Christian Zionism, CBN and other groups

 

The Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), the world's largest noncommercial broadcast network, was founded in 1961 by Pat Robertson.  CBN was at one time the largest supplier of 24-hour cable programming in the world, claiming to reach 66 foreign countries through 150 local stations, 2,500 satellite cable systems, and even through the U.S. Armed Forces Radio and Television Network. 

Best known for its flagship program "The 700 Club," CBN now encompasses a state-of-the-art broadcasting facility in Virginia (Langley?), CBN Cable Network, CBN Continental Broadcasting, Inc., Middle East Television, and several individual TV stations. CBN also is associated with CBN University, the National Legal Foundation, The Freedom Council, National Perspectives Institute, "Heads Up" literacy program, and the Committee for Freedom.  Operation Blessing is the humanitarian relief organization of CBN's "The 700 Club."

The CBN University, established in 1978 by Pat Robertson, has graduate programs in media. (6) In 1987 Oral Roberts University gave its law school and its $10 million law library to CBN University. (55) Pat Robertson is chancellor of CBN University. Holly Coors, Major General Curry (Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship), and Dee Jepsen (CREED) serve on its board of regents.  University president Bob G. Slosser is former assistant national editor of The New York Times.

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Robertson predicted a major depression would hit in the early 1980s, to be followed by nuclear war in 1982. That year, the newsletter went out of production.

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Above all, Pat Robertson is a politician and he has used CBN and its 700 Club and Operation Blessing to gather in followers and pursue his political goals which include making "Christian values" a part of our government. He is staunchly anticommunist and was a strong supporter of rightwing regimes opposing communism and of the Nicaraguan contras in their U.S. backed struggle against the Sandinistas. (35,58) He, along with evangelist Jerry Falwell, believed that the rightwing religious coalition could amass enough votes to run the country. Although the Falwell-Robertson political vision was not shared by the entire evangelical community, it did hold sway in the National Religious Broadcasters. Robertson joined forces with the New Right in an attempt to influence the Reagan administration and in 1988 it led to Robertson's brief candidacy for president.

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On these (sitcom) shows in Latin America, commercial time is sold, which for a time brought millions of dollars to the "nonprofit" ministry. This questionable activity aroused the interest of tax collectors, and resulted in the state of Massachusetts suing CBN for a full disclosure of its finances (as required of all charities in that state). Shortly after that suit was filed in 1978, CBN split off its TV and radio stations into a tax-paying for-profit company called CBN Continental Broadcasting Inc.

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Robertson, according to investigative reporter Sara Diamond, used his tax-exempt broadcast license to hold a fundraising telethon in the United States for the Guatemalan military and the Nicaraguan contras. (67) On "The 700 Club," Robertson has interviewed Adolfo Calero and Steadman Fagoth, contra leaders; Efrain Rios Montt, then-president of Guatemala known for massive human rights abuses; Jeremias Chitunda, an Angolan guerrilla leader; Ray Cline, former CIA deputy director of intelligence; several Israeli cabinet members, and even President Reagan in an exclusive interview.  One of his campaign pledges during his brief run for the presidency was to withdraw diplomatic recognition from Nicaragua and recognize the contras as a "government in exile."  Robertson also interviewed a former president of El Salvador, Alvaro Magana, and individuals connected with the Salvadoran death squads. He praised death squad leader Roberto D'Aubuisson of the ARENA party as a "very nice fellow." 

Significant air time has also been devoted to interviews with white South Africans and pleas for viewers to pray for stability there.  CBN has also invited a number of pro-government black South Africans to appear in the 700 Club program in the U.S.  Ben Kinchlow, the black co-host of "The 700 Club," travelled to South Africa ("he personally experienced no racism there") and conducted a live interview through satellite feed with South African Foreign Minister Pik Botha. This was at a time when secular U.S. journalists were not allowed access to Pretoria's top leaders. The interview centered on the negative consequences that would result from economic sanctions against South Africa.  More recently Robertson set up a television station to carry CBN programs in the Bophuthatswana homeland in South Africa.

CBN has been active in Israel, frequently promoting the program of the fundamentalist International Christian Embassy Jerusalem. (60) Robertson operates the most powerful television transmitter in the Middle East, MET, located in Southern Lebanon, and has had close contact with government leaders in Israel.

Operation Blessing in 1986 was sending $50,000 a month to Ethiopia in conjunction with the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID).  (USAID is a known CIA front, like NED, and the CIA also used the AFL-CIO and Peace Corps)

criticized the direction of the organization's political activities, involving some 75 full-time field workers and 200,000 contributors concentrated in states with key presidential primaries.

a Washington Post report said that the Freedom Council used millions of CBN dollars to elect Robertson supporters as delegates in Michigan.

The New York Times reported that the Freedom Council's name was changed to National Freedom Institute, and that on the same day, another Freedom Council was formed under the 501(c)(3) tax status.  Robertson organized, and CBN financed, the Committee for Freedom, a multicandidate political action committee.  (a lot of "freedom" here ....?)

CBN broadcast a 30-minute documentary film opposing ratification of the Reagan-Gorbachev INF pact designed to reduce mid-range nuclear weapons arsenals of both countries. The film, produced and distributed by The Conservative Caucus (TCC), included remarks by Senators Jesse Helms and Gordon Humphrey, retired military rightwingers Major General John K. Singlaub and Brigadeer General Albion Knight and TCC chairman Howard Phillips. 

(Singlaub and Phillips are on the Council for National Policy, and via those connections, act as collaborators with surviving Nazis and Japanese fascists.  http://www.seekgod.ca/cnp.sh.htm#singlaub)

ABA was reluctant to accredit the CBN law school because its funding is dependent upon the "fluctuating fortunes of Mr. Robertson's television ministry," and because its professors are forced to sign a statement of faith, which may compromise their academic freedom to present a broad range of ideas.

producing a children's Bible program for Soviet viewers ... permission to open a Ministry Center in Moscow ... broadcasting its Bible series,"Superbook," on Soviet state-run television

CBN is spearheading a grassroots movement called Christian Coalition,"a house united." The goal of this operation--similar to many others in the Christian Right--is "to make government and the media responsible to our concerns." Headquartered at CBN offices in Virginia, the coalition includes Christian stalwarts such as Beverly LaHaye, Rev. D. James Kennedy, Rev. Charles Stanley, and Father Michael Scanlan.  (Christian Coalition was an Al-Qaeda supporter, and LaHaye and D.J. Kennedy are also part of the CNP with it's fascist and CIA connections.)

In May 1985, CBN/Operation Blessing announced a $20 million relief campaign to send "humanitarian" supplies--food and medicine--to Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala. This joint CBN and AmeriCares effort brought supplies "of a strictly humanitarian nature" to refugees and displaced people. AmeriCares gathered the contributions of medicines, pharmaceutical supplies, and nutritional supplements, and CBN provided $2 million cash for shipping and handling. [Quotes in original AP story].  Several tons of the AmeriCares/CBN supplies were also transported to Guatemala and the Honduran Mosquitia region on U.S. Navy ships in the Navy's humanitarian aid program called "Operation Handclasp."  Some of the aid was to be distributed through Operation Blessing units in Central America, and also by Knights of Malta. While en route to Honduras in a C-130 full of medical supplies, Robertson told a reporter in Miami that "some [of this aid] may get to the contras." [...] Robertson was so popular among the contras that one group named itself the Pat Robertson Brigade. [...] On a trip to Honduras in 1985, Robertson met with President Roberto Suazo Cordova. (23) He also visited contra training camps in Honduras in June 1985, where he met with top leaders of the FDN and was saluted as a guest of honor.

(In a separate article in Mother Jones, a Florida hospital that Jeb Bush helped get more Medicaid and Medicare funding above legal limits, was used as a hospital for treating wounded Contras.)

Robertson:   "CBN is helping starving and displaced persons in 15 countries, including some in Central America. The help is absolutely non-political. Articles claiming support by CBN of the contras in Nicaragua are incorrect."  At a political fund-raiser in Chicago, Pat Robertson was asked about CBN's support for the contras. He refused to answer directly, but said,"The fact is that the communists make people suffer. If that makes it [Operation Blessing] political, then, I'm sorry, we're still going to help them."  (the communists were building the first medical centers and food distribution, with money that was supposed to be taken by US corporations)

A refugee worker said that in 1985, a CBN film team came to a World Relief refugee camp asking for gasoline. "I told them I would give them the fuel, but not if their vehicle belonged to the contras. They said it didn't. But when they came back a few days later, they admitted they had lied. The jeep belonged to Misura [contra forces]. CBN went down to do a story on freedom fighters. They weren't interested in refugees."

According to an August 1984 ACA newsletter article by ACA president Brig. Gen. Harry C. "Hienie" Aderholt (USAF Ret. ), the transport of 9-1/2 tons of supplies and medicines from Selfridge Air Force Base to Dulles Airport in Washington DC was provided by Operation Blessing of CBN. From there the supplies were shipped to El Salvador. [...]   Upon his return he noted that the political situation in the country was encouraging and attributed the improvement, at least in part, to "one of the strongest religious revivals in the world. Whenever you see that, you are not going to see communism and oppression."

Guatemala: Within a week of the 1982 coup which brought evangelical Gen. Efrain Rios Montt to power, Pat Robertson flew to Guatemala to meet with the new president. [...] Robertson also urged donations for International Love Lift, a relief project of Rios Montt's U.S. church, Gospel Outreach.  (elsewhere described as launched by a CIA psywar specialist)

Bizarre:   Operation Blessing has shared resources with Brotherhood of Nicaraguans and Food for the Hungry. All of its budget currently comes from the United States. Operation Blessing tries to combat malnutrition, but the administrator says that "the problem in Guatemala is not the lack of food but not knowing how to eat. We believe we can attack the problem of malnutrition by teaching people how to feed themselves."

(Don't know how to EAT?  My cat knows how to eat.  Babies know how to eat.  Besides PR propaganda, probably "taught" people to live on sparse rice and beans diets to fend off total starvation, and to accept survival as a blessing.)

Robert Warren, a retired U.S. Navy counterinsurgency expert, is head of Operation Blessing.

CBN's Operation Blessing's activities are also under fire for delivery of rancid food and defective equipment. Critics claim that Operation Blessing also greatly overvalues its donations and is "a great business, where the poor of the world are just another factor on the spreadsheet, some place to dump old food or defective toothbrushes."

The film "Jesus," produced by the Campus Crusade for Christ was hauled into remote areas (along with portable power equipment to run the equipment), often with the assistance of Missionary Aviation Fellowship planes. Campus Crusade for Christ, Bill Bright's evangelical, fundamentalist Christian organization, provided a week of training for CBN's 40 teams of evangelists involved in this campaign. (Campus Crusade for Christ was described to a reporter as "Agency", meaning a CIA psywar operation.)

Government Connections:

Pat Robertson is friends with Ronald Reagan and former Attorney General Edwin Meese.  Meese spoke at the dedication ceremony of the CBN University library.  In 1985, Pat Robertson toured Sudan at the invitation of then-Vice President George Bush.  Robertson has described Iran-Contra defendant Oliver North as "a personal associate."  Robertson and other CBN representatives met with White House officials about private aid to Guatemala.

The 1984 AmeriCares/CBN shipments were delivered from Norfolk, Virginia to the Honduran Mosquitia area and Guatemala by the U.S. Navy under "Operation Handclasp."   Under this program the Navy is permitted to accept relief supplies for its humanitarian aid program if the delivery will not cost the government any money or require special stops.

"Joseph Coors," wrote Al Weinrub in the Labor Report on Central America, "has used the power of the Coors financial dynasty not only to provide support to the contras, but to set a rightwing political agenda in the U.S.    Coors who serves on the CBN University board of Trustees, is a funder and cofounder along with Paul Weyrich founder of the Heritage Foundation, and a member of Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship International.  He was the chair of the Rocky Mountain region Reagan/Bush campaign in 1984.  He also has supported various groups organized by New Right tactician Paul Weyrich including the Catholic Center, a religious group that sent conservative "truth squads" to counteract the activities of liberal bishops, and the Free Congress Foundation, a group dedicated to electing (fake) conservatives to Congress.

Coors supported Lt. Gen. John Singlaub's U.S. Council for World Freedom (USCWF), the U.S. chapter of the World Anti-Communist League (WACL) (a Nazi front). USCWF and the Nicaraguan Refugee Fund (another Coor's cause) helped fund the Nicaraguan contras.  He was on the advisory council of the National Strategy Information Center, a rightwing think tank for military strategy, and a member of the secretive Council for National Policy.

Paul Weyrich, co-founder of Heritage has often acknowleged that he does not intend to "conserve" anything."We are different from previous generations of conservatives," Weyrich explained.

"We are no longer working to preserve the status quo. We are radicals, working to overturn the present power structure of the country."