Death has been busy

 It's been a busy week for celebrity passings.

On Sunday, former major league pitcher, coach, & manager Roger Craig passed away at 93. Craig pitched for the then-Brooklyn Dodgers in the 50's, and was an original member of the Mets in 1962. He would later gain fame anew as a manager with the San Francisco Giants, and is credited with creating the split-fingered fastball, a popular pitch from the 70's through the present.

We're learning that Grammy winning pianist George Winston, who was a pioneer of what was known as "New Age" music in the 80's, more than a decade into his career, also passed on Sunday. He'd be in ill health, and had planned on another tour next year.

This morning, we're reading of the passing of CBN founder Pat Robertson, also at 93.

Robertson launched The 700 Club as a local program in 1961, and stepped down as host in 2021, passing the baton to son Gordon, who had been a regular for the last few years.

Robertson also founded Regent University in Virginia, a lesser known Christian college in comparison to Liberty University, founded by one of Robertson's contemporaries, Jerry Falwell.

In the 52 years The 700 Club has been on the air, Robertson has interviewed at least 3 presidents. Jimmy Carter, Donald Trump, and, in this 1985 interview, Ronald Reagan. 

The video is courtesy of the Reagan Library's YouTube channel.

Robertson was one of the prominent evangelical leaders to turn his back on Trump after Trump lost the 2020 election, declaring that Trump, as most of us know, is living in an alternate reality. An easy way to explain away Trump's continuing public delusion that he was robbed of the re-election.

However, Robertson also has made headlines for the wrong reasons, too. He has blamed disasters like Hurricanes Katrina, Harvey, and Sandy on the increasing inclusiveness of our society, claiming that God was punishing this country. Those proclamations were the first signs that Robertson had lost his touch with his audience.

Today, God has called him home.