right Wing Watch
* Of all of India’s problems, one stands out from the rest. That problem is idol worship. It is said there are hundreds of millions of Hindu deities. All this has put a nation in bondage to spiritual forces that have deceived many for thousands of years.
** As attributed, Quoted from Malhotra, R., Nīlakantan, A. (2011). Breaking India: Western interventions in Dravidian and Dalit faultlines
* Hinduism and many of the occult activities that come out of the Orient are inspired by demons and demon worship. . . . There’s this concept that all religions are the same and all are good. That is not true. The worship of the Devil is not good.
** As attributed, Quoted from Malhotra, R., Nīlakantan, A. (2011). Breaking India: Western interventions in Dravidian and Dalit faultlines

## Quotes about Robertson

* Fear ignites authoritarian aggression more than anything else. From the crime-fixated Six O’clock News, to the Bush administration’s claim that “We fight ‘em there or else we fight ‘em here,” to Pat Robertson’s recurring predictions of catastrophe the day-after-tomorrow, lots of people have been filling America to the brim with fear. It would undoubtedly help things if the fear-mongers ratcheted down their mongering. But don’t hold your breath; they have their reasons for trying to scare the pants off everybody.
** Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarians (2006), p. 238
* Pat Robertson at a national convention, equipped with delegates, certainly remains a terrible sight. He is a charlatan of Chaucerian dimensions.
** Martin Amis, "Phantom of the Opera: the Republicans in 1988," from Visiting Mrs. Nabokov (1993)
* I listened to a man called Pat Robertson, who runs a right-wing born-again Christian evangelical movement. It was such a hair-raising programme that it undid all the optimism that I had begun to feel when I came to this conference. This guy Pat Robertson, who looked like a business executive of about forty-five with one of those slow, charming American smiles, was standing there with a big tall black man beside him, his side-kick, and he talked continuously about the Reagan administration, about the defeat of the liberals, about Reagan's commitment to the evangelical movement. He had a blackboard showing what in the nineteenth century "liberal" meant. He then wiped that from the blackboard and said that today the liberals are Marxists, fascists, leftists and socialists. Then he showed an extract of Reagan saying, "We want to keep big government out of our homes, and out of our schools, and out of our family life." He went on and on for an hour like this. At the end, he said, "Let us pray", and, his face contorted with fake piety, pleaded with Jesus to protect America, "our country". I couldn't switch it off. It was so frightening, the feeling that we are now entering a holy war between that type of reactionary Christianity and communism. It is a thoroughly wicked and evil interpretation of Christianity.
** Tony Benn, (7 December 1980), quoted in The End of An Era: Diaries, 1980–90, ed. Ruth Winstone (1992), pp. 57-58
* This guy obviously wants to be a prophet so bad. I wonder if he walks around at home dressed up in a bedsheet, talking Aramaic, maybe parting the waters in the bathtub occasionally, just to keep in practice?
** Pat Condell "Hook, Line and Rapture" January 8th, 2008
* Even as with the American rejection of the League of Nations, our failure to live up to our obligations to the United Nations is led by a handful of willful senators who choose to pursue their narrow, selfish political objectives at the cost of our nation's conscience. They pander to and are supported by the Christian Coalition and the rest of the religious right wing. Their leader, Pat Robertson, has written that we should have a world government but only when the messiah arrives. Any attempt to achieve world order before that time must be the work of the Devil! This small but well-organized group, has intimidated both the Republican Party and the Clinton administration. It has attacked each of our Presidents since FDR for supporting the United Nations. Robertson explains that these Presidents were and are the unwitting agents of Lucifer. The only way we who believe in the vision of a democratic world federal government can effectively overcome this reactionary movement is to organize a strong educational counteroffensive stretching from the most publicly visible people in all fields to the humblest individuals in every community. That is the vision and the program of the World Federalist Association.
** Walter Cronkite, Address on receiving the Norman Cousins Global Governance Award at the UN Delegates Dining Room (19 October 1999)
* Moreover, the largest single organised faction in the Republican Party today is the so-called Christian Coalition led by Pat Robertson. The key text of this movement, Robertson’s own tract on the New World Order, can be demonstrated to be a line-by-line plagiarism from classic European anti-semitism. In Robertson’s world view, it is the Warburg and Rothschild families, the Freemasons and the Illuminati, all over again.
** Christopher Hitchens "Look over your shoulder", London Review of Books, 17:10 (25 May 1995)
* The post-1972 primary system was especially vulnerable to a particular kind of outsider: individuals with enough fame or money to skip the “invisible primary.” In other words, celebrities. Although conservative outsiders Pat Robertson, Pat Buchanan, and Steve Forbes did not manage to overcome the effects of the invisible primary during the 1980s and 1990s, their relative success provided clues into how it might be done. Forbes, an extraordinarily wealthy businessman, was able to buy name recognition, while Robertson, a televangelist who founded the Christian Broadcasting Network, and Buchanan, a television commentator (and early Republican proponent of white nationalism), were both colorful figures with special media access. Although none of them won the nomination, they used massive wealth and celebrity status to become contenders.
** Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt (2018) How Democracies Die. New York: Crown.
* Setbacks and defeats become part of such stories, rather than challenges to their truth. If the faithful have suffered, that is because of the plots and conspiracies of their enemies. For Hitler, of course, that meant the Jews. They had started World War I and created the Bolshevik Revolution, and they had ensured that Germany suffered under the Treaty of Versailles. He had warned them, Hitler said repeatedly, that if they dared to start another war he would destroy them, “the vermin of Europe.” World War II was the fault of the Jews, and the time had come to deal with them once and for all. If any one person was responsible for that war, it was Hitler himself, but logic and reason do not enter into closed systems of viewing the world. In 1991, the American television evangelist Pat Robertson warned that Bush Senior's victory over Iraq was not what it appeared. It was paving the way not for peace but for the triumph of evil. It was all so clear to Robertson. Ever since the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, a secret conspiracy had been pushing the world toward socialism and the triumph of the Anti-Christ. The European Union was clearly part of the plot and so was the United Nations. The Gulf War and the missiles that Saddam Hussein had fired on Israel were yet more steps toward the final reckoning.
** Margaret MacMillan, The Uses and Abuses of History (2008), pp. 66-67
* Pat Buchanan has not a clue about any solution to the problems facing the working class. But all he does do is tap on the anger. So he wants us to hate everybody, and that will be the solution to our economic problems...[People] are furious. And then Buchanan comes along, and it is a reactionary, racist, sexist, homophobic way. Well, the problem must be gays in America, must be Blacks in America, must be Japanese, Jews. You got the people, we’ll hate them...Pat Buchanan talk about raising the minimum wage? Of course not. Does Pat Buchanan talk about growing the trade union movement, helping workers organize? Of course not. Does he talk about a single-payer national healthcare system? Of course not...He’s a phony anti-corporate. In other words, the only thing — let’s be clear about this, okay? What Buchanan has a right point on — I was one of the leaders in Congress against NAFTA. I think NAFTA has been a disaster. I think when we have a $160 billion trade deficit, I think we have to be terribly concerned about making radical changes in our trade policy. But Buchanan does not go further than that. A lot of his anti-trade policy has to do with being anti-foreigner.
** Bernie Sanders Interview with Democracy Now (1996)
* Admit it-the world is mighty wacky. Dan Quayle is a heartbeat away from bravely leading us into the New World Order. Our intelligentsia are running around declaring that we have reached both the End of History and the apex of political evolution-we're the kings of the global jungle. At the same time, sensing new opportunities, the forces of reptilian nationalism-from Pat Robertson to militant mullahs, from David Duke to the ancient reactionary movements of Eastern Europe-are crawling out from under their rocks, getting facelifts, and learning how to use teleprompters and Stinger missiles. Meanwhile, back in the cradle of democracy, the "opposition" response to all this is to offer a choice between Jerry Brown and None of the Above.
** Matt Wuerker, Standing Tall in Deep Doo Doo, A Cartoon Chronicle of the Bush Quayle Years (1991)