James Ussher
Archbishop of Armagh, Primate of All Ireland
See	Armagh
Enthroned	1625
Reign ended	1656
Predecessor	Christopher Hampton
Successor	John Bramhall (from 1661)
Other posts	Professor, Trinity College, Dublin, Chancellor, St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, Prebend of Finglas.
Orders
Ordination	1602
Consecration	1626
Personal details
Born	4 January 1581 Dublin
Died	21 March 1656 Surrey
Buried	chapel of St Erasmus in Westminster Abbey
Nationality	Irish
Denomination	Church of Ireland

James Ussher (sometimes spelled Usher, 4 January 1581 – 21 March 1656) was Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland between 1625 and 1656. He was a prolific scholar, who most famously published a chronology that purported to establish the time and date of the creation as the night preceding Sunday, 23 October 4004 BC, according to the proleptic Julian calendar.

Education[link]

Ussher was born in Dublin, Ireland, into a well-to-do Anglo-Irish family. His maternal grandfather, James Stanihurst, had been speaker of the Irish parliament, and his father Arnold Ussher was a clerk in chancery who married Margaret Stanihurst.^[1] Ussher's younger, and only surviving, brother, Ambrose, became a distinguished scholar of Arabic and Hebrew. According to his chaplain and biographer, Nicholas Bernard, the elder brother was taught to read by two blind, spinster aunts.

Ussher was a gifted polyglot, entering Dublin Free School and then the newly-founded (1591) Trinity College, Dublin on 9 January 1594, at the age of thirteen (not an unusual age at the time). He had received his Bachelor of Arts degree by 1598, and was a fellow and MA by 1600 (though Bernard claims he did not gain his MA till 1601). In May 1602, he was ordained in the Trinity College Chapel as a deacon in the Protestant, established, Church of Ireland (and possibly priest on the same day) by his uncle Henry Ussher, the Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland.

Ussher went on to become Chancellor of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin in 1605 and Prebend of Finglas. He became Professor of Theological Controversies at Trinity College and a Bachelor of Divinity in 1607, Doctor of Divinity in 1612, and then Vice-Chancellor in 1615 and vice-provost in 1616. In 1613, he married Phoebe, daughter of a previous Vice-Provost, Luke Challoner, and published his first work. In 1615, he was closely involved with the drawing up of the first confession of faith of the Church of Ireland.

Early career[link]

In 1619 Ussher travelled to England, where he remained for two years. His only child, Elizabeth, was born in London in 1619. He became prominent after meeting James I. In 1621 James nominated him Bishop of Meath. He also became a national figure in Ireland, becoming Privy Councillor in 1623 and an increasingly substantial scholar. A noted collector of Irish manuscripts, he made them available for research to fellow-scholars such as his friend, Sir James Ware. From 1623 until 1626 he was again in England and was excused from his episcopal duties in order to study church history. He was nominated Primate of All Ireland and Archbishop of Armagh in 1625 and succeeded Christopher Hampton.

Primate of All Ireland[link]

Archbishop James Ussher (1581–1656)

After his consecration in 1626, Ussher found himself in turbulent political times. Tension was rising between England and Spain, and to secure Ireland Charles I offered Irish Catholics a series of concessions, including religious toleration, known as the Graces, in exchange for money for the upkeep of the army. Ussher was a convinced Calvinist and viewed with dismay the possibility that people he regarded as anti-Christian papists might achieve any sort of power. He called a secret meeting of the Irish bishops in his house in November 1626, the result being the "Judgement of the Arch-Bishops and Bishops of Ireland". This begins:

The religion of the papists is superstitious and idolatrous; their faith and doctrine erroneous and heretical; their church in respect of both, apostatical; to give them therefore a toleration, or to consent that they may freely exercise their religion, and profess their faith and doctrine, is a grievous sin.

The Judgement was not published until it was read out at the end of a series of sermons against the Graces given at Dublin in April 1627. In the end, the Graces were not confirmed by the Irish parliament.

During a four-year interregnum between Lord Deputies from 1629 on, there was an increase in efforts to impose religious conformity on Ireland. In 1633, Ussher wrote to the new Archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud, in an effort to gain support for the imposition of recusancy fines on Irish Catholics. Thomas Wentworth, who arrived as the new Lord Deputy in Ireland in 1633, deflected the pressure for conformity by stating that firstly, the Church of Ireland itself would have to be properly resourced, and he set about its re-endowment. He also settled the long-running primacy dispute between the sees of Armagh and Dublin in Armagh's favour.

Ussher soon found himself at odds with the rise of Arminianism and Wentworth and Laud's desire for conformity between the Church of England and the more Calvinistic Church of Ireland. Ussher resisted this pressure at a convocation in 1634, ensuring that the English Articles of Religion were adopted as well as the Irish articles, not instead of them, and that the Irish canons had to be redrafted based on the English ones rather than replaced by them. Theologically, he was a Calvinist although on the matter of the atonement he was (somewhat privately) a hypothetical universalist. His most significant influence in this regard was John Davenant, later an English delegate to the Synod of Dort, who managed to significantly soften that Synod's teaching regarding limited atonement.^[2]

In 1633, Ussher had supported the appointment of Archbishop Laud as Chancellor of Trinity. He had hoped that Laud would help to impose order on what was, Ussher accepted, a somewhat mismanaged institution. Laud did that, rewriting the charter and statutes to limit the authority of the fellows, and ensure that the appointment of the provost was under royal control. But he also in 1634 imposed on the College an Arminian provost, William Chappell, whose theological views, and peremptory style of government, were antithetical to all that Ussher stood for. By 1635, it was apparent that Ussher had lost de facto control of the church to John Bramhall, Bishop of Derry, in everyday matters, and to Laud in matters of policy.

The traditional view of Ussher is of a slightly-unworldly scholar, who was, at best, a mediocre politician and administrator. In reality he was an effective bishop and archbishop, and politically important;^[3] however, he was reactive and sought conciliation rather than confrontation.^[4] The story that he successfully opposed attempts to reintroduce the Irish language for use in church services by William Bedell, the Bishop of Kilmore, has been refuted.^[5][6]

Ussher certainly preferred to be a scholar when he could be. He engaged in extensive disputations with Roman Catholic theologians, and even as a student he challenged a Jesuit relative, Henry Fitzsimon (Ussher's mother was Catholic), to dispute publicly the identification of the Pope with the Antichrist. However, Ussher also wrote extensively on theology, patristics and ecclesiastical history, and these subjects gradually displaced his anti-Catholic work. As well as by his learning, he was also distinguished by his charity and good temper.

After Convocation in 1634, Ussher left Dublin for his episcopal residence at Drogheda, where he concentrated on his archdiocese and his research. In 1631, he had published a Discourse on the Religion Anciently Professed by the Irish, a ground-breaking study of the early Irish church, which sought to demonstrate how it differed from Rome and was, instead, much closer to the later Protestant church. This was to prove highly influential, establishing the idea that the Church of Ireland was the true successor of the early Celtic church — a belief that persists to the present day.

In 1639, he published the most substantial history of Christianity in Britain to that date, Britannicarum ecclesiarum antiquitates — the antiquities of the British churches. It was an astonishing achievement in one respect — in gathering together so many previously unpublished manuscript sources. Ussher was very reluctant to arrive at firm judgements as to the sources' authenticity — hence his devotion of a whole chapter to the imaginative but invented stories of King Lucius and the creation of a Christian episcopate in Britain.

English Civil War[link]

In 1640, Ussher left Ireland for England for what turned out to be the last time. In the years before the English Civil War, his reputation as a scholar and his moderate Calvinism meant that his opinion was sought by both King and Parliament. After Ussher lost his home and income through the Irish uprising of 1641, Parliament voted him a pension of £400 while the King awarded him the income and property of the vacant See of Carlisle.

In early 1641 Ussher developed a mediatory position on church government, which sought to bridge the gap between the Laudians, who believed that bishops were divinely ordained and a separate order from priests and deacons, and the presbyterians, who wanted to abolish episcopacy entirely. His proposals, not published until 1656, after his death, as The Reduction of Episcopacy, proposed a compromise where bishops operated in a presbyterian synodal system, were initially designed to support a rapprochement between Charles and the parliamentarian leadership in 1641, but were rejected by the King. They did, however, have an afterlife, being published in England and Scotland well into the eighteenth century. In all, he wrote or edited five books relating to episcopacy; the last two, treatises on the Ignatian epistles, were particular scholarly achievements that have largely survived modern scrutiny.

As the middle ground between King and Parliament vanished in 1641–1642, Ussher was forced, reluctantly, to choose between his godly Calvinist allies in parliament and his instinctive loyalty to the monarchy. Eventually, in January 1642 (having asked parliament's permission), he moved to Oxford, a royalist stronghold. Though Charles severely tested Ussher's loyalty by negotiating with the Catholic Irish patriots, the Primate remained committed to the royal cause, though as king's fortunes waned Ussher had to move on to Bristol, Cardiff, and then to St Donat's. In June 1646, he returned to London under the protection of his friend, the Countess of Peterborough, in whose houses he stayed from then on. He became a preacher at Lincoln's Inn early in 1647, and despite his royalist loyalties was protected by his friends in Parliament. He watched the execution of Charles I from the roof of the Countess of Peterborough's London house but fainted before the axe fell.

Chronology[link]

Ussher now concentrated on his research and writing and returned to the study of chronology and the church fathers. After a 1647 work on the origin of the Creeds, Ussher published a treatise on the calendar in 1648. This was a warm-up for his most famous work, the Annales veteris testamenti, a prima mundi origine deducti ("Annals of the Old Testament, deduced from the first origins of the world"), which appeared in 1650, and its continuation, Annalium pars postierior, published in 1654. In this work, he calculated the date of the Creation to have been nightfall preceding 23 October 4004 BC. (Other scholars, such as Cambridge academic, John Lightfoot, calculated their own dates for the Creation.) The time of the Ussher chronology is frequently misquoted as being 9 a.m., noon or 9 p.m. on 23 October. See the related article on the chronology for a discussion of its claims and methodology.

Ussher's work is sometimes associated with Young Earth Creationism, which holds that the universe was created, not millions of years ago, but thousands. But while calculating the date of the Creation is today in some circles considered a controversial activity, in Ussher's time such a calculation was still regarded as an important task, one previously attempted by many Post-Reformation scholars, such as Joseph Justus Scaliger and physicist Isaac Newton.

Ussher's chronology represented a considerable feat of scholarship: it demanded great depth of learning in what was then known of ancient history, including the rise of the Persians, Greeks and Romans, as well as expertise in the Bible, biblical languages, astronomy, ancient calendars and chronology, Ussher's account of historical events for which he had multiple sources other than the Bible is usually in close agreement with modern accounts – for example, he placed the death of Alexander in 323 BC and that of Julius Caesar in 44 BC.

But Ussher's last extra-biblical coordinate was the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar, and beyond this point he had to rely on other considerations. Faced with inconsistent texts of the Torah, each with a different number of years between Flood and Creation, Ussher chose the Masoretic version. Partly his reasons were sound scholarly ones — the Masoretic text claims an unbroken history of careful transcription stretching back centuries — but his choice was confirmed for him, because it placed Creation exactly four thousand years before 4 BC, the generally accepted date for the birth of Christ; moreover, he calculated, Solomon's temple was completed in the year 3000 from creation, so that there were exactly 1000 years from the temple to Christ, who was the fulfilment of the Temple.^[7]

Death[link]

In 1655, Ussher published his last book, De Graeca Septuaginta Interpretum Versione, the first serious examination of the Septuagint, discussing its accuracy as compared with the Hebrew text of the Old Testament. In 1656, he went to stay in the Countess of Peterborough's house in Reigate, Surrey. On 19 March, he felt a sharp pain in his side after supper and took to his bed with what sounds like an internal haemorrhage. He died at one o'clock on 21 March at the age of 75. His last words were reported as O Lord forgive me, especially my sins of omission. His body was embalmed and was to have been buried in Reigate, but at Cromwell's insistence he was given a state funeral on 17 April and buried^[8] in the chapel of St Erasmus in Westminster Abbey.

Reputation[link]

The fact that Cromwell was content to allow an Anglican bishop to be buried in Westminster is a clear indication of the respect in which Ussher was held, even by those who were theologically opposed to him. And indeed, after his death Ussher's reputation as a saintly scholar ensured that his posthumous endorsement was sought by a wide range of writers and ecclesiastical leaders, from the seventeenth century nonconformists to the nineteenth century Oxford movement. His scholarly achievements remain considerable — his work in sorting out the genuine from the spurious letters of Ignatius was a milestone in the study of that important early-church father; and his pioneering gathering of sources relating to early Irish church history laid the foundation for much subsequent research. Even his efforts to identify the date of creation, often derided these days, gathered together the most up to date scientific, chronological, historical and biblical scholarship in an impressive synthesis.

See also[link]

• Tadhg Og Ó Cianáin
• Peregrine Ó Duibhgeannain
• Lughaidh Ó Cléirigh
• Mícheál Ó Cléirigh
• Sir James Ware
• Mary Bonaventure Browne
• Dubhaltach Mac Fhirbhisigh
• Ruaidhrí Ó Flaithbheartaigh
• Uilliam Ó Duinnín
• Charles O'Conor (historian)
• Eugene O'Curry
• John O'Donovan (scholar)

Footnotes[link]

See also[link]

• Dating Creation
• Anglicanism

Further reading[link]

• Alan Ford, Ussher, James (1581–1656), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press (2004)
• Alan Ford, James Ussher: Theology, History, and Politics in early-modern Ireland and England Oxford University Press (2007)
• Knox, R. Buck (1967), James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh, University of Wales Press 
• Gould, Stephen Jay (1996), "Fall in the House of Ussher", Eight Little Piggies (New York: W. W. Norton). 

External links[link]

Wikisource has the text of A Compendium of Irish Biography article James Ussher

• Ussher bibliography and list of secondary sources
• Bishop Ussher Dates the World: 4004 BC (Lockhaven University)
• Armagh Observatory-James Ussar
• The Ussher Project at Trinity College, Dublin

Links to his works[link]

• Elrington, Charles Richard (1847), The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, D.D., I, Dublin: Hodges and Smith, http://books.google.com/?id=GoZLAAAAMAAJ, retrieved 2008-08-17  – The Life of James Ussher, D.D.
• Elrington, Charles Richard (1847), The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, D.D., II, Dublin: Hodges and Smith  – incl. De Christianorum Ecclesiarum Successione et Statu historica Explicatio (1613)
• Elrington, Charles Richard (1847), The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, D.D., III, Dublin: Hodges and Smith, http://www.archive.org/details/lifeofjamesusshe03elriuoft, retrieved 2008-08-17  – some works in English
• Elrington, Charles Richard (1847), The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, D.D., IV, Dublin: Hodges and Smith, http://www.archive.org/details/lifeofjamesusshe04elriuoft, retrieved 2008-08-17  – incl. Gotteschalci et Praedestinatione Controversiae abeomotae Historia (1631); Veterum Epistolarum Hibernicarum Sylloge (1632)
• Elrington, Charles Richard (1847), The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, D.D., V, Dublin: Hodges and Smith, http://www.archive.org/details/wholeworkswithli05usshuoft, retrieved 2008-08-17  – Brittanicarum Ecclesiarum Antiquitates; caput I-XIII (1639)
• Elrington, Charles Richard (1847), The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, D.D., VI, Dublin: Hodges and Smith, http://books.google.com/?id=solLAAAAMAAJ, retrieved 2008-08-17  – Brittanicarum Ecclesiarum Antiquitates; caput XIV-XVII (1639)
• Elrington, Charles Richard (1847), The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, D.D., VII, Dublin: Hodges and Smith  – Dissertatio non de Ignati solum et Polycarpi scriptis, sed etiam de Apostolicis Constitutionibus et Canonibus Clementi Romano attributis (1644); Praefationes in Ignatium (1644); De Romanae Ecclesiae Symbolo vetere aliisque Fidei Formulis tum ab Occidentalibus tum ab Orientalibus in prima Catechesi et Baptismo proponi solitis (1647); De Macedonum et Asianorum Anno Solari Dissertatio (1648); De Graeca Septuaginta Interpretum Versione Syntagma, cum Libri Estherae editione Origenica et vetere Graeca altera; Epistola ad Ludovicum Capellum de variantibus Textus Hebraei Lectionibus; Epistola Gulielmi Eyre ad Usserium
• Elrington, Charles Richard (1847), The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, D.D., VIII, Dublin: Hodges and Smith, http://www.archive.org/details/wholeworkswithli08usshuoft, retrieved 2008-08-17  – Annales veteris Testamenti, a Prima Mundi Origine deducti, una cum Rerum Asiaticarum Aegypticarum Chronico, a temporis historici principio usque ad Maccabaicorum initia producto (1650)
• Elrington, Charles Richard (1847), The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, D.D., IX, Dublin: Hodges and Smith, http://books.google.com/?id=YtpKA_nvXo4C, retrieved 2008-08-17  – Annales veteris Testamenti (contd.)
• Elrington, Charles Richard (1847), The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, D.D., X, Dublin: Hodges and Smith, http://www.archive.org/details/wholeworkswithli10usshuoft, retrieved 2008-08-17  – Annales veteris Testamenti (contd.)
• Elrington, Charles Richard (1847), The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, D.D., XI, Dublin: Hodges and Smith, http://www.archive.org/details/lifeofjamesusshe11elriuoft, retrieved 2008-08-17  – Annales veteris Testamenti concludes; Annalium Pars Posterior, in qua, praeter Maccabaicam et novi testamenti historiam, Imperii Romanorum Caesarum sub Caio Julio et Octaviano Ortus, rerumque in Asia et Aegypto Gestarum continetur Chronicon ... (1654)
• Elrington, Charles Richard (1847), The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, D.D., XII, Dublin: Hodges and Smith, http://www.archive.org/details/wholeworkswithli12usshuoft, retrieved 2008-08-17  – Chronologia sacra (1660); Historia Dogmatica Controversiae inter Orthodoxos et Pontificios de Scripturis et Sacris Vernaculis; Dissertatio de Pseudo-Dionysii scriptis; Dissertatio de epistola ad Laodicenses
• Elrington, Charles Richard (1847), The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, D.D., XIII, Dublin: Hodges and Smith, http://books.google.com/?id=75FLAAAAMAAJ, retrieved 2008-08-17  – sermons (in English)
• Elrington, Charles Richard (1847), The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, D.D., XIV, Dublin: Hodges and Smith, http://www.archive.org/details/wholeworkswithli14usshuoft, retrieved 2008-08-17  – Tractatus de Controversiis Pontificiis; Praelectiones Theologicae
• Elrington, Charles Richard (1847), The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, D.D., XV, Dublin: Hodges and Smith, http://www.archive.org/details/lifeofjamesusshe15elriuoft, retrieved 2008-08-17  – letters (in English) (incl. first to Richard Stanihurst, his uncle)
• Elrington, Charles Richard (1847), The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, D.D., XVI, Dublin: Hodges and Smith, http://www.archive.org/details/lifeofjamesusshe16elriuoft, retrieved 2008-08-17  – letters (in English and Latin)
• Elrington, Charles Richard (1864), The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, D.D., XVII, Dublin: Hodges, Smith, and Co, http://books.google.com/?id=bZNLAAAAMAAJ, retrieved 2008-08-17  – indexes

Pat Robertson
Robertson during an Operation Blessing International appearance at Victory Fellowship Church in Metairie, Louisiana, providing relief to Hurricane Katrina victims (February 12, 2006)
Born	Marion Gordon Robertson (1930-03-22) March 22, 1930 (age 82) Lexington, Virginia, United States
Occupation	Televangelist
Spouse	Adelia Elmer
Children	Timothy Bryan Robertson Elizabeth Faith Robertson Gordon Perry Robertson Anne Carter Robertson
Parents	Absalom Willis Robertson Gladys Churchill

Marion Gordon "Pat" Robertson (born March 22, 1930)^[1] is a media mogul, television evangelist, ex-Baptist minister and businessman who politically aligns himself with the Christian Right in the United States.

He is the founder of numerous organizations and corporations, including the American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ), the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), the Christian Coalition, Flying Hospital, International Family Entertainment Inc., Operation Blessing International Relief and Development Corporation, CBN Asia and Regent University.^[1][2] He is the host of The 700 Club, a Christian TV program airing on channels throughout the United States and on CBN network affiliates worldwide.^[1]

The son of U.S. Senator A. Willis Robertson, Robertson is a Southern Baptist and was active as an ordained minister with that denomination for many years, but holds to a charismatic theology not traditionally common among Southern Baptists. He unsuccessfully campaigned to become the Republican Party's nominee in the 1988 presidential election.^[3] As a result of his seeking political office, he no longer serves in an official role for any church. His media and financial resources make him a recognized, influential, and controversial public voice for conservative Christianity in the United States.^[4]

Life and career[link]

Family[link]

Robertson was born in Lexington, Virginia, into a prominent political family. His parents were Absalom Willis Robertson, a conservative Democratic United States Senator, and his wife Gladys Churchill (née Willis). He married Adelia "Dede" Elmer on August 26, 1954. His family includes four children, among them Gordon P. Robertson and Tim Robertson and, as of mid-2005, 14 grandchildren.

At a young age, Robertson was nicknamed Pat by his six-year-old brother, Willis Robertson, Jr., who enjoyed patting him on the cheeks when he was a baby while saying "pat, pat, pat". As he got older, Robertson thought about which first name he would like people to use. He considered "Marion" to be effeminate, and "M. Gordon" to be affected, so he opted for his childhood nickname "Pat".^[4] His strong awareness for the importance of names in the creation of a public image showed itself again during his presidential run when he threatened to sue NBC news for calling him a "television evangelist", which later became "televangelist", at a time when Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Bakker were objects of scandal.

Education and military service[link]

When he was eleven, Robertson was enrolled in the preparatory McDonogh School outside Baltimore, Maryland. From 1940 until 1946 he attended The McCallie School in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He graduated with honors and enrolled at Washington and Lee University, where he majored in history. The claim that he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa is not substantiated by the Phi Beta Kappa membership directory.^[5] He also joined Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. Robertson has said, "Although I worked hard at my studies, my real major centered around lovely young ladies who attended the nearby girls schools."^[6]

In 1948, the draft was reinstated and Robertson was given the option of joining the Marine Corps or being drafted into the army; he opted for the first.

In his words, "We did long, grueling marches to toughen the men, plus refresher training in firearms and bayonet combat." In the same year, he transferred to Korea, "I ended up at the headquarters command of the First Marine Division," says Robertson. "The Division was in combat in the hot and dusty, then bitterly cold portion of North Korea just above the 38th Parallel later identified as the 'Punchbowl' and 'Heartbreak Ridge.' For that service in the Korean War, the Marine Corps awarded me three battle stars for 'action against the enemy.'"^[7]

However, former Republican Congressman Paul "Pete" McCloskey, Jr., who served with Robertson in Korea, wrote a public letter which said that Robertson was actually spared combat duty when his powerful father, a U.S. Senator, intervened on his behalf, and that Robertson spent most of his time in an office in Japan. According to McCloskey, his time in the service was not in combat but as the "liquor officer" responsible for keeping the officers' clubs supplied with liquor. Robertson filed a $35 million libel suit against McCloskey in 1986.^[8] He dropped the case in 1988, before it came to trial and paid McCloskey's court costs.^[9]

Robertson was promoted to first lieutenant in 1952 upon his return to the United States. He then went on to receive a Bachelor of Laws degree from Yale University Law School in 1955. However, he failed to pass the bar exam,^[10] shortly thereafter underwent his religious conversion, and decided against pursuing a career in law. Instead, Robertson attended the New York Theological Seminary, and was awarded a Master of Divinity degree in 1959.

Religious career[link]

In 1956 Robertson found his faith through Dutch missionary Cornelius Vanderbreggen, who impressed Robertson both by his lifestyle and his message. Vanderbreggen quoted Proverbs (3:5, 6), "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths", which Robertson considers to be the "guiding principle" of his life. He was ordained as a minister of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1961.

In 1960, Robertson established the Christian Broadcasting Network in Virginia Beach, Virginia. He started it by buying a small UHF station in nearby Portsmouth. Later in 1977 he purchased a local Leased access cable TV channel in the Hampton Roads area and called it CBN. Originally he went door-to-door in Virginia Beach, Hampton Roads, and other surrounding areas asking Christians to buy cable boxes so that they could receive his new channel. He also canvassed local churches in the Virginia Beach area to do the same, and solicited donations through public speaking engagements at local churches and on CBN. One of his friends, John Giminez, the pastor of Rock Church Virginia Beach, was influential in helping Robertson establish CBN with donations, as well as offering the services of volunteers from his church.

CBN is now seen in 180 countries and broadcast in 71 languages. He founded the CBN Cable Network, which was renamed the CBN Family Channel in 1988 and later simply the Family Channel. When the Family Channel became too profitable for Robertson to keep it under the CBN umbrella without endangering CBN's non-profit status, he formed International Family Entertainment Inc. in 1990 with the Family Channel as its main subsidiary. Robertson sold the Family Channel to the News Corporation in 1997, which renamed it Fox Family. A condition of the sale was that the station would continue airing Robertson's television program, The 700 Club, twice a day in perpetuity, regardless of any changes of ownership. The channel is now owned by Disney and run as "ABC Family". On December 3, 2007, Robertson resigned as chief executive of CBN; he was succeeded by his son, Gordon.^[11]

Robertson founded CBN University in 1977 on CBN's Virginia Beach campus. It was renamed Regent University in 1989. Robertson serves as its chancellor. He is also founder and president of the American Center for Law and Justice, a public interest law firm that defends Christians whose First Amendment rights have allegedly been violated. The law firm, headquartered in the same building that houses Regent's law school, focuses on "pro-family, pro-liberty and pro-life" cases nationwide.

Robertson is also an advocate of Christian dominionism — the idea that Christians have a right to rule.^[12]

In 1994, he was a signer of the document Evangelicals and Catholics Together.

Pat Robertson was a fundraiser for the Nicaraguan Contras. In March 1986, he told Israeli Foreign Affairs that South Africa was a major contributor to the Reagan administration's efforts to help the anti-Sandinista forces.^[13]

1988 presidential bid[link]

In September 1986, Robertson announced his intention to seek the Republican nomination for President of the United States. Robertson said he would pursue the nomination only if three million people signed up to volunteer for his campaign by September 1987. Three million responded, and by the time Robertson announced he would be running in September 1987, he also had raised millions of dollars for his campaign fund. He surrendered his ministerial credentials and turned leadership of CBN over to his son, Tim. His campaign, however, against incumbent Vice President George H. W. Bush, was seen as a long shot.

Robertson ran on a standard conservative platform. Among his policies, he wanted to ban pornography, reform the education system, and eliminate departments such as the Department of Education and the Department of Energy. He also supported a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced federal budget.

Robertson's campaign got off to a strong second-place finish in the Iowa caucus, ahead of Bush.^[14] He did poorly in the subsequent New Hampshire primary, however, and was unable to be competitive once the multiple-state primaries began. Robertson ended his campaign before the primaries were finished. His best finish was in Washington, winning the majority of caucus delegates.^[15][16] He later spoke at the 1988 Republican National Convention in New Orleans and told his remaining supporters to cast their votes for Bush, who ended up winning the nomination and the election. He then returned to CBN and has remained there as a religious broadcasting broadcaster.

Books[link]

Episcopalian professor of theology Ephraim Radner accuses Robertson of espousing anti-semitic beliefs in the book:

In his published writings, especially his 1991 book The New World Order, Pat Robertson has propagated theories about a worldwide Jewish conspiracy. Michael Land raised the issue in February in The New York Times Book Review, and in April Jacob Heilbrun, writing in The New York Review of Books, cited chapter and verse of Robertson's borrowings from well-known anti-Semitic works.^[17]

Business interests[link]

Robertson is the founder and chairman of The Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) Inc., and founder of International Family Entertainment Inc., Regent University, Operation Blessing International Relief and Development Corporation, American Center for Law and Justice, The Flying Hospital, Inc. and several other organizations and broadcast entities. Robertson was the founder and co-chairman of International Family Entertainment Inc. (IFE).

Formed in 1990, IFE produced and distributed family entertainment and information programming worldwide. IFE's principal business was The Family Channel, a satellite delivered cable-television network with 63 million U.S. subscribers. IFE, a publicly held company listed on the New York Stock Exchange, was sold in 1997 to Fox Kids Worldwide, Inc. for $1.9 billion, whereupon it was renamed Fox Family Channel. Disney acquired FFC in 2001 and its name was changed again, to ABC Family.

Robertson is a global businessman with media holdings in Asia, the United Kingdom, and Africa. He struck a deal with Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based General Nutrition Center to produce and market a weight-loss shake he created and promoted on The 700 Club.

In 1999, Robertson entered into a joint venture with the Bank of Scotland to provide financial services in the United States. However, the move was met with criticism in the UK due to Robertson's views on homosexuality. Robertson commented that “In Europe, the big word is tolerance. You tolerate everything. Homosexuals are riding high in the media ... And in Scotland, you can't believe how strong the homosexuals are." Shortly afterward, the Bank of Scotland canceled the venture.^[18][19]

Robertson's extensive business interests have earned him a net worth estimated between $200 million and $1 billion.^[20]

A fan of Thoroughbred horse racing, Robertson paid $520,000 for a colt he named Mr. Pat. Trained by John Kimmel, Mr. Pat was not a successful runner. He was nominated for, but did not run in, the 2000 Kentucky Derby.^[21][22]

According to a June 2, 1999, article in The Virginian-Pilot,^[23] Robertson had extensive business dealings with Liberian president Charles Taylor. According to the article, Taylor gave Robertson the rights to mine for diamonds in Liberia's mineral-rich countryside. According to two Operation Blessing pilots who reported this incident to the state of Virginia for investigation in 1994, Robertson used his Operation Blessing planes to haul diamond-mining equipment to Robertson's mines in Liberia, despite the fact that Robertson was telling his 700 Club viewers that the planes were sending relief supplies to the victims of the genocide in Rwanda. In response to Taylor's alleged crimes against humanity, the United States Congress passed a bill In November 2003 that offered two million dollars for his capture. Robertson accused President George W. Bush of "undermining a Christian, Baptist president to bring in Muslim rebels to take over the country." At the time Taylor was harboring Al Qaeda operatives who were funding their operations through the illegal diamond trade.^[24] On February 4, 2010, at his war crimes trial in the Hague, Taylor testified that Robertson was his main political ally in the U.S., and that he had volunteered to make Liberia's case before U.S. administration officials in exchange for concessions to Robertson's Freedom Gold, Ltd., to which Taylor gave a contract to mine gold in southeast Liberia.^[25] In 2010, a spokesman for Robertson said that the company's arrangements — in which the Liberian government got a 10 percent equity interest in the company and Liberians could purchase at least 15 percent of the shares after the exploration period — were similar to many American companies doing business in Africa at the time.^[26]

Political activism[link]

After his unsuccessful presidential campaign, Robertson started the Christian Coalition, a 1.7 million member Christian right organization that campaigned mostly for conservative candidates.^[4] It was sued by the Federal Election Commission "for coordinating its activities with Republican candidates for office in 1990, 1992 and 1994 and failing to report its expenditures".^[27]

In 1994, the Coalition was fined for "improperly [aiding] then Representative Newt Gingrich (R-GA) and Oliver North, who was then the Republican Senate nominee in Virginia."^[28] Robertson left the Coalition in 2001.

Robertson has been a governing member of the Council for National Policy (CNP): Board of Governors 1982, President Executive Committee 1985–86, member, 1984, 1988, 1998.^[29]

On November 7, 2007, Robertson announced that he was endorsing Rudy Giuliani to be the Republican nominee in the 2008 Presidential election.^[30]

While usually associated with the political right, Pat Robertson has endorsed environmental causes. He appeared in a commercial with Al Sharpton, joking about this, and urging people to join the We can Solve it Campaign against global warming.^[31]

In January 2009, on a broadcast of The 700 Club, Robertson stated that he is "adamantly opposed" to the division of Jerusalem between Israel and the Palestinians. He also stated that Armageddon is "not going to be fought at Megiddo" but will be the "battle of Jerusalem," when "the forces of all nations come together and try to take Jerusalem away from the Jews. Jews are not going to give up Jerusalem — they shouldn't — and the rest of the world is going to insist they give it up." Robertson added that Jerusalem is a "spiritual symbol that must not be given away" because "Jesus Christ the Messiah will come down to the part of Jerusalem that the Arabs want," and that's "not good."^[32]

Robertson has repeatedly called for the legalization of marijuana, saying that it should be treated in a manner analogous to the regulation of alcohol and tobacco.^[33] Robertson has said, "I just think it's shocking how many of these young people wind up in prison and they get turned into hard-core criminals because they had a possession of a very small amount of controlled substance. The whole thing is crazy."^[34]

Controversies and criticisms[link]

Robertson has made numerous statements on a wide-range of issues that have attracted criticism. Some of his remarks, such as those concerning the September 11th attacks, have been condemned by sitting Presidents and have been the subject of national and international media attention. Despite a long history of often extremely controversial statements, Robertson has remained a powerful figure both religiously and politically.

Controversies surrounding Robertson include his earlier work as a faith healer,^[35] his claim that some Protestant denominations harbor the spirit of the Antichrist,^[36] and his claims of having the power to deflect hurricanes through prayer;^[37] he has also denounced Hinduism as "demonic"^[38] and Islam as "Satanic."^[39] Robertson has issued multiple condemnations of feminism,^[40] homosexuality,^[41] abortion^[42] and liberal college professors.^[43] Robertson also had financial ties to former presidents Charles Taylor^[44] of Liberia and Mobutu Sese Seko^[24] of Zaire, both internationally denounced for their human rights violations. Robertson was criticized worldwide for his call for Hugo Chavez’s assassination^[24] and for his remarks concerning Ariel Sharon's health as an act of God.^[45] Robertson made American national news in October 2003 for interviews with author Joel Mowbray about his book "Dangerous Diplomacy", a book critical of the United States Department of State. Robertson made suggestions that the explosion of a nuclear weapon at State Department Headquarters would be good for the country, and repeated those comments on the air.^[46]

The week of September 11, 2001, Robertson discussed the terror attacks with Jerry Falwell, who said that "the ACLU has to take a lot of blame for this" in addition to "the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays, and the lesbians [who have] helped [the terror attacks of September 11th] happen." Robertson replied, "I totally concur."^[47] Both evangelists came under attack from President George W. Bush for their statements,^[48] for which Falwell later issued an apology.^[49]

Less than two weeks after Hurricane Katrina killed 1,836 people, Robertson implied on the September 12th broadcast of The 700 Club that the storm was God's punishment in response to America's abortion policy. He suggested that September 11 and the disaster in New Orleans "could... be connected in some way".^[50]

On November 9, 2009, Robertson said that Islam is "a violent political system bent on the overthrow of the governments of the world and world domination." He went on to elaborate that "you're dealing with not a religion, you're dealing with a political system, and I think we should treat it as such, and treat its adherents as such as we would members of the communist party, members of some fascist group."^[51]

Robertson's response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake also drew controversy and condemnation.^[52][53] Robertson claimed that Haiti's founders had sworn a "pact to the Devil" in order to liberate themselves from the French slave owners and indirectly attributed the earthquake to the consequences of the Haitian people being "cursed" for doing so.^[54][55] CBN later issued a statement saying that Robertson's comments "were based on the widely-discussed 1791 slave rebellion led by Dutty Boukman at Bois Caiman, where the slaves allegedly made a famous pact with the devil in exchange for victory over the French."^[56][57] Various prominent voices of mainline and evangelical^[58] Christianity promptly denounced Robertson's remarks as false, untimely, insensitive, and not representative of Christian thought on the issue.^[52][59]

Predictions[link]

Several times near New Year, Robertson has announced that God told him several truths or events that would happen in the following year. "I have a relatively good track record," he said. "Sometimes I miss."^[60]

1982: Doomsday[link]

In late 1976, Robertson predicted that the end of the world was coming in October or November 1982. In a May 1980 broadcast of The 700 Club he stated, "I guarantee you by the end of 1982 there is going to be a judgment on the world."^[61]

In September 2011, Robertson and several others who incorrectly predicted various dates for the end of world were jointly awarded an Ig Nobel Prize for "teaching the world to be careful when making mathematical assumptions and calculations".^[62][63]

2004: Bush landslide[link]

In January 2004, Robertson said that God told him President Bush will be re-elected in a "blowout" in November. "I think George Bush is going to win in a walk," Robertson told viewers of his "700 Club" program. "I really believe I'm hearing from the Lord it's going to be like a blowout election in 2004. It's shaping up that way."^[64] Bush did in fact win re-election, but not in a landslide. The 2004 race between Bush and Kerry was one of the closest large elections in history.^[65]

2006: Pacific Northwestern tsunami[link]

In May 2006, Robertson declared that storms and possibly a tsunami would hit America's coastline sometime in 2006. Robertson supposedly received this revelation from God during an annual personal prayer retreat in January. The claim was repeated four times on The 700 Club.

On May 8, 2006, Robertson said, "If I heard the Lord right about 2006, the coasts of America will be lashed by storms." On May 17, 2006, he elaborated, "There well may be something as bad as a tsunami in the Pacific Northwest."^[66] While this claim didn't garner the same level of controversy as some of his other statements, it was generally received with mild amusement by the Pacific Northwest media. The History Channel's initial airing of its new series, Mega Disasters, debut episode "West Coast Tsunami", was broadcast the first week of May.

2007: Terror attack[link]

On the January 2, 2007, broadcast of The 700 Club, Robertson said that God spoke to him and told him that "mass killings" were to come during 2007, due to a terrorist attack on the United States. He added, "The Lord didn't say nuclear. But I do believe it will be something like that."^[67] When a terrorist attack failed to happen in 2007, Robertson said, in January 2008, "All I can think is that somehow the people of God prayed and God in his mercy spared us."^[68]

2008: Worldwide violence and American recession[link]

On the January 2, 2008 episode of The 700 Club, Pat Robertson predicted that 2008 would be a year of worldwide violence. He also predicted that a recession would occur in the United States that would be followed by a stock market crash by 2010.^[68] However, there was a decrease in overall deaths for the period,^[69] and the American economy had already entered a recession in 2007, with increased household debt^[70] and the collapse of financial institutions.^[71]

2008: Mideast meltdown[link]

In October 2008, Robertson posted a press release on the Georgian Conflict speculating that the conflict is a Russian ploy to enter the Middle East, and that instability caused by a predicted pre-emptive strike by Israel on Iran would result in Syria's and Iran's launching nuclear strikes on other targets. He also said that if the United States were to oppose Russia's expansion, nuclear strikes on American soil are also pending. "We will suffer grave economic damage, but will not engage in military action to stop the conflict. However, we may not be spared nuclear strikes against coastal cities. In conclusion, it is my opinion that we have between 75 and 120 days before the Middle East starts spinning out of control."^[72]

2009: Economic chaos and recovery[link]

On the January 1, 2009 broadcast of The 700 Club, Robertson said, "If I'm hearing [God] right, gold will go to about $1900 an ounce and oil to $300 a barrel." He also suggested that Americans would broadly accept socialism. Despite these predictions, he also said that economically, "things are getting ready to turn around."^[73]

2012: Presidential Election[link]

On January 4, 2012, Robertson reported that God had spoke to him and he "thinks He showed me the next president" but wouldn't name who it is.^[74] He did give an indication that it wouldn't be President Obama since Robertson said God told him Obama's views were at "odds with the majority", but left some room for interpretation if the 2012 election expands beyond a two-person race.^[75]

Works[link]

• Shout it from the Housetops an autobiography with Jamie Buckingham (1972, repr 1995)
• The Secret Kingdom (1982)
• Answers to 200 of Life's Most Probing Questions (1984)
• Beyond Reason: How Miracles can Change your Life (1985)
• America's Dates with Destiny (1986)
• The Plan (1989)
• The New Millennium (1990)
• The New World Order (1991)
• Turning Tide: The Fall of Liberalism and the Rise of Common Sense (1993) ISBN 978-0-8499-0972-6
• The End of the Age (1995, fiction)
• Bring It on: Tough Questions, Candid Answers, Nashville, Tenn: W Pub. Group, 2003. ISBN 978-0-8499-1801-8
• The Ten Offenses (2004)
• Courting Disaster (2004)

See also[link]

Biography portal

• The 700 Club
• Christian Broadcasting Network
• Christian right
• Christian fundamentalism
• Christian Coalition of America
• Christian Zionism
• Moral majority
• Operation Blessing

References[link]