WASHINGTON--Pat Robertson, the televangelist who helped turn Christian conservatives into a potent force in U.S. politics, died at age 93 at his Virginia home, the Christian Broadcasting Network said in a statement on Thursday.
Robertson founded the network in 1960 and hosted the flagship programme "The 700 Club" for decades, offering prayers and political commentary. In 1980, the show helped galvanize support among Christian conservatives for Republican Ronald Reagan's successful campaign for president. Robertson unsuccessfully ran for president himself in 1988. He finished second in the Iowa caucuses largely by appealing to the state's sizable evangelical population, a strategy that has since been standard practice for Republican presidential contenders in the Midwestern state. Soon after his White House bid, Robertson founded the Christian Coalition, a grassroots organization that proved a powerful mobilizer for the conservative religious voters who became a core constituency for the Republican Party.
His "The 700 Club" show - stemming from a fundraising telethon in which he asked 700 viewers to send monthly contributions - drew a committed audience. But he was also criticized for controversial statements over the years. After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Robertson claimed an angry God had permitted them to occur because the U.S. had embraced abortion, homosexuality and secularism.
In 2005, he called for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. He suggested the devastating 2010 Haitian earthquake was God's punishment, asserting that the country had made a deal with Satan to gain independence from France two centuries earlier.
