JAMES ROBISON | A profile From fire and brimstone to feeding the hungry

The Texas evangelist has evolved into a mainstream figure.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
FORT WORTH, Texas -- The devil nearly got the best of James Robison.
It was the era of Robison the Spellbinder. The boy from Pasadena, Texas, made grown men cry with his message of Jesus' love.
But Robison entered the final quarter of the 20th century a "dark-visaged, angry preacher," he once wrote.
In the new century, his cell phone rings with George W. Bush on the line asking Robison to tell him how he came across in a speech. More recently, the president and the 59-year-old televangelist have talked about the war in Iraq, about the greed that consumed Enron and about the battle for America's heart.
"I want you to tell me, spiritually, what do you sense?" Bush has asked the Euless televangelist.
It has been 40 years since James Robison first felt God stretch out his hand and nudge him into evangelism. Since then, Robison has scorched the air of packed stadiums with sulfurous talk of sin. He has weathered the same kind of temptations that capsized the poster boys for TV religion run amok, like Jim Bakker (money) and Jimmy Swaggart (sex).
Now, Robison's show, "Life Today with James and Betty Robison," is seen by as many as 150 million North American, European and Australian households, according to his ministry, Life Outreach International.
'Servant communicator'
Robison's ministry spends millions of dollars feeding starving children in Africa.
In his own words, he is the "servant communicator."
To some, Robison's transformation has given him mainstream influence and standing. He now has critics on both the right and the left. One side says he has strayed too far from spreading the word of God and has begun promoting a social Gospel. To the other side, Robison is still seen as a fundamentalist preacher thumping his Bible for a mesmerized audience of religious robots.
Robison himself says the package, not the content, has changed. Admirers say Robison is a person who does not back down from his beliefs.
"He's a person that is brutally honest," said Arkansas Gov. Mark Huckabee, who named one of his sons after the evangelist. "And people in positions like mine find it very refreshing when a person doesn't just tell us what we want to hear, but will be honest and confront us with truth."
For Robison, there is simply no gray area. He is a living example of his new book, "The Absolutes -- absolute certainty based on the ultimate authority: God's word."
Robison says the principles found in Jesus' message form his most important advice to Bush. Ignoring the absolutes -- "greed destroys, character counts, equality is not sameness and we are spiritual beings" -- will turn his presidency into a failure, Robison says.
History
By the time Robison graduated from high school, he had discovered faith in Jesus and heard God directing him to do what he "dreaded most" -- become an evangelist.
By the 1970s, Robison's fiery style in the pulpit had found a place on Texas TV and radio stations. In 1979, Robison enraged the gay community in Dallas by citing a National Enquirer story that claimed gays preyed upon and killed one another. Robison's remarks made national headlines and prompted some TV stations to drop his program.
By the 1980s, Robison emerged as a powerful political voice and said he had become the "spokesman for Christianity." Often, he filled that role as an agitator.
"I don't like to acknowledge that there was an arrogance about where I was," he says. "But there was."
Robison said he learned from a life of temptation and success that "no matter where you are, God will bring you out."
Changes name
James Robison Evangelistic Association became Life Outreach International to take the emphasis off the man.
He abandoned evangelistic tours and told his staff that he and his wife would appear together on a TV show. More and more, Robison softened his focus on denominational boundaries. What was most important, he said, was that Christians live as examples of Christianity.
Robert Morris, senior pastor of Gateway Church in Grapevine, where the Robisons are members, said he has been at restaurants where Robison has shared his faith with a waiter or waitress.
"That's the genuine humility he walks in, a genuine love for people," Morris said.
Morris said he has traveled in 34 countries and never seen a better food aid program for children than Robison's. Life Outreach International has set up food processing plants in African nations that can feed thousands and is drilling water wells.
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