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 Kristi 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 guests 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, especially in its disagreements with the Palestinians and the U.N. 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.
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.[link] 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 was renamed the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), its content similar to a general entertainment station, but with many religious shows, including The 700 Club which aired three times a day. During the 1970s CBN acquired other stations. These stations were sold separately in the 1980s. During this period The 700 Club aired on CBN which became a syndicated cable TV station.
The 700 Club now airs on ABC Family, part of a contractual obligation originally made when Robertson's "Family Channel" (another cable TV station) was sold to Fox Broadcasting Company [link] [link].
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: "We have the ability to take him out."
Two days later, Robertson told his audience "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 Chávez. 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.[link] Israel also removed Robertson from a deal ensuring his involvement in the development of a Christian theme park near the Sea of Galilee. Ultimately, Robertson apologized directly to Sharon's son, who accepted the apology.
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 for the Dover Area School District in Dover, Pennsylvania earlier that week. The episode aired on the ABC Family Channel with a 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 and to not ask Him for help in the event of a natural disaster.
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.Controversy
The 700 Club, as well as Pat Robertson, have been the target of large controversies. One such controversy is that the 700 Club often advertises that people who view the 700 Club, have been healed in a physical or spiritual manner. Claims include people who have suffered from migraines for years, people with near malaria symptoms, and general ailments and serious medical issues. Letters from people who have supposedly been cured, in a manner they believe to be a miracle, are often read on the program. These claims are often highly preposterous, asserting that by watching the 700 Club on television, you might have a miracle and be cured of a serious medical issue requiring the use of modern medicine.Another includes a claim made by Pat Robertson on the show. He advertised and endorsed an energy drink that he claimed gave him strength and vitality. One of his claims is that by drinking the energy drink, he was able to leg press 2000 lbs. This is highly false as the world record for weight on a leg press is much lower than Pat Robertson's claim, and the person who made the record, broke a blood vessel in their eye. The energy drink was soon removed due to this controversy.
External links
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