M. G. "Pat" Robertson has achieved national and international recognition as a religious broadcaster, philanthropist, educator, religious leader, businessman, and author. He 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.
Founded in 1960, CBN was the first Christian television network established in the United States. Today CBN is one of the world's largest television ministries and produces programming seen in 200 nations and heard in 70 languages including Russian, Arabic, Spanish, French and Chinese. CBN's flagship program, The 700 Club, which Mr. Robertson hosts, can be seen in 97 percent of television markets across the United States and is one of the longest running religious television shows that reaches an average of one million American viewers daily.
Operation Blessing International Relief and Development Corporation, founded by Mr. Robertson in 1978, is a non-profit relief and development organization with a mission statement "to demonstrate God's love by alleviating human need and suffering in the United States and around the world." OBI has touched the lives of more than 292 million people in 105 countries and 50 states, providing goods and services valued at over $4.2 billion. To help break the cycle of suffering, OBI implements programs that focus on the primary goals of providing hunger relief, medical aid, disaster relief, and community development that will make a significant, long-term impact on those in need.
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. Disney acquired the Fox Family Channel in 2001 and named it ABC Family.
Located in Virginia Beach, Virginia, Regent University was founded in 1977 by Robertson, who now serves as its chief executive officer and chancellor. Regent is a fully accredited university that offers associate, master's and doctoral degrees-online and on campus-in business, communication & the arts, divinity, education, government, law, leadership, and psychology & counseling. Regent University is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, and has an enrollment of nearly 7,500 students.
Robertson is founder and president of the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), a public interest law firm and education group that defends the First Amendment rights of people of faith. The law firm focuses on pro-family, pro-liberty and pro-life cases nationwide.
Marion Gordon "Pat" Robertson was born on March 22, 1930, in Lexington, Virginia, to A. Willis Robertson and Gladys Churchill Robertson. His father served for 34 years in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate. Robertson's ancestry includes Benjamin Harrison, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and governor of Virginia, and two United States presidents, William Henry Harrison and Benjamin Harrison, the great-grandson of the signer of the Declaration of Independence. Robertson also shares ancestry with Winston Churchill.
After graduating with honors from McCallie School in Chattanooga, Tennessee, a military prep school, Robertson entered Washington and Lee University in 1946, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. In 1948 he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve. After graduating magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Washington and Lee in 1950, Robertson served as the assistant adjutant of the First Marine Division in combat in Korea. He was promoted to first lieutenant in 1952 upon his return to the United States. Robertson received a juris doctor degree from Yale University Law School in 1955 and a master of divinity degree from New York Theological Seminary in 1959.
In November 1959 Robertson left New York with his wife, Dede, and their three children and drove to Tidewater, Virginia, where he planned to buy a bankrupt UHF television station in Portsmouth. Arriving with only seventy dollars in his pocket, Robertson proceeded to raise the finances to purchase the station. CBN was formed January 11, 1960, and on October 1, 1961, CBN went on the air for the first time.
Robertson is the author of nineteen books including "Right On The Money," "The Greatest Virtue," "Miracles Can Be Yours Today," "Courting Disaster," "The Ten Offenses," "Bring It On," "Six Steps To Revival," "The Turning Tide," "The New Millennium," "The New World Order," "Shout It From The Housetops," and his first fiction, "The End of the Age." "The Secret Kingdom" was number three on Time magazine's national non-fiction list. "The New World Order" was number four on the New York Times' non-fiction list of America's best selling books. "The Secret Kingdom," "Answers to 100 of Life's Most Probing Questions," and "The New World Order" were each in their respective year of publication the number one religious book in America.
Numerous governors, state legislators and mayors have recognized Robertson's humanitarian efforts with citations. The Virginia Association of Broadcasters presented Dr. Robertson with the 2002 Distinguished Virginian Award. In 1982, he was named Humanitarian of the Year by Food for the Hungry. In 1988 Robertson was named Man of the Year by Students for America. Robertson was named Christian Broadcaster of the Year by National Religious Broadcasters in 1989, and in 2008 was inducted into the Virginia Cable Hall of Fame. In 1992, Robertson was selected by Newsweek magazine as one of America's 100 Cultural Elite. In recognition of his steadfast support for the nation of Israel, Robertson received the Defender of Israel Award in January 1994 from the Christians' Israel Public Action Campaign, and a Lifetime Achievement Award for Support of Israel in 2008 by the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. In March 2000, Robertson received the prestigious Cross of Nails award for his vision, inspiration and humanitarian work with the Flying Hospital. The award was presented for the first time in the United States in more than 25 years. In July 2002, Robertson was presented with The State of Israel Friendship Award by the Chicago chapter of the Zionist Organization of America. In May 2009, he received the New York Theological Seminary Distinction in Ministry Award as well as having been inducted into the Hampton Roads Business Hall of Fame. And in June, 2013, he received the Winston Churchill Lifetime Achievement Award, the first of its kind awarded by the Faith & Freedom Coalition in Washington, DC.
Robertson is past president of the prestigious Council on National Policy. In 1982 he served on President Ronald Reagan's Task Force on Victims of Crime. He previously served on the Board of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership and on the Governor's Council of Economic Advisors in the State of Virginia. Robertson founded and served as a past president of the Christian Coalition of America until his resignation in late 2001.
Pat and Dede Robertson have four children, fourteen grandchildren, seven great grandchildren, and reside in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
Terry Meeuwsen was born and raised in the Green Bay area of Wisconsin, where she grew up the oldest of four siblings. Gifted from a young age, Terry developed her God-given vocal talent, eventually joining the New Christy Minstrels for two years before turning her attention to a larger stage. Terry was crowned Miss America 1973 and she used her new platform to share her faith.
Winning the Miss America crown helped Terry launch a career in broadcasting that would ultimately bring her to the Christian Broadcasting Network. Since 1993, Terry has been the warm, engaging personality greeting The 700 Club guests and over a million viewers across the country on weekday mornings. Serving as co-host with Pat and Gordon Robertson, the trio has shared the love of God with millions of viewers from the CBN studios in Virginia Beach, VA over the last 23 years.
Terry is also an accomplished author, with four titles to her name, including The God Adventure, a story of God's power and purpose in her life.
A lifelong advocate for children, Terry and her husband Andy are the parents of seven, including five adopted children. It was this passion for adoption that led Terry to launch Orphan's Promise in 2006. Orphan's Promise is CBN's ministry to children around the world; it recently celebrated 10 years of taking vulnerable children from at-risk to thriving.
To find out more about Orphan's Promise, visit OrphansPromise.org.
Gordon Robertson was named chief executive officer of CBN on December 1, 2007. Prior to becoming CEO, Gordon was the vice president of CBN International, the executive producer of The 700 Club and a member of CBN's board of directors.
The son of Pat and Dede Robertson, Gordon graduated from Yale University in 1980 and earned his Juris Doctor degree from Washington and Lee University in 1984. He practiced law in Norfolk, Virginia, for 10 years.
In 1994, Gordon moved to the Philippines and founded CBN Asia. In 1995, he also founded the Asian Center for Missions (ACM), dedicated to training and sending Asian missionaries throughout the world. ACM is now the largest missionary agency in the Philippines with more than 2,000 graduates trained in cross-cultural missions. In 1996, Gordon started CBN Asia's flagship television show, The 700 Club Asia, which is now one of the longest-running Christian television shows in the Philippines and is distributed by satellite around the world. Also in 1996, CBN Asia started a humanitarian organization, Operation Blessing Philippines, which has been recognized as "NGO of the Year" by the Philippine government.
Following the model created in Manila, Gordon started CBN centers in Indonesia, India, Thailand, Hong Kong, and Beijing in 1998 and 1999. After those centers successfully launched, Gordon returned to the USA in 1999. He now co-hosts CBN's original flagship program The 700 Club, as well as 700 Club Interactive, a daily show airing on ABC Family. Gordon oversees all aspects of programming for the ministry in both television and on the Internet.
Gordon is also the executive producer of Superbook, the reimagined animation series, whose mission is to bring the stories of the Bible to the children of the world. The new Superbook has been broadcast to 118 million viewers in 75 countries.
Gordon has also produced award-winning special programs such as Temple of Heaven, filmed in Beijing, China, in 2002; the three-time Emmy-nominated documentary Made in Israel in 2013; and The Hope: The Rebirth of Israel in 2015.
Gordon and his wife, Katharyn, reside in Virginia with their three children.
Wendy Griffith is a Co-host for The 700 Club and an Anchor and Senior Reporter for the Christian Broadcasting Network based in Virginia Beach, Virginia. In addition to The 700 Club, Wendy co-anchors Christian World News, a weekly show that focuses on the triumphs and challenges of the global church. (https://www.facebook.com/CBNCWN).
Wendy started her career at CBN on Capitol Hill, where she was the networkÂ’s Congressional Correspondent during the Impeachment trial of former President Bill Clinton. She then moved to the Virginia Beach headquarters in 2000 to concentrate on stories with a more spiritual emphasis. She has also traveled internationally, covering stories such as the hostage drama of missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham in the Philippines, the spiritual crisis over homosexuality in the Episcopal Church, the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah in northern Israel and more recently, she traveled to Jordan for an in-depth look at the plight of Syrian refugees who escaped from their war-torn country to find refuge in Jordan.
She began her television career at NBC affiliate KYEL-TV in Yuma, Ariz., in 1987 after graduating from West Virginia University in 1986 with a B.S. in Journalism. She then went on to work in several television markets across the country as an anchor/reporter, including two stints at ABC affiliate WCHS-TV in Charleston, West Virginia, her hometown. Wendy became a first time author in September of 2011 when she co-authored her first book, Praying the News, Your Prayers are More Powerful than You know. Her second book, You are a Prize to be Won! Don't settle for Less than God's Best, was released in January 2014.
Follow Wendy on Twitter @WendygCBN and "like" her at Facebook.com/WendyGriffithCBN.