I think that Dr. Pat Robertson influenced this nation, the Church, and the world in an amazing way because he leaped over the wall, became involved in the political system, let his voice be heard at a time that most clergymen stood apart from and pointed their finger at the White House. He chose to engage the process, rallied the Christians and caused them to become engaged in a language that the political regime in our country would understand.
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He began to develop the Christian Coalition. I went to the (National Prayer) Breakfast with him a time or two and listened to him as he began to challenge Christians to just become involved in a way that before Pat Robertson, I think many of the Church world stood aloof from the political process.
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His ability to develop CBN and to project the kind of programming for thinking, intellectual people who had values of faith and wanted to engage their faith into their intellectualism in a comprehensive way had never been done like he did it. To provide news from the Christian perspective was something that had never been done (and) still never done the way that he did it.
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When you think of Pat Robertson, I think one of the major lessons you learn (is) that if you have a dream, go after it, even if you fall short of it. To go after the presidency against all odds. For the first time the world had to take the church seriously in a way that heretofore they had relegated us over to stained glass windows and padded pews and said, "Stay in your little corner and go no further." He shattered the stained glass window. He shattered the glass ceiling and engaged the process. And from that point on, I believe that people of faith were taken seriously beyond the Church (meeting) house, into the White House.
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When I think of Pat Robertson, I think that what could be said about Pat Robertson is the same thing that was said about David -- that he served his generation well. I think that he walked the baby-boomers home sharing faith, sharing concepts, providing principles, and not only his own, but he created a platform for others to stand on and their views to be heard. Even if their views were different from his, he was broad enough in his capacity to engage others who thought differently and sometimes learn from them and sometimes challenge them.
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The secular media is a very interesting animal indeed. And I think that when you see it through the lens of faith, it can be a very harsh world to operate in. They were unrelenting in attacking Pat but I often teach pastors from this perspective (that) they never write about the planes that land safely, only the ones that crash, okay? And if you're on TV every day, every day through every week of your life, you're going to say something from time to time that is a crash. And they leap on the scenes with cameras. But that is a risk that we all take for being out front. And being a trail blazer, you're going to be shot at. Pat Robertson was a trail blazer and trail blazers take blows. He was strong enough to take a blow and stand back up again and open up the show the next day, and that is a rare breed of an individual.
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I encourage Christians to see death from the perspective of promotion. I really believe that we have to understand, as Paul said, "To be absent in the body is to be present with the Lord." To think of it as a graduation with honors, for which we have worked all of our lives to get an opportunity to go. And I think that if we see that, particularly as our bodies get older and we wrestle with arthritis and age and all the infirmities that go along with living a long life that eventually we know that if this earthly house or tabernacle should be dissolved that we have another building eternal in the heavens. And thank God, though Pat's steps began to grow shorter and dimmer in the latter years of his life, he's leaping and running right now.