Robertson's Resignation

Pat Robertson has stepped down as President of the Christian Coalition and has also resigned from the organization's Board of Directors. Does this mean we won't have Pat Robertson to kick around any more? Is the Christian Coalition's demise just around the corner? If so, what does this mean for the Religious Right?

Robertson's early-December resignation from the Christian Coalition, the powerful political organization he founded in 1989 doesn't mean he's giving up the spotlight. He will still be hosting his daily "700 Club" television program and running his multimillion-dollar business empire.

Robertson's been swimming in a sea of ridicule for the past few months. Always one to shoot from the lip, in early October, he told an audience at the 40th anniversary celebration of his Christian Broadcasting Network that: "The Lord is getting ready to shake this nation. We have not yet seen his judgment in America. This thing that happened in New York was child's play compared to what's going to happen."

This followed the Falwell/Robertson tag-team debacle that took place on Robertson's "700 Club" two days after the September 11 terrorist attacks. As you'll no doubt remember, the Rev. Jerry Falwell told Robertson's audience: "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...all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say, 'You helped this happen.'" And, as the Washington Post reported, Robertson nodded in agreement responding, "Jerry, that's my feeling."

Robertson has also taken a pummeling in the press, particularly by Washington Post columnist Colbert King, over questionable business deals including a gold mining operation with Liberia's dictator Charles Taylor. In addition, his business dealings with China and statements of support for its controversial "family planning" practices have irritated a number of colleagues on the right over the past few years.

Despite the apocalyptic visions set out in a number of his books and charges of anti-Semitism and loopy predictions, Robertson maintained his position as a major figure on the Christian Right and a power broker within the Republican Party for the better part of the nineties.

Robertson founded the Christian Coalition in 1989, shortly after he failed to win the Republican Party's 1988 presidential nomination. He converted a campaign mailing list into the most influential and technologically sophisticated grassroots political force on the right. With Robertson at the helm and the cherubic and politically savvy Ralph Reed as executive director, donations poured in, membership soared, conservative politicians showed up in droves at the Coalition's annual "Road to Victory" conferences, and the organization perfected the art of the one-sided voter "guide."

In the resignation letter, sent to the Coalition's Board of Directors, Robertson wrote: "We are seeing an outpouring of revival power in the United States that exceeds anything that I have known in my lifetime. With the few years left to me of active service, I must focus on those things that will bring forth the greatest spiritual benefit."

Robertson added: "it is now time for the Lord to raise up someone to take my place and to mobilize a whole new cohort of patriotic Americans to swell the ranks of those who have faithfully supported us in the past." In the December 5 press release issued from his Christian Broadcasting Network headquarters, Robertson "strongly encouraged continued work within the Coalition 'to bring forward the pro-family, pro-life values that we all cherish.'"

"Without a doubt," the press release read, "this organization has played a pivotal role in the election of Christian conservatives to important public offices across our land and in mobilizing the evangelical churches and our pro-family Roman Catholic allies to bring our agenda to the forefront of American political thought. '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 United States House of Representatives.'"