Rev. Ben Kinchlow, the former host of "The 700 Club," died earlier this month in Virginia at age 82, The New York Times reported over the weekend.
His death was announced by the Christian Broadcasting Network, which still produces the program that he co-hosted from 1975 to 1988 with his fellow television evangelist Pat Robertson and again from 1992 to 1996.
Kinchlow was born on December 27, 1936, in Uvalde, a Texas Hill Country town of about 5,000. Alienated from religion by conflicts within and between church denominations, he became a self-described reprobate, a black nationalist, and a philanderer until a minister friend reacquainted him with Christianity in the early 1970s when he was in his mid-30s.
Kinchlow went on to found a youth ministry and a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center in Killeen, Texas, where he said, "I saw bona fide miracles take place in the lives of people."
That transformation came to the attention of Robertson, who invited Kinchlow to be a guest on his live, three-hour program. Kinchlow became an immediate hit and then a co-host at a time when there were not so many African-Americans on television, especially hosting a program carried nationally on cable.
Kinchlow also founded Americans for Israel to promote mutual understanding between Christians and Jews, traveled around the world as a motivational speaker, and contributed commentary to WorldNetDaily, a conservative online publication.
In addition, he wrote several books. Although Kinchlow criticized what he called "radical environmentalists" and "militant homosexuals," he was considered an affable personality and somewhat less rigid than Robertson.
In 1959, Kinchlow married Vivian Carolyn Jordan. They had three sons and six grandchildren.
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