Posts on D. James Kennedy

Following the death of D. James Kennedy, Brian Fisher has been tapped as president and CEO of Coral Ridge Ministries and is setting some lofty goals: "to reach an audience of 30 million people in 2012 with the transforming truths of God’s Word."

James Dobson, eulogizing D. James Kennedy, worries about what will happen to the Right after the current leaders pass away: "So many other leaders who have been used mightily by the Lord in the past 40 or 50 years are about to hand the mantle down to the next generation. Chuck Colson, Dr. Chuck Swindoll, Dr. Billy Graham, Dr. Pat Robertson, Dr. Luis Palau and others are in their 70s or 80s. While we wish them long life, it is likely that their time of greatest influence will soon come to an end. We shouldn't be reluctant to acknowledge that reality, because it is the way of all flesh. But it causes me to wonder who will be left to carry the banner when this generation of leaders is gone. God has always ordained men and women to fulfill His purposes, and I know He will do it again. But the question is, will the younger generation heed the call?"

D. James Kennedy, the longtime leader of the Coral Ridge megachurch in Florida has died at the age of 76.

Since suffering a heart attack late last year, Kennedy’s health had steadily declined, leading to the shuttering of his Center for Reclaiming America for Christ in April and his official retirement from Coral Ridge Ministries last week, after which we put together a profile of his lengthy and influential career.

PFAW has long monitored Kennedy and his affiliate organizations, leading him, at one point, to claim that “the diabolical mission” of People For the American Way was “to crush the influence of the Christian religion in American society.”  

Below are some other memorable quotes from his years as a leading right-wing figure: 

It is hard to say, but that seems to be what Vision America’s Rick Scarborough is suggesting in this recent piece on the retirement of D. James Kennedy:

In Isaiah 3, God pronounces nine things that happen to a nation that turns its back on God. Included in the list are such things as rampant homosexuality, (Is. 3:9); apathy among the citizenry, (vs. 6-7); crime (v.5); and immature leaders (v. 4). At the beginning of the list, and perhaps as a precursor to all that follows leading up to judgment, is the removal of the prophets and the judges … During the past 21 months God has taken three of America's prophets off the national scene--two by death and one by infirmity. Elsewhere, at length, we have discussed the sorry state of affairs concerning the judiciary in America. But the retirement of my friend and and [sic] a man whom I considered in many ways to be a mentor, D. James Kennedy, and the death of two great champions, Dr. Falwell and Dr. Adrian Rogers during the two years, should give everyone reading this Report pause. God is taking away our prophets, and tragically, their replacements on the national scene are in large measure preaching another Gospel, one that the world can more easily swallow that doesn’t tackle the big sins of abortion-on-demand and homosexuality, which Scripture refers to as an abomination.

D. James Kennedy, who built up Fort Lauderdale, Florida megachurch and television empire over the last half-century, has officially retired, eight months after he was first hospitalized following a heart attack. Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church has nearly 10,000 members, and his broadcast ministry claims 3.5 million listeners and viewers, but he is best known as one of the founding figures of the Religious Right in the early 1980s, known as the “Ivy League Jerry Falwell.”

Kennedy, who once said that “the diabolical mission” of People For the American Way was “to crush the influence of the Christian religion in American society,” became active in political issues from battling pornography, “secularized” education, abortion, and civil rights for gays to supporting Reagan administration policies like SDI, Iran-Contra, and the nomination of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court. His involvement grew in the 1990s and 2000s, as he organized national conferences for religious-right activism and expanded his influence in Washington.

The 76-year-old Kennedy’s retirement comes just a few months after the death of Jerry Falwell, and again heralds the inevitable passing of the older generation of religious-right leaders -- Falwell, Kennedy, 71-year-old James Dobson, 69-year-old Don Wildmon, and others who built the infrastructure and set the pattern for fundamentalism-charged politics.

Much more on D. James Kennedy’s political career below.

With the retirement of D. James Kennedy, Coral Ridge's "emphasis [on politics] will diminish short term for sure" while it focuses on "increasing its worldwide audience to 30 million by 2012, mainly by expanding its Internet, TV and print presence." Also, FRC and ADF send their regards.

From the Sun-Sentinel: "Months of rumors ended with a Sunday morning revelation at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church: The ailing Rev. D. James Kennedy is not returning to the helm of the congregation he founded 48 years ago. The pastor, religious broadcaster, conservative activist and evangelical leader has been in and out of hospitals since Dec. 28, when he suffered a brief cardiac arrest. On Sunday, his family and church leaders made it official."

Under different Kennedy umbrella, following recent closure.

Syndicated conservative columnist Cal Thomas rarely shies away from far-right rhetoric, but the former Moral Majority staffer seemed almost pleased that one religious-right group was closing up shop. On the shuttering of the Center for Reclaiming America for Christ, operated by ailing televangelist D. James Kennedy, Thomas wrote:

Brian Fisher, executive vice president of Coral Ridge Ministries, told the Miami Herald, ''We believe that by streamlining the operations we will be able to return to our core focus.'' One hopes that will be preaching the unadulterated gospel of Jesus Christ, unencumbered by the allures of the political kingdoms of this world, because that is where the greatest power lies to transform lives and ultimately nations. It does not lie in the Republican Party, with which Kennedy's organization was almost exclusively associated. …

Nearly 30 years after religious conservatives decided to re-enter the political arena - after abandoning it as ''dirty'' and leading to compromise - what do they have to show for it? The country remains sharply divided and the reconciling message they used to preach has been obscured by the crass pursuit of the golden ring of political power. In the end, they got neither the power nor the Kingdom; only the glory, and even that is now fading as these older leaders pass from the scene. This is not to say there is no role for conservative Christians in the civic life of their nation. There is. But Christians must first understand that the issues they most care about - abortion, same-sex marriage and cultural rot - are not caused by bad politics, but are matters of the heart and soul. …

Too many conservative Christians have focused on the ''seen'' rather than the ''unseen,'' thinking appearances at the White House or on ''Meet the Press'' are evidence they are making a difference. And too much attention has been paid to individual personalities, rather than to the One these preachers had originally been called to exalt.

In a way, Thomas and D. James Kennedy have come full circle. After Thomas published a book outlining the same criticisms of the Religious Right in 1999, Kennedy uninvited him from the Reclaiming America for Christ conference, insisting, “I'm fighting for God and for truth and for morality and for decency. When we quit doing these things we might as well lay down and die.”

In an interview with the Rutherford Institute in 2002, Thomas commented on the argument “that the goal should be to reclaim America for Christ” – the name of Kennedy’s conference and group – “and, in effect, have the Christians take over”:

Well, it was never the Christians’ country to begin with. I personally don’t want it to be a Christian nation for the same reason that I don’t want the federal government aiding the church. I think Bush’s whole faith-based initiative thing is one of the biggest camel noses in the tent that I have seen in my life. I wasn’t aware that God declared bankruptcy under Chapter 11. There is no mandate or expectation in Scripture that the state should fund the work of the things of God. I think that is extremely dangerous.

It appears as if D. James Kennedy’s Center for Reclaiming America is undergoing a bit of “streamlining”:

The Center for Reclaiming America has closed, halting its conservative activism and throwing the future of its signature annual conference in doubt.

An undisclosed number of employees were laid off on Thursday at the center's headquarters in Fort Lauderdale and its congressional chaplaincy office in Washington, D.C., in what its parent organization, Coral Ridge Ministries, called a "streamlining."

The closures put a stop to day-to-day actions such as e-mail and petition drives against abortion, pornography and same-sex marriage.

"We're getting back to our core competency, the production of media," said Brian Fisher, executive vice president at Coral Ridge Ministries, founded by the Rev. D. James Kennedy. "Our heart and soul is the teaching of Dr. Kennedy, and getting it to more people than those who come to church."

Fisher wouldn't divulge how many workers were laid off but said Coral Ridge Ministries still has more than 120 employees. The organization produces TV and radio programs and publishes books by Kennedy, pastor at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church. It reported a budget of more than $37 million in 2005, according to spokesman John Aman.

Hopefully, Coral Ridge’s decision to focus on “production of media” means we can expect more videos from them like the one explaining how Charles Darwin was directly responsible for the Nazi Holocaust.  

When Florida televangelist D. James Kennedy asked his viewers to donate towards the production of a TV special on the “harmful effects” of evolution – “everything from the Nazi death camps and attempts to create a super-race to the modern push in many nations for euthanasia” – he warned that “The other side has the entire public school system of America as its platform,” whereas he came armed with only “the national network of television outlets that God has given to us.” While it’s true that most high school science classes stick to scientific curricula on evolution and stay clear of attempts to equate Charles Darwin with Adolph Hitler, the Religious Right’s campaign against the teaching of evolution has its share of recruits across the nation.

After less than two weeks on the job, part-time biology teacher Kris Helphinstine was fired by the Sisters, Oregon school board for drawing his course materials from a far-right creationist website. Echoing Kennedy, Helphinstine’s attempt to “get kids thinking” involved a PowerPoint presentation linking evolutionary science to Planned Parenthood and Nazi Germany. From The Oregonian:

Helphinstine said in retrospect slides of Nazi death camps weren't appropriate for his freshman and sophomore students.

And given a second chance, he said he wouldn't introduce arguments from Ken Ham, president of Answers in Genesis, a group building a Creation Museum in Cincinnati dedicated to teaching a Bible-centric view of natural history.

Answers in Genesis is a straightforward advocate of young-earth creationism; the group is building a Creation Museum in northern Kentucky apparently set to open this summer. The group provides quite a few classroom resources for teaching creationism.

This material was apparently the focus of the teacher’s entire tenure at the school:

One parent, John Rahm, said his daughter reported that only "one day of 10" was devoted to the study of evolution, with the rest devoted to devoted to "Intelligent Design" materials.

"The test as well was 90-plus percent ID material," Rahm said.

It could be a coincidence, but Helphinstine, 27, began his new job only a couple weeks after a right-wing conference convened near Portland, around two hours away. Among the presentations at the 2nd Annual Restore America Conference was “Session for teachers, parents and students” on “Upholding a Christian Worldview in Education.” The speaker was Stephen Williams of Prepare the Way Ministries, based in nearby Bend, which is dedicated to “empower[ing] Christians … to uphold a biblical worldview in our schools and society.” Williams is known for suing the school where he taught fifth grade over his use of “supplemental materials” meant to emphasize the idea of America as a Christian nation.

Senate Chaplain Barry Black has cancelled his scheduled appearance at a right-wing conference hosted by televangelist D. James Kennedy’s Center for Reclaiming America for Christ, the AP reports, “after he was pictured with columnist Ann Coulter and other prominent conservatives in a brochure promoting the event.”

Black told Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) that he wouldn't be addressing next month's Reclaiming America for Christ Conference because his appearance wouldn't uphold the Senate chaplain's "historic tradition of being nonpolitical, nonpartisan, nonsectarian," a spokeswoman for the chaplain said Thursday.

Spokeswoman Meg Saunders said Black, a Seventh-day Adventist and a former Navy chaplain, had received "a very generic invitation" in fall 2005 to speak at the March conference and had agreed because there was room on his schedule.

After learning more about the other speakers and the event's featured topics, Black became "concerned" and canceled his appearance, Saunders said. "He felt the information had been incomplete," she said.

Over the last three decades, D. James Kennedy has established himself as one of the most powerful religious-right leaders in the country – called an “ivy-league Jerry Falwell.” Kennedy’s Center for Reclaiming America for Christ is dedicated to mobilizing its supporters against abortion, gays, and evolution, and his Center for Christian Statesmanship is dedicated to honoring almost exclusively Republican politicians who take up the religious-right standard in office. His 2007 conference will reflect those missions:

Reclaiming America for Christ 2007 is coming, and “evil” is counting on you.

That’s right. The only thing evil requires for its triumph is for Christians to say and do nothing.

According to the brochure, attendees will receive “Power packed training sessions taught by ‘culture war’ veterans” on “How to recruit and mobilize your pastor and church” to combat abortion, homosexuality, and “Darwin’s deadly legacy.”

And although the conference, in Fort Lauderdale, is at the same time as the much larger Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, a number of prominent right-wing speakers will make the trip down, including Coulter, Phyllis Schlafly, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, Frank Pavone of Priest for Life, and Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention. (Schlafly and Coulter are scheduled for both conferences.)

Although Center for Reclaiming America Executive Director Gary Cass claims “It's not political,” his organization’s history and the choice of speakers makes that assertion pretty unconvincing.

By Church Report. More: Bush, Brownback, Parsley, Falwell, Land, and D. James Kennedy.

In fundraising e-mail for Center for Reclaiming America for Christ.

Now that Sen. Sam Brownback has announced he is setting up an official exploratory committee to prepare to run for president, he is poised to become the Right’s preferred candidate.   

Facing a presidential primary in which “not one of [the] front-runners is a bona fide social conservative” wholly committed to the right-wing agenda, Brownback’s entry is being welcomed as the Right’s best hope

"He will add a lot to the national, not just the presidential, debate," said Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America, a group represented at those meetings. "He truly understands the conservative point of view. It is so frustrating for us when politicians try to pander to us. Brownback is consistent."

It is easy to see why Brownback’s candidacy would be embraced by the Right. He was, after all, named Distinguished Christian Statesman by D. James Kennedy in 2000.  And a quick look at the people he has chosen to serve on his presidential exploratory committee shows just how committed he is to the Right’s agenda.  

Among those listed is Chuck Hurley of the Iowa Family Policy Center, which is part of a network of state-level affiliates that work closely with Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council, and Dr. Jack Willke, President of the Life Issues Institute. In addition to Willke and Hurley, Brownback has tapped the likes of Alveda King, a right-wing stalwart who, among other things, participated at the Family Research Council’s “Justice Sunday III” event.  

But two names among those listed as members of Brownback committee stand out: Tom Monaghan and Frank Pavone.