(FORTUNE Magazine) – Liberia is in chaos, and that's bad news for televangelist Pat Robertson. Liberian President Charles Taylor has been indicted for war crimes by a UN-backed court in Sierra Leone, rebels control large chunks of the country, and President Bush wants Taylor out before the U.S. considers sending peacekeeping troops.

That's not the business climate Robertson was praying for in 1998, when he invested in Liberian land containing gold that some speculate could be worth $1.7 billion. Robertson's goal: to find a way to forever fund his evangelical empire--even if that meant giving up options for 10% of his mine to the Taylor government. "This man Taylor is not the monster everybody makes him out to be," Robertson explained to FORTUNE last year. (See "Pat Robertson's Quest for Eternal Life" on fortune.com.)

Now that Taylor's days appear numbered, it's not clear what will happen to Robertson's venture. He has spent $8.4 million with little return, a necessary drill is stuck on the docks of Monrovia, and he's axed his Liberian workers. He's also been using his 700 Club platform to berate the U.S.: "How dare the [U.S.] President say to the duly elected President of another country, 'You've got to step down.' ... I'm appalled." --Daniel Roth