(RNS) — James Robison, a televangelist, author, friend of politicians and key figure in the Moral Majority movement who later led a humanitarian organization, died Sunday (May 17). He was 82.

“It is with deep sadness that we share the passing of Rev. James Robison, the beloved founder of Life Outreach International,” the board of directors of the ministry Robison founded said in a statement. “James devoted his life to sharing the Gospel and bringing hope, help, and healing to those in need around the world. Together, James and Betty stewarded a ministry that has touched countless lives and will continue impacting generations to come.”

Born Oct. 9, 1943, in Houston, Robison had what his ministry called a “dysfunctional” childhood. His mother, a nurse, was assaulted by the son of a patient, according to his official bio, and became pregnant as a result. She placed her son, Robison, with a Baptist couple that she had found in a newspaper ad.  

That couple raised him for five years before he returned to his birth mother. As a teenager, Robison returned to live with his adopted family, the Hales, during high school in suburban Houston. While living with them, he met his future wife, Betty, and felt a call to ministry — and began preaching at 14.

In 1963, he left college to start the James Robison Evangelistic Association and began a preaching ministry that would last decades, bringing him into contact with politicians and celebrities.

“I don’t believe it would hinder an evangelist to get an education, but it might. It might take away something God is trying to say,” he told Texas Monthly magazine in 1981.

By the early 1980s, he had become what Texas Monthly called “the avenging angel of the religious right.”

“His blunt, sometimes crude forthrightness probably makes that expectation unrealistic, but this same quality has helped propel him to a position of public leadership second only to Falwell’s in what has come to be called the Evangelical New Right,” William Martin, a Rice University professor and Billy Graham biographer, wrote in chronicling Robison’s rise to fame.

Along with Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, Robison helped rally evangelicals to support Ronald Reagan’s run for the White House in 1980, and helped forge a partnership between evangelicals and the Republican Party. Reagan appeared at a 1980 Dallas gathering of ministers, including Robison, meant to get pastors more involved in politics.

In the 1980s, he began to embrace charismatic Christian practices, which put him at theological odds with some Southern Baptist leaders he had ministered with. “All these men said I was God’s prophet until I say something that they don’t agree with,” Robison told Christianity Today magazine in 1984. “Then I’m not a prophet — I’m a cultist.”

The theological controversy did not harm Robison’s appeal, and his television ministry continued to grow. After a mission trip to Mozambique in 1989, according to his bio, Robison’s ministry began a worldwide humanitarian program to distribute food and drill wells for drinking water, work that he promoted on his television program, “Life Today.”

Along with supporting Reagan, Robison also backed fellow Texan George W. Bush for president. He told Stephen Mansfield, author of “The Faith of George W. Bush,” that the future president said he felt God calling on him.  

“I can’t explain it, but I sense my country is going to need me,” Bush reportedly told Robison, according to a conversation recounted in Mansfield’s book. “Something is going to happen, and, at that time, my country is going to need me.”

Robison was also a longtime friend and mentor to Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, who once did public relations for Robison’s ministry.

“His death hits hard,” Huckabee said in a post on X. “He mentored me in so many ways.”

Robison joined Donald Trump’s evangelical advisory board during the former reality television star’s first run for the White House in 2016. In 2022, however, he was critical of Trump, comparing him to a “little elementary schoolchild.”

“If Mr. Trump can’t stop his little petty issues, how does he expect people to stop major issues?” Robison told a group of Christian activists, according to The Washington Post.

Robison made headlines in 2014 for giving Pope Francis a high-five during a meeting between the late pontiff and a group of televangelists and charismatic leaders, including Joel Osteen and Kenneth Copeland, at the Vatican. Robison told RNS he came away impressed by the pope.

“I don’t see him as presenting himself as infallible,” Robison told RNS at the time. “He’s been to confession. He asks for prayer. He’s anxious to apologize on (behalf) of Catholic leadership.”

Robison faced criticism in 2024 because of his past ties to disgraced Texas megachurch pastor Robert Morris, who was charged with sexual abuse of a minor. That abuse, which Morris pled guilty to, occurred in the 1980s and was described as a “moral failing” until more details were made public in 2024. Morris had worked for Robison in the 1980s, and the two had preached together.

In a video, Robison said that he did not know the details of the abuse until they were made public in 2024. “I was stunned,” he said in the video posted on Facebook. “I was aware that Robert had had moral failure in his past, but I had no idea it was a crime involving a child. This is totally unacceptable.”

No details about a funeral or memorial service have been announced yet. The ministry’s board said the group will continue the mission that Robison started.

“The mission James gave his life to will continue with the same heart, compassion, and commitment that partners like you have faithfully helped make possible,” the board said in a statement.