Evangelical leader Pat Robertson was given a rather brutal sendoff on CNN after the Christian Broadcasting Network founder passed away at the age of 93 and the network put together two minutes of ignominious highlights.
On Thursday morning’s edition of CNN This Morning, co-anchor Poppy Harlow introduced the Stephanie Elam-narrated package on Robertson’s life that hit some perfunctory biographical details of the 700 Club host’s life, but was extremely heavy on details like his contention that gay people made God want 9/11 to happen:
POPPY HARLOW: All right. We do have this news just in. Influential conservative Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson has died. He was 93 years old. Let’s take a look back at his life with our Stephanie Elam.
PAT ROBERTSON: Lord God, fill me now with your spirit.
STEPHANIE ELAM: Pat Robertson was a seminal figure of the religious right. He founded the Christian Broadcasting Network, the political advocacy group the Christian Coalition, and the Christian College Regent University. But he was also known for his outspoken views on homosexuality, feminism and a host of other hot button issues.
PAT ROBERTSON: There isn’t one single civilization that has survived but openly embraced homosexuality.
STEPHANIE ELAM: In 2001, he agreed with fellow televangelist Jerry Falwell that God allowed the 911 terrorists to succeed because America had moved to the left and removed religion from the mainstream.
PAT ROBERTSON: I totally concur.
STEPHANIE ELAM: The Yale Law School graduate and Korean War vet had a religious awakening in the late 1950s. He bought a bankrupt local station in Portsmouth, Virginia, and it became the first outlet for the Christian Broadcast Network. It was the first Christian TV network in the U.S. and became one of the world’s largest TV ministries. Its flagship program was the daily how he hosted, The 700 Club — named for the 700 donors who launched it in 1961.
PAT ROBERTSON: I plan to make a formal announcement of my candidacy for the Republican nomination for the presidency of the United States.
STEPHANIE ELAM: Robertson, whose father was a congressman and U.S. senator, ran as a Republican presidential candidate in 1988. He came in second in the Iowa caucus, but his campaign didn’t fare as well in other primary states. He dropped out of the race and returned to hosting the 700 Club, where he famously made bold predictions that didn’t always come true.
PAT ROBERTSON: Romney will win. (You believe that?) I absolutely believe it. (What makes you believe that?) Because the Lord told me.
STEPHANIE ELAM: Pat Robertson, a key founder of the conservative Christian movement who never shied away from expressing his views, no matter how controversial they might be.
POPPY HARLOW: Thoughts with his family, of course.
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Watch above via CNN This Morning.
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