Pat Robertson, a Baptist minister with a passion for politics who marshaled Christian conservatives into a powerful constituency that helped Republicans capture both houses of Congress in 1994, died on Thursday at his home in Virginia Beach, Va. His death was announced by the Christian Broadcasting Network, which Mr. Robertson founded in 1960. Mr. Robertson built an entrepreneurial empire based on his Christian faith, encompassing a university, a law school, a cable channel with broad reach, and more. The loss did not dampen his political fervor; he went on to found the Christian Coalition, which stoked the conservative faith-based political resurgence of the 1990s and beyond. But he was also given to statements that his detractors saw as outlandishly wrongheaded and dangerously incendiary.

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Persons: Pat Robertson, marshaled, Robertson, chuckling Organizations: Republicans, Christian Broadcasting Network, Mr, Republican, Christian Coalition Locations: Virginia Beach, Va