Pat Robertson's Son Takes Over CBN

Pat Robertson, right, endorses Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani during a news conference in this Nov. 7, 2007 file photo, in Washington. Robertson is turning over his duties as chief executive officer of the Christian Broadcasting Network to his son, Gordon Robertson, but will remain chairman, the 77-year-old religious broadcaster announced Monday, Dec. 3, 2007. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf, file) (Kevin Wolf - AP)

-- The Rev. Pat Robertson said Monday that his son, Gordon, has succeeded him as chief executive of the Christian Broadcasting Network, the most recent shift to a younger generation of leaders within major conservative Christian groups.

Robertson, 77, announced the transition on "The 700 Club," the Virginia-based network's flagship show, with Gordon, 49, on air with him.

"I thought that some of this day-to-day operation was important to pass down the line, especially to somebody a little more adept at figuring out the new technologies coming at such a bewildering speed to all of us," the elder Robertson said.

The network's board of directors voted over the weekend to name Gordon Robertson the CEO immediately. Pat Robertson will still be chairman of CBN and will continue to appear with his son on "The 700 Club." He will also remain president of Regent University, which he founded.

Gordon Robertson said in a phone interview with The Associated Press that his father had knee replacement surgery last spring and over the summer developed an irregular heartbeat that required surgery. But he is "in remarkably good health now."

"I call him the Iron Horse," Gordon Robertson said. "He doesn't have any quit in him."

Gordon Robertson is among several sons of major Christian leaders who have recently been charged with carrying on their fathers' work.

The Rev. Franklin Graham, son of 89-year-old evangelist Billy Graham, became chief executive of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association several years ago.

When the Rev. Jerry Falwell died last May, his sons, Jerry Jr. and Jonathan, took leadership of their father's Virginia megachurch and the school he founded, Liberty University.

Last year, Robert A. Schuller succeeded his father, Robert H. Schuller, as head of Crystal Cathedral and its ministries in California, including the popular "Hour of Power" televised services from the megachurch.

J. Michael Lindsay, a sociologist at Rice University and author of "Faith in the Halls of Power," noted that CBN faces significantly more competition now than when it started more than four decades ago and no longer has the dominant role it did in the 1970s and '80s.

"The question is whether Gordon will have the same kind of flair for the dramatic and rhetorical flourish" as his father, Lindsay said. "I don't see any evidence of that currently. He has been much more below the radar."