Evangelist James Kennedy Bids To Lead Culture War

by Bill Berkowitz

(IPS) -- In all the hullabaloo raized by the cable news coverage of the Terri Schiavo case and the so-called miracle of Ashley Smith, a Georgia woman freed by her kidnapper after she read him passages from a bestselling Christian self-help book, few are talking about the elephant in the room -- the Christian right's vision of cultural transformation in the United States.

From supporting the embattled Alabama Judge Roy Moore's right to display a 5,000-pound monument to the Ten Commandments in a state courthouse, to collecting signatures on petitions to keep alive Terri Schiavo (a Florida woman whose feeding tubes were disconnected in March after she had been in a persistent vegetative state for 15 years), Dr. D. James Kennedy is making his voice heard loud and often these days.

The senior minister of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida's Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church and the president of Coral Ridge Ministries (CRM), Kennedy has also campaigned for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and advocates teaching creationism in the public schools.

Beneath the radar of the mainstream media, Kennedy has spent the past three decades building a ministerial and media empire that is now packing a powerful political punch in Washington.

Kennedy's media empire reaches millions around the globe: "Truths That Transform" was named Best Radio Teaching Program for 2004 by the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB); and "The Coral Ridge Hour" was named the NRB's 2003 Television Program of the Year.

In addition, Kennedy comments on hot-button issues during "The Kennedy Commentary," a 90-second daily radio feature produced by his ministry.

In early February, his Coral Ridge Ministries held its 10th annual political training session, the "Reclaiming America For Christ" conference, an event sponsored by the Ministries' Center for Reclaiming America.

Speakers at the two-day conference included some of the most prominent figures on the Christian right: Christian historian David Barton, the head of WallBuilders; columnist David Limbaugh, author the bestselling book "Persecution: How Liberals Are Waging War Against Christianity"; Dr. Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission; and many others.

"Their mission is not simply to save souls," the Christian Science Monitor reported. "The goal is to mobilize evangelical Christians for political action to return society to what they call 'the biblical worldview of the Founding Fathers.'

"Some speak of 'restoring a Christian nation.' Others shy from that phrase, but agree that the Bible calls them not only to evangelise, but also to transform the culture."

In 1995, Kennedy took one of his boldest political steps by setting up the D. James Kennedy Center for Christian Statesmanship in Washington. The Center runs several projects, including the Statesmanship Institute, a seven-month program "for Christians in government" to give them "the tools to integrate biblical principles with your calling to public service;" and a Bible Studies course for staff on Capitol Hill.

It also hosts a monthly series of lunches called Politics & Principle which "features a modern-day Christian Statesman who share from a personal perspective the challenges of living out Christian faith in today's political environment"; and hands out the Distinguished Christian Statesman Award which "recognizes one outstanding public leader" each year.

Kennedy's activities are just starting to get media attention. A recent Center press release pointed out that Bill O'Reilly, an ultra-conservative commentator on the Fox News Channel, had been surprised to discover that Kennedy's 10 year-old operation existed.

When O'Reilly asked Kennedy "which political leaders had been influenced by the Gospel message the Center proclaims," Kennedy refused to divulge the information, saying, "There are thousands of lobbyists in Washington who are trying to get something. We're trying to give people something. We give them something that's free."

Kennedy has been deeply embedded in Christian right politics. He was a member of the first board of directors of the Rev. Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority, and served on the initial executive board of the Coalition for Religious Freedom (CRF).

The right-wing CRF was set up by Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church when Moon was in prison in 1984. According to Sara Diamond's book "Spiritual Warfare: The Politics of the Christian Right," CRF "was financed primarily by the Unification Church, which gave an initial donation of 500,000 (dollars)."

CRF's executive board included such religious right heavyweights as Jerry Falwell, James Robison, Rex Humbard, Jimmy Swaggart, Kennedy and Tim LaHaye, the co-author of the wildly popular "Left Behind" series of apocalyptic novels.

Kennedy, along with more than 30 Christian organizations, was a founder and funder of the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), formed to pursue "religious liberty" and "family preservation" lawsuits.

What distinguishes Kennedy from his more telegenic and colorful colleagues is that "he has shepherded his flock in a more orderly, and Presbyterian style into the Christian Right," Fred Clarkson, a veteran reporter on right-wing movements, said in an e-mail interview.

"For many years, Kennedy did a fundraising cruise called 'the Bible Boat' to the Caribbean in the winter. In 1994, this was replaced with the annual Reclaiming America for Christ conference."

"Although he had lent his name and involvement to Christian right groups in the past, this was his first foray into forming his own political network," Clarkson said. "Extending his operations to Washington, DC, through the Center for Christian Statesmanship appears to be a logical outgrowth of this process."

In 1967, Kennedy launched Evangelism Explosion International (EEI), a lay witness training program, through which the ministry claims that 4.5 million people came to Christ last year. According to a profile of Kennedy in the Institute for First Amendment Studies' Freedom Writer, the program is "a sophisticated 13-week training seminar in discipleship."

EEI training "is the most intense evangelism training in the world. It is used by hundreds of conservative Christian churches across the country, and has made inroads into every single country in the world."

The Evangelism Explosion is one of Kennedy's primary youth outreach and indoctrination operations, said Clarkson.

"An EEI event I attended was full of loud Christian rock music as a warmup to a talk by David Barton (the head of WallBuilders), whose talk twists American history to make kids believe that the U.S. was founded as a 'Christian nation,'" he said.

"Kennedy believes this too, and has sermonized on the subject. It is this false, historical revisionism that is central to the ideology of the Christian right -- it's a critical part of their justification to restore an idea that never was," added Clarkson.

In "The Gates of Hell Shall Not Prevail: The Attack On Christianity And What You Need To Know To Combat It," Kennedy calls the wall of separation between church and state a 'great deception (that) has been used to destroy much of the religious freedom and liberty this country has enjoyed since its inception.'"

When Kennedy talks about "truths that transform," he is speaking literally. As Bob Moser recently reported in Rolling Stone magazine, Kennedy "want(s) to rewrite schoolbooks to reflect a Christian version of American history, pack the nation's courts with judges who follow Old Testament law, post the Ten Commandments in every courthouse and make it a felony for gay men to have sex and women to have abortions."

Kennedy's mission has been playing well in Washington; well enough for the Center for Reclaiming America's Dr. Gary Cass to recently unveil four new and ambitious initiatives aimed at expanding the impact of the Center's work.

They include the establishment of Liberty's Voice, a lobbying office in Washington; the development of the Strategic Institute, a think tank that will "add intellectual muscle" to the Center's pro-family efforts; and the launching the National Grassroots Alliance, an initiative to boost the Center's existing grassroots network of 400,000 evangelicals up to one million.