A Redefinition

David West is Robertson’s press coordinator, obviously a good man to have around when the questioning gets tough. When I made it plain that I was not satisfied with the wall Robertson had erected against my inquiries, West simply redefined the Robertson act:What is happening is not faith-healing, and Pat Robertson does not fit my definition of a faith-healer. What happens in oversimplified terms is that prayer is offered for healing, healing occurs, and knowledge is given to the person who prayed. It isn’t nearly as direct and specific as someone coming to town and holding a healing meeting.

West then said he believed that I did not “understand” and was not maintaining an open mind. He suggested that I contact “other churches” for the evidence I seek, or that I advertise for those who have been healed. Well, Mr. West, I have done both of those things, and none of my efforts has been successful. I know that does not concern you, because your concern must be the work and the reputation of the Reverend Pat Robertson. And Robertson has refused to produce one case of his that will stand examination. It does not take a genius to conclude that something is wrong here. A friend of mine in the entertainment business who claims to have close ties to Robertson assured me that he would be able to produce evidence of genuine healing by the Robertson ministry, but after eight months of half-answers and no answers, he abandoned the attempt. Robertson simply would not respond, even to him. But Pat Robertson is a man who, like Oral Roberts, must be right because he is convinced he is a spokesperson for Almighty God. He takes no criticism of any kind, for that would be criticism of God. He deals summarily with employees who displease him. An IBM-trained personnel manager who says he was hired by Robertson to evaluate the situation at the “700 Club” found a number of irregularities and submitted his report to Robertson. He was not only fired on the spot, but was physically ejected from the building. One thing he’d discovered was that Robertson was testing potential employees with a questionnaire that had been designed to test for criminal personality traits.

The tv Special to End Them All

In 1979, it appeared to Robertson’s staff that their boss had been taking lessons from Oral Roberts. One plan CBN came up with sounded as if Roberts had thought it up and was acting as Robertson’s publicity man. They proposed to film the Second Coming! Examining scripture, Robertson had decided that recent actions by Israel had indicated that this event was imminent, and his staff was so convinced of that idea that they decided to record it on videotape. It was decided to call this top-secret idea “God’s Special Project” (GSP), and the staff began planning for the ultimate TV show. In Salvation for Sale, Gerry Straub admits that even he took the plan seriously for a while:The greatest show on earth was in our hands. I wondered where we would put the cameras. Jerusalem was the obvious place. We even discussed how Jesus’s radiance might be too bright for the cameras and how we would have to make adjustments for that problem. Can you imagine telling Jesus, “Hey, Lord, please tone down your luminosity; we’re having a problem with the contrast. You’re causing the picture to flare.” ... The concept of pulling together a project in which every person could witness the Second Coming of Jesus on his or her television—and in his or her own language—boggled my mind.... In the world outside the walls of CBN such delusional states are treated with hospitalization and therapy. Inside CBN, budget allocations are made for their development.

The project was not developed, but may still be under consideration in the mind of Pat Robertson. Author Martin Gardner, writing on the Robertson ministry, found the GSP story easier to accept than one that Robertson himself told in his book Beyond Reason. He reported that a 12-year-old girl had been killed by a car as she ran out of the Mount Vernon, New York, church where he was assistant pastor early in his career. The following day, Robertson led the entire congregation in prayers before the open casket of the embalmed body, praying for her resurrection. I will let Gardner close the story:Pause a moment to savor this scene. Here is a man who wants to be president. He actually believes that perhaps God, hearing his prayer, will revivify a corpse. Did not Jesus call Lazarus from the grave after his body (as Martha said) “stinketh”? Did he not turn water into wine? It would be no big deal—after all a miracle is a miracle—for Jesus to resurrect the poor girl and turn her embalming fluid into blood of the right blood type.

Robertson sees nothing unusual or funny about this incident. “She did not rise,” he concluded solemnly, “and we buried her on Tuesday.”

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