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Pat Robertson, a religious broadcaster who turned a tiny Virginia station into the global Christian Broadcasting Network, tried a run for president and helped make religion central to Republican Party politics in America through his Christian Coalition, has died. He was 93. Robertson's death Thursday was announced by his broadcasting network. No cause was given. Robertson’s enterprises also included Regent University, an evangelical Christian school in Virginia Beach; the American Center for Law and Justice, which defends the First Amendment rights of religious people; and Operation Blessing, an international humanitarian organization. But for more than a half-century, Robertson was a familiar presence in American living rooms, known for his “700 Club” television show, and in later years, his televised pronouncements of God’s judgment on America for everything from homosexuality to the teaching of evolution. The money poured in as he solicited donations, his influence soared, and when he moved directly into politics by seeking the GOP presidential nomination in 1988, he brought a huge following with him. Robertson pioneered a now-common strategy of courting Iowa’s network of evangelical Christian churches, and finished in second place in the Iowa caucuses, ahead of Vice President George H.W. Bush. At the time, Jeffrey K. Hadden, a University of Virginia sociologist and a Robertson biographer, said Robertson's masterstroke was insisting that three million followers across the U.S. sign petitions before he would decide to run. The tactic gave him an army. ″He asked people to pledge that they’d work for him, pray for him and give him money,” Hadden told The Associated Press in 1988. ″Political historians may view it as one of the most ingenious things a candidate ever did.″ Robertson later endorsed Bush, who won the presidency. Pursuit of Iowa’s evangelicals is now a ritual for Republican hopefuls, including those currently seeking the White House in 2024. Robertson started the Christian Coalition in Chesapeake in 1989, saying it would further his campaign’s ideals. The coalition became a major force in Republican politics in the 1990s, mobilizing conservative voters through grass-roots activities. By the time of his resignation as the coalition's president in 2001 — Robertson said he wanted to concentrate on ministerial work — his impact on both religion and politics in the U.S. was “enormous,” according to John C. Green, an emeritus political science professor at The University of Akron. Many followed the path Robertson cut in religious broadcasting, Green told the AP in 2021. In American politics, Robertson helped “cement the alliance between conservative Christians and the Republican Party.” Marion Gordon “Pat” Robertson was born March 22, 1930, in Lexington, Virginia, to Absalom Willis Robertson and Gladys Churchill Robertson. His father served for 36 years as a U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator from Virginia. After graduating from Washington and Lee University, he served as assistant adjutant of the 1st Marine Division in Korea. He received a law degree from Yale University Law School, but failed the bar exam and chose not to pursue a law career. Robertson met his wife, Adelia “Dede” Elmer, at Yale in 1952. He was a Southern Baptist, she was a Catholic, earning a master’s in nursing. Eighteen months later, they ran off to be married by a justice of the peace, knowing neither family would approve. Robertson was interested in politics until he found religion, Dede Robertson told the AP in 1987. He stunned her by pouring out their liquor, tearing a nude print off the wall and declaring he had found the Lord. They moved into a commune in New York City’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood because Robertson said God told him to sell all his possessions and minister to the poor. She was tempted to return home to Ohio, “but I realized that was not what the Lord would have me do ... I had promised to stay, so I did,” she told the AP. Robertson received a master’s in divinity from New York Theological Seminary in 1959, then drove south with his family to buy a bankrupt UHF television station in Portsmouth, Va. He said he had just $70 in his pocket, but soon found investors, and CBN went on the air on Oct. 1, 1961. Established as a tax-exempt religious nonprofit, CBN brought in hundreds of millions, disclosing $321 million in “ministry support” in 2022 alone. One of Robertson’s innovations was to use the secular talk-show format on the network’s flagship show, the “700 Club,” which grew out of a telethon when Robertson asked 700 viewers for monthly $10 contributions. It was more suited to television than traditional revival meetings or church services, and gained a huge audience. “Here’s a well-educated person having sophisticated conversations with a wide variety of guests on a wide variety of topics,” said Green, the University of Akron political science professor. “It was with a religious inflection to be sure. But it was an approach that took up everyday concerns.” His guests eventually included several U.S. presidents — Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump. At times, his on-air pronouncements drew criticism. He claimed that the terrorist attacks that killed thousands of Americans on Sept. 11, 2001 were caused by God, angered by the federal courts, pornography, abortion rights and church-state separation. Talking again about 9-11 on his TV show a year later, Robertson described Islam as a violent religion that wants to “dominate” and “destroy,” prompting President George W. Bush to distance himself and say Islam is a peaceful and respectful religion. He called for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in 2005. Later that year, he warned residents of a rural Pennsylvania town not to be surprised if disaster struck them because they voted out school board members who favored teaching “intelligent design” over evolution. And in 1998, he said Orlando, Florida, should beware of hurricanes after allowing the annual Gay Days event. In 2014, he angered Kenyans when he warned that towels in Kenya could transmit AIDS. CBN issued a correction, saying Robertson “misspoke about the possibility of getting AIDS through towels.” Robertson also could be unpredictable: In 2010, he called for ending mandatory prison sentences for marijuana possession convictions. Two years later, he said on the “700 Club” that marijuana should be legalized and treated like alcohol because the government’s war on drugs had failed. Robertson condemned Democrats caught up in sex scandals, saying for example that President Bill Clinton turned the White House into a playpen for sexual freedom. But he helped solidify evangelical support for Donald Trump, dismissing the candidate's sexually predatory comments about women as an attempt “to look like he’s macho.” After Trump took office, Robertson interviewed the president at the White House. And CBN welcomed Trump advisers, such as Kellyanne Conway, as guests. But after President Trump lost to Joe Biden in 2020, Robertson said Trump was living in an “alternate reality” and should “move on,” news outlets reported. Robertson’s son, Gordon, succeeded him in December 2007 as chief executive of CBN, which is now based in Virginia Beach. Robertson remained chairman of the network and continued to appear on the “700 Club.” Robertson stepped down as host of the show after half a century in 2021, with his son Gordon taking over the weekday show. Robertson also was founder and chairman of International Family Entertainment Inc., parent of The Family Channel basic cable TV network. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. bought IFE in 1997. Regent University, where classes began in Virginia Beach in 1978, now has more than 30,000 alumni, CBN said in a statement. Robertson wrote 15 books, including “The Turning Tide” and “The New World Order.” His wife Dede, who was a founding board member of CBN, died last year at the age of 94. The couple had four children, 14 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren, CBN said in a statement. ____ Former Associated Press reporter Don Schanche contributed to this story.

Cynthia Weil, a Grammy-winning lyricist of great range and endurance who enjoyed a decades-long partnership with husband Barry Mann and helped write "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling," "On Broadway," "Walking in the Rain" and dozens of other hits, has died at age 82

Wendy Rush, the wife the executive who piloted the submersible that has been the subject of a desperate search after it went missing during a dive to the Titanic wreckage, has a personal connection to the ship.

Lena the Plug has been thrust into the limelight thanks to her notorious “collaboration” with porn star Jason Luv, but not all her sexual encounters have been so well choreographed. The OnlyFans star, who is known for her X-rated podcast ‘Plug Talk’, has revealed that she once had a threesome with an “A-lister” and her best friend, but admitted that she found the whole experience painfully “awkward”. ‘Plug Talk’ follows an unusual format, in that each episode sees Lena (real name Lena Nersesian) and her husband Adam22 interview a female porn actor and then have sex with her at the end. But, three-ways haven’t always come so naturally to the content creator, as she acknowledged in a resurfaced clip. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter In the video, posted to YouTube back in 2017, Lena and her pal Emily laughed about an encounter they’d had, apparently with a bonafide superstar. Introducing the eyebrow-raising anecdote, the adult influencer said: “Basically Emily and I became best friends the moment we locked eyes in March of 2016 and a week later we collabbed (sic) on a penis.” She explained: “This is Los Angeles, a lot of things can happen and Emily somehow was invited to hang out with a very attractive celebrity, A-list rapper.” Lena said that Emily pleaded with her to come along to the celeb’s house because she was too nervous to go alone, but the podcaster warned her: “If we go there together, he’s going to think that we’re both going to f**k him.” Sure enough, after smoking some weed and drinking some “really gross” wine, this is precisely what happened, even though Emily wanted the famous lover all to herself. “This is not only an awkward threesome because you didn't want me to join, but it was just awkward because he's awkward,” Lena recalled. She then recounted how, despite having “kissed a lot of girls” and even having had a girlfriend herself, she found her sexual dalliance with Emily almost unbearably cringe-inducing. “I've kissed my sister, I've kissed my cousins who are girls and none of those kisses felt as awkward as the kisses that Emily and I exchanged,” she said. “Me and her are best friends, but we also have a very mother-daughter/sister relationship.” However, this was not the end of the racy story, but simply the prelude to something even more risqué. Moving on to her budding relationship with Adam22 (real name Adam Grandmaison), Lena told viewers: “I've been seeing Adam for a few months and we are both sexually pretty open to having other girls join.” She then announced that they would be having sex with Emily “in an hour” and then “talk about it after” on the same YouTube video. “It's kind of weird and controversial to have your best friend join, but I trust Emily and this will just kind of be kind of fun,” she added. Eventually, Adam did join and the video cut to the aftermath. Posed that most clichéd of questions: “How was it for you?”, Adam replied: “It was probably one of the greatest experiences of my life.” They rapped up the clip with Lena leaning back on her bed with Adam and saying: “We're going to make a sex tape if you get me to a million subscribers and this man as well.” Suffice it to say, six years on, they each have more than a million subscribers. And, together, they’ve made a hell of a lot more than just one sex tape. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.