30 March 2015

A Book on the Legacy of Pat Robertson

The Most Dangerous Man in America? : Pat Robertson and the Rise of the Christian Coalition

by Robert Boston

Copyright 1996 Prometheus Books

This is written as an expose' and therefore will either be applauded or heavily criticised. No matter who reads it, the response tends to be strong.

In some ways the book being almost twenty years old is outdated. Robertson himself will before long disappear from the scene along with what remains of the first generation of Christian Right leaders.

Nevertheless his influence has been profound and his shadow looms large. Even after he's gone his influence will be felt in the realm of 'Christian' broadcasting and in particular his most potent legacy, the creation of the ACLJ.

I was genuinely shocked when I arrived at a Calvinist seminary back in the 1990's and as somewhat new Reformed Christian, I simply assumed that of course everyone was against Robertson, Falwell and Dobson. Heretics and frauds all! But I was mistaken. These men, though representing a different theological grid were respected, even revered. Only later did I come to a fuller understanding and realize there's an overarching theological continuity, significantly more than a mere point of contact. In fact throughout the 1980's and 1990's much of the Evangelical world came to embrace a sometimes nebulous form of theology that had its roots in the Reformed tradition. Robertson's a Dispensationalist and Pentecostal but Dominionism puts him on the same page and on the same quest as many if not most thinkers in Reformed circles

The book is pertinent because it outlines something of his background and the rise of the Christian Right's Second Wave, the Christian Coalition. By the end of the Reagan administration the Moral Majority had lost its moral authority. Falwell was a corrupt fool and dupe and had failed in his overall project. Reagan had used the Evangelical community and proved a great disappointment. This understanding would be modified in the 2000's as Reagan's legacy would be subjected to revision and mythologized. The imagined Reagan of today's Right bears little resemblance to the actual Reagan.

For starters, see: Tear Down This Myth: The Right-Wing Distortion of the Reagan Legacy by Will Bunch

Robertson took advantage of the growing vacuum and created the Christian Coalition and attempted to run for president in 1988 an event many of us remember well.

The book also reveals something of his character and I think accurately exposes him for what kind of person he really is. His business dealings are shady and often immoral. This book written in 1996, antedates some of his more outrageous activities, especially his friendships and dealings with African dictators. Of course to some this is less than controversial as many of the same characters were supported by the United States during the Cold War. Robertson was a facilitator and an advocate in US circles for the coinciding interests of his business dealings and these tyrants.  

The worst chapter in the book is entitled 'The World According to Pat Robertson'. The author is not a Christian and though that bears little on the rest of the book, in this chapter it becomes frustrating and problematic. Robertson is a false teacher, prophet and heretic and yet for all that is not always completely wrong. Often even when he's right, he's still wrong in terms of how or why he's saying what he is. It becomes confusing and this is compounded by the author's misunderstanding and often rejection of Christian teaching.

The best chapters from my standpoint were on his business dealings and the ACLJ. The latter focuses extensively on lawyer and radio host Jay Sekulow another fraud and deceiver cut from the same cloth. A local radio station carries his program. It's hard to listen to. It is full of distortion, blatant lies and misrepresentation, fear mongering and theological error. It actually says more about the state of the church that a programme such as this would be successful. The audience is necessarily ignorant and possesses little knowledge of history, political science, Constitutional law, and geo-politics, let alone Scripture.

The book is very critical of Robertson and questions whether he really stands for Family Values, really believes in Democracy or many of the ideals he purports to uphold.

Again the book is written by a non-believer and therefore suffers serious shortcomings. Nevertheless it's worth picking up, especially for those who wish to revisit the polarization of the 1990's. While in some respects it seems mild compared to the present, it was a time of great upheaval. Clinton was hated and feared almost as much as Obama is now. It was time of militias and growing fear, gun mania, Waco and Oklahoma City. There was definite transition at work within the Church at large. Seeds were sown which are still bearing fruit.

Reconstructionism was already in decline. It had gotten too much bad press and was theologically extreme and easily assailable. And yet it never really went away. It morphed and in many respects a broader and perhaps slightly milder version of it has slowly taken over and actually become the new orthodoxy of Evangelicalism.

Pat Robertson played no small role in that great and terrible feat. Indeed to many in the 1990's he would have seemed a rather dangerous figure.

The quest for power has led many down a road of endless compromises. Dominion theology has worked as a great ecumenical unifier and brought together the likes of Robertson and figures like DJ Kennedy. I was always rather stunned to turn on TBN and see the Crouch's in all their tacky and obscene glory sitting alongside such figures as Kennedy and Jay Sekulow. Like the dog eat dog world of secular politics, the Christian quest for Dominion has created strange bedfellows and there's not a little exploitation on all sides. Everyone is using everyone else but there are powerful figures in the background that help tie the project together. Robertson is one of these.

I will tremble when he dies at some point in the near future. I trembled when both Falwell and Colson died. I remember where I was and what I was doing when I heard the news of their deaths. These men have devoted their lives to serving a cause, a cause they thought was the Kingdom of Christ. They never knew Him and in fact laboured to destroy the Church and the theology of that very Kingdom.