D. James Kennedy

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Dennis James Kennedy, Ph.D., is Pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and founder of Coral Ridge Ministries, a $37-million-a-year corporation with an audience of 3 million which he founded in 1974. His weekly television program, The Coral Ridge Hour, is carried on the Trinity Broadcasting Network and INSP Network, and syndicated on numerous other stations. His daily radio program, Truths That Transform, is heard across the US and in over 200 countries and is available on the program website.

Kennedy was a ballroom dance instructor before he became a born again Christian and entered the ministry.

Kennedy is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church in America, having transferred his membership there in the late 1970s from the Presbyterian Church in the United States. He is considered a conservative evangelical minister who is often involved in political activities within the Christian right; the leftwing organization TheocracyWatch identifies Kennedy as one of the leaders of the Dominionism movement. He has written and coauthored several political works such as What if America Were a Christian Nation Again? and The Rewriting of America's History, arguing that the United States was founded as a Christian nation. Critics contend that he is excessively conservative on certain politically charged topics such as abortion and homosexuality. Kennedy runs The D. James Kennedy Center for Christian Statesmanship, an evangelical ministry on Capitol Hill. The Center awards a "Distinguished Christian Statesman Award" annually to high profile Christian political leaders. Past recipients include Tom DeLay, Sam Brownback and John Ashcroft.

His theological works include Why I Believe, What If Jesus Had Never Been Born, Skeptics Answered, and Truths That Transform. He also developed the Evangelism Explosion (EE) method of evangelism and holds to a traditional Calvinist theology. He has also worked with other Christian ministers such as RC Sproul, a faculty member at Knox Theological Seminary which Kennedy founded.

Kennedy is also involved in Christian apologetics and is critical of groups such as the Roman Catholic Church and the Freemasons, working with such people as Sproul and John F. MacArthur against Catholicism and Ron Carlson against Freemasonry.

Kennedy was a co-signer of the "Land letter" sent to President Bush in October 2002 which outlined a "just war" rationale for the military invasion of Iraq.

Notable issues and views

• Same-sex marriage: Kennedy is strongly opposed to same-sex marriage and calls for a constitutional "Firewall" to protect the nation from "counterfeit marriage."
• Apologetics: Kennedy has frequently claimed that if Christianity is not true then it is a massive fraud and hoax perpetrated by evil men bent on making the world a place where Christs commandment to 'Love thy neighbor' reigns supreme, which is the antithesis of the criminal mind, and hence the theory that Christianity is a fraud is entirely incompatible with logic and human nature.
• Constitution Restoration Act: a bill promoted during the 2005 Confronting the Judicial War on Faith conference that sought to authorize Congress to impeach judges who fail to abide by "the standard of good behavior" required by the Constitution. If they refuse to acknowledge "God as the sovereign source of law, liberty, or government," or rely in any way on international law in their rulings, judges would also invite impeachment.

Quotes

• "The Christian community has a golden opportunity to train an army of dedicated teachers who can invade the public school classrooms and use them to influence the nation for Christ."
• "Our job is to reclaim America for Christ, whatever the cost. As the vice regents of God, we are to exercise godly dominion and influence over our neighborhoods, our schools, our government, our literature and arts, our sports arenas, our entertainment media, our news media, our scientific endeavors -- in short, over every aspect and institution of human society."
• "How much more forcefully can I say it? The time has come, and it is long overdue, when Christians and conservatives and all men and women who believe in the birthright of freedom must rise up and reclaim America for Jesus Christ."
• "the intimate coupling of two men or two women is not marriage. It is a pale and misshapen counterfeit that will only serve to empty marriage of its meaning and destroy the institution that is the keystone in the arch of civilization ... Marriage is the sine qua non for healthy children and a stable society. It is 'fundamental to the very existence and survival of the race'..."

External links

• Bio of Dr. Kennedy From the Coral Ridge Website

• Truths that Transform website

• Center for Reclaiming America Kennedy's Political information organization

• Truths That Transform daily radio broadcast on OnePlace.com

• IMDb Entry

• D. James Kennedy: Who is He? From the Americans United for the Separation of Church and State (critical)

• Theocracy Watch Anti-religious right and Anti-Republican website that refers to Kennedy (critical)

• Chart of Executive Salaries paid to leading Christian Ministries