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Should we bring out the tiny violin for Pat Robertson?
Regent University is in dire financial straits, but it received help last week from the Christian Broadcasting Network, according to a report released on Wednesday by Moody’s Investors Service.M.G. (Pat) Robertson, the influential evangelical broadcaster, founded both the network and Regent University, which was originally called CBN University. Both are located in Virginia Beach, Va., and Mr. Robertson is Regent’s chancellor and president.
The university’s fiscal footing began to slide in 2006, when its bond rating was downgraded because of deficits and weak fund-raising. Regent’s money problems have accelerated since then. Annual operating deficits averaged 26 percent from 2007 to 2009, according to Moody’s, and its endowment draw was a whopping 11 percent in 2008, more than double the normal payout rate.
…Moody’s reports that last year the university had only $1.3-million in liquid assets, which could cover roughly six days of operating costs. But Mr. Robertson’s television network came to the rescue on June 24, relaxing restrictions on a $95-million gift it made to the university in 1992. The money had been classified as “permanently restricted net assets,” but now Regent will be able to spend it freely, which will improve the university’s liquidity crisis.
And even after the infusion of cash, the school, which prides itself in graduating “Warriors for Christ” that entered into the halls of government under George W. Bush’s reign of terror, is under a lot of pressure to get its finances under control. Over at Michael-in-Norfok, we learn some interesting information:
While Regent has helped non-Christo-fascists by affording a means to secure graduate degrees attending part time while still working full time, the core mission of the school continues to be one that would subvert the separation of church and state. One needs only look at the actions of some of the Regent graduates in the Chimperator’s regime to see that the “true believers” are a scary crowd.…Not surprisingly, the Virginian Pilot has yet to report on this story in its own backyard. To both the Pilot and the Daily Press investigative reporting is an unknown concept.
And with a rep like this, who wouldn’t want to save it:
As background, Regent University was founded by televangelist Pat Robertson, and the university’s slogans are “The nation’s academic center for Christian thought and action” and “Christian leadership to change the world.” Regent’s law school per a US News & World Report ranking, a “tier four” school — essentially in a tie for 136th place among all law schools. It’s been in existance for only ten years.
Also:
* The Bush Administration Has 150+ Appointees From Televangelist’s Pat Robertson’s Law School
* Former assistant dean at Pat Robertson’s Regent Univ and his wife plead guilty to child sex abuse
13 Comments
Jesus shruggedIs there any chance that this would affect RU’s accreditation? Governance is one criterion, I would think. Not this:
Even if CBN keeps up the manna shower, it still doesn’t reflect well on RU’s board of directors, and accreditation boards don’t think universities should rely on loaves & fishes as a matter of policy, I should think.
We really shouldn’t take pleasure in others’ misfortunes, Shady Freud and all that, but we can make exceptions.
Will not go belly upI wouldn’t hold my breath for the damn thing to close its doors. If ever there was a business capable of generating money out of nothing, religion is it. Old grannies that live on cat food will continue sending their social security checks to this guy until the rapture.
God says no!Awwwwwww, I guess this means Jesus hates them?
Maths…Ok, it takes about if $1.3 million to cover six days of operation then it, basically, runs about $216,000 a day to run the University. So while the $95 million will keep the doors to that fifth-rate school open for, about, another year-and-a-quarter, it’s still in a death spiral and the day of reckoning has just been put off for a while.
And while I’d love to see it go… I’m cynical enough to understand someone will eventually come to its rescue. Just like Oral Roberts University.
I just hope it’s after they shut that horrible law school…
Someone really needs todo a deep, thorough investigation into Robertson’s financial shenanigans and how his various
businessesministries interact and share funds. Back in the 90s, Out did a profile of him that mentioned, almost in passing, that the heads of several state militia groups and Klan chapters were on the board of CBN. I’d assume that means he’s funneling money to them in some way or other. How many of his contributors would NOT want their pious donations used that way? And how big a furor would that info cause if it made its way into the mainstream? This smug bastard has gotten away with his villainy far too long. Is it too much to hope we might see in him jail before he dies? (Well, probably, but hope springs eternal.)Well…You would expect that they would have troubles with money/enrollment since their number one recruiter (Bush) went out of business.
But religious institutions often have more than nine lives. I’ll wait till I see the actual obituary before celebrating.
Disclosure: I was offered a full ride to Regents when I graduated from high school. I think they gave full rides to anyone who graduated at the top of their class. If I remember correctly I was handed the faux-diploma looking certificate as I walked off the stage during graduation. I did not solicit nor apply to the college. I at the time had no clue who they were, but now I still keep the certificate around to remind me how embedded these institutions/churches are in the daily lives of people in the South. And how much work is left to do to undo the damage they have done to civil rights.
The log in his eyeThis is the man who claimed that the 9/11 attacks were a sign of God’s displeasure with the abortionists, feminists, homosexuals, etc. that America tolerates; and Hurricane Katrina was a sign of God’s displeasure with all the “sin” that takes place in New Orleans (despite the fact that the French Quarter fared better than most of the rest of the city).
Funny how he doesn’t see that the financial collapse of his university might be some kind of sign from his God.
a longstanding storyJust google “Pat Robertson”, “charity”, and “diamonds.”
Here’s one sample from five years ago.
http://www.thenation.com/artic…
I think that our tax money funded Regent University and a lot of other right-wing organizations under Bush*It’s interesting to me that a lot of these organizations were flush with cash from 1999 through 2006 or 2008, and then went belly up, just as Bush* exited the stage. Focus on the Family is another one that had tons of cash lying around to donate to Prop 8, help Swiftboat Kerry, and generally do KKKarl Rove’s bidding until after the 2008 elections.
Many thanks.
Don’t forgetthat Obama has not only kept Bush’s Office of Faith-based Initiatives in business, he has expanded it.
Obama even has the faith based initiatives officewhere I work at the US Department of Commerce. I had hoped that a democrat would have squashed that illegal activity, but no deal. He is just as bad as Bush in terms of giving money to the Blackwater mercenaries, paying off the Taliban in northern Afghanistan through payments to local warlords to keep the supply lines open, and in continuing to tear down the wall of the separation of church and state with faith based initiatives. I am waiting for Dean to challenge this President in the primaries.
ButWon’t bonuses eat up most of that 95 million while they still have it to take?