The 700 Club
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The 700 Club is the flagship news talk show of the Christian Broadcasting Network, airing on cable's ABC Family and in syndication throughout the United States and Canada. It is hosted by Pat Robertson and Terry Meeuwsen, with other on-air personalities being Kristy Watts, Lee Webb, Gordon Robertson, Scott Ross, and Lisa Ryan.
The show presents news stories from Robertson's religious and political perspective, often relating stories to passages from the Bible which are generally followed by commentary from the hosts. Celebrities and other guest are interviewed about religious views. The news segments frequently emphasize eschatology. The style of news reporting on the show has been criticized by many as unfairly biased, allegedly framing stories in a manner said to reflect Robertson's views.
The 700 Club strongly supports Israel. Among its frequent Jewish guests are Michael Medved and Rabbi Daniel Lapin, who share its conservative Judeo-Christian beliefs.
Religious lifestyle issues are presented with a distinct Pentecostal/charismatic flavor. Robertson is a Southern Baptist and was an ordained minister with that denomination from 1961 until he surrendered his credentials in 1987 to prepare for his unsuccessful presidential bid in 1988.
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History
In 1961, Robertson bought the license for WTOV, channel 27 in Portsmouth, Virginia. It had gone off the air five years earlier due to poor viewership. The station returned in October as WYAH, broadcasting twelve hours of Christian programming to the Hampton Roads market each day.
In 1962, the station suffered financially and almost closed. To keep the station on the air, WYAH decided to produce a special telethon edition of the show. For the telethon, Robertson set a goal of 700 members each contributing $10 a month, which was enough to support the station. Robertson referred to these members as the '700 Club' and the name stuck. The telethon was successful and is still held annually.
Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye Bakker started on the channel in 1964 as hosts of a children's show, Come On Over, which evolved into a talk show. The couple left WYAH in 1972 to join the Trinity Broadcasting Network where they developed the PTL Club. Some staffers at the station responded by destroying Bakker's sets and puppets before he left.[1] Robertson adopted the talk show format developed by Bakker (though without the puppets) and transformed the 700 Club from a nightly religious themed telethon to a religious talk show.
WYAH 27 became the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), a general entertainment station with many religious shows, including the 700 Club which airs three times a day. During the 1970s CBN acquired other stations. These stations were sold separately in the 1980s. WYAH was sold in 1989 and is now WGNT, Hampton Roads' UPN station. The 700 Club now airs on ABC Family, part of a contractual obligation originally made when Robertson's "Family Channel" was sold to Fox Broadcasting Company [2] [3].
International versions of The 700 Club are Club 700 Hoy, broadcast in Latin America, and The 700 Club With Paul and Fiona, in Great Britain. Begun in October 2004, the latter is co-hosted by Paul Jones and Fiona Hendley Jones.
The 700 Club and world leaders
The 700 Club has occasionally been the subject of controversy due to political statements made on the show by Pat Robertson.
In 2005, Robertson was quoted on the August 22 program saying this towards Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez: "If he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think we really ought to go ahead and do it,[]it's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war."
Two days later, Robertson back-pedaled and stated "I didn't say 'assassination.' I said our special forces should 'take him out.' And 'take him out' can be a number of things, including kidnapping; there are a number of ways to take out a dictator from power besides killing him. I was misinterpreted by the AP [Associated Press], but that happens all the time," Robertson said. Later that day, he issued a statement apologizing for the assassination remark, but still had harsh words for Chavez. However, he had no comment on the matter during the next day's edition of his show. Robertson continues to refer to Chávez as a dictator. Since the incident, ABC Family has run a disclaimer before each show that says "The following CBN telecast does not reflect the views of ABC Family."
On January 5, 2006, Robertson commented on the grave condition Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was in following a cerebral hemorrhage: "God considers this land to be his...You read the Bible and he says 'This is my land,' and for any prime minister of Israel who decides he is going to carve it up and give it away, God says, 'No, this is mine'...[Sharon] was dividing God's land and I would say woe unto any prime minister of Israel who takes a similar course to appease the European Union, the United Nations, or the United States of America."
On January 11, 2006, Israel suspended contact with evangelist Pat Robertson for suggesting Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke was divine punishment for withdrawing from the Gaza Strip.[4] Israel pulled Robertson out of a deal ensuring his involvement in the development of a Christian theme park near the Sea of Galilee.
The 700 Club and intelligent design
The 700 Club has strongly defended the teaching of intelligent design in public schools. On the November 10, 2005 broadcast of The 700 Club, Robertson made a strongly worded statement about a local school board election in Dover, Pennsylvania earlier that week. The episode aired on the ABC Family Channel with a strong disclaimer that the program did not reflect the views of that station. In this broadcast, he told the citizens of Dover that they had rejected God by voting members of the school board who supported intelligent design out of office:
- I'd like to say to the good citizens of Dover: if there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God, you just rejected Him from your city, and don't wonder why He hasn't helped you when problems begin, if they begin. I'm not saying they will, but if they do, just remember, you just voted God out of your city. And if that's the case, don't ask for His help because he might not be there.
In a written statement, Robertson later said further: "God is tolerant and loving, but we can't keep sticking our finger in his eye forever. If they have future problems in Dover, I recommend they call on Charles Darwin. Maybe he can help them."
700 Club Asia
The 700 Club is also shown across Asia, but the hosts of the show are different. Peter Kairuz hosts this program along with Chat Silayan and Dulce. It is seen on ABS-CBN (no relation to Pat Roberson's CBN) and Studio 23 in the Philippines.