Pat Robertson, one of the pioneers of Christian television broadcasting, died early Thursday morning at his Virginia Beach home at the age of 93.

His death was first reported by the news division of the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), the media firm Robertson founded in the 1960s to spread his brand of religious rhetoric.

“Even while promoting a worldview that believes in the inerrancy of the Bible, both his approach to business and his on-air persona were considered unorthodox by some, if not ahead of his time,” a spokesperson for CBN said in a statement. “Today, his influence and legacy crisscross interests and industries that have broken barriers for countless Christian leaders and laypeople.”

Robertson is best known to American viewers as the host of “The 700 Club,” which continues to air on the Walt Disney Company’s Freeform cable network as part of a contractual stipulation. Robertson resigned from the program in October 2021.

He also made an unsuccessful bid for the Republican presidential nomination in the late 1980s on a platform of infusing fundamentalist Christian values into the political party.