Televangelist Pat Robertson resigned from the presidency and board of directors of the Christian Coalition Dec. 5 to focus his energies on the Christian Broadcasting Network and the weekday program The 700 Club. He founded the Coalition in 1989. Roberta Combs, the current executive vice president, succeeds him.
In addition to his "ministries," Robertson no doubt also will focus on elements of his personal business empire that Virginia magazine estimates as being worth $150 million. Those activities include trying to restart a recently purchased oil refinery near Los Angeles that had been closed for environmental reasons, and a partnership in the diamond trade with Charles Taylor, the bloody dictator of Liberia.
The Christian Coalition has been in decline ever since the departure of executive director Ralph Reed in 1997. Other key staff members left soon after that and the budget, once $25 million, plummeted to what is believed to be under $3 million.
The Coalition lost clout when some charged that their candidate cards, a principle tool of their political organizing, violated their tax-exempt status. That made many churches reluctant to help circulate the cards at services. The group suffered a further blow when the IRS ruled against them on the matter in 1999.
In the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack Robertson joined Jerry Falwell in blaming that incident on gay and liberal opponents. Most Americans rebuked those views. It is likely the fundraising difficulties that have affected most nonprofits in the post attack environment also affect the Coalition.
"It's hard to gauge right now what Robertson's resignation means," said Winnie Stachelberg, political director of the Human Rights Campaign. "Clearly the Christian Coalition has been in decline in terms of the effect of its message." But she considered it plus "any time someone who has been so virulently antigay in his messages" steps down.
"The Christian Coalition has been a sinking ship for several years, and now the captain has jumped overboard," said Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. "Without Robertson's money and political clout, it's only a matter of time before the organization collapses outright."
But Ralph Neas, executive director of People for the American Way, warned, the religious right "has never had more of its allies in positions of power than it does today." The 700 Club "will continue to be a forum for his extremist views."