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. Doctor of Philosophy (Ph. ... Fort Lauderdale, known as the Venice of America, is a city located in Broward County, Florida. ... Dennis James Kennedy, Ph. ... The Trinity Broadcasting Network, or TBN, is the worlds largest Christian television network, Founded by Paul and Jan Crouch in 1973, the network now has a larger U.S. viewership than its three main competitor networks combined. ...

Biography

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; TheocracyWatch identifies Kennedy as one of the leaders of the Dominionism movement. ^[1] 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. The Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) is a Protestant denomination, the second largest Presbyterian church body in the United States after the Presbyterian Church (USA). ... The Presbyterian Church in the United States was the Southern branch of Presbyterianism in America. ... The word evangelicalism usually refers to a tendency in diverse branches of conservative, almost always Protestant, Christianity. ... It has been suggested that Conservative Christianity be merged into this article or section. ... TheocracyWatch is a Cornell University project. ... Dominionism is a trend in Protestant Christian evangelicalism and fundamentalism, primarily, though not exclusively, in the United States, that seeks to establish specific political policies based on religious beliefs. ... Homosexuality refers to sexual and romantic attraction between two individuals of the same sex. ... Thomas Dale Tom DeLay (born April 8, 1947) is a former member of the United States House of Representatives from Sugar Land, Texas, the former House Majority Leader, and a prominent member of the Republican Party. ... Samuel Dale Brownback (born September 12, 1956) is a Senator from Kansas. ... John David Ashcroft (born May 9, 1942) was the 79th Attorney General of the United States. ...

According to his official biography he earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Tampa, a Master of Divinity from Columbia Theological Seminary, a Master of Theology from Chicago Graduate School of Theology (an unaccredited institution^[2]), and a Ph.D. in Comparative Religions from New York University.^[3] A Bachelor of Arts (B.A. or A.B., from the Latin Artium Baccalaureus) is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for a course or program in the arts and/or sciences. ... One of UTs many minarets. ... Master of Divinity is a common degree among theological seminaries and is considered the minimum academic requirement for ordination into pastoral ministry. ... Columbia Theological Seminary is one of the ten official seminaries of the Presbyterian Church (USA). ... A Masters degree which is typically earned after one has already completed a Master of Divinity or a Master of Theological Studies. ... Generally, accreditation is the process by which a facility becomes officially certified as providing services of a reasonably good quality, so that the public can trust in the quality of its services. ... New York University (NYU) is a major research university in New York City. ...

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 R.C. Sproul, a faculty member at the Knox Theological Seminary which Kennedy founded. The Four Evangelists, by Jakob Jordaens It has been suggested that Christian evangelism be merged into this article or section. ... Calvinism is a system of Christian theology and an approach to Christian life and thought within the Protestant tradition articulated by John Calvin, a Protestant Reformer in the 16th century, and subsequently by successors, associates, followers and admirers of Calvin, his interpretation of Scripture, and perspective on Christian life and... Theology (Greek θεος, theos, God, + λογος, logos, word or reason) means reasoned discourse concerning religion, spirituality and God. ... R.C. Sproul Dr. Robert Charles Sproul (born 1939 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is an American, Calvinist theologian, and pastor. ... Knox Theological Seminary is an advanced Seminary teaching program founded by Dr. D. James Kennedy. ...

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, Jr. against Catholicism and Ron Carlson against Freemasonry. ^{[citation needed]} Christian Apologetics is the field of study concerned with the systematic defense of Christianity. ... Catholic Church redirects here. ... The Masonic Square and Compasses. ... This article is about American evangelical writer and minister John F. MacArthur. ...

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.^[4] The Land Letter was a letter sent to President George W. Bush by evangelical Christian leaders on October 3, 2002 which outlined their theological support for a just war pre-emptive invasion of Iraq. ... Just war refers to the concept of warfare as being justified, typically in accordance with a particular situation, or scenario, and expanded or supported by reference to doctrine, politics, tradition, or historical commentary. ... This article regards the 2003 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." ^[5]
• 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 Christ's 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 acknowledge "God as the sovereign source of law, liberty, or government" and to limit the power of the federal judiciary to rule in religious liberty cases.
• Creation-evolution controversy: Kennedy is a Young Earth Creationist who rejects the theory of evolution and believes that it "led to the death of nine million people in Nazi Germany.... The greatest mass murderers of all time [are] all compliments of evolution." ^[6] , an idea reflected in Coral Ridge's controversial documentary Darwin's Deadly Legacy in 2006.
• Kennedy seeks to "reclaim America for Christ" in which government policies and laws would be consistent with evangelical Christianity. Many of his public messages on this topic focus on claims that the Founding Fathers of America were Christian and had intended to establish a Christian constitution.
• Kennedy was a notable member of the Moral Majority polical movement in the 1970s and 80s.

Same-sex marriage is the union of two people who are of the same biological sex, or gender. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Christianity is a monotheistic[1] religion centered on Jesus of Nazareth, and on his life and teachings as presented in the New Testament. ... A hoax is an attempt to trick an audience into believing that something false is real. ... This page is about the title or the Divine Person. For the Christian figure, see Jesus. ... The Constitution Restoration Act of 2005 (originally of 2004) was filed on March 3, 2005 by Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) and Congressman Robert Aderholt (R-AL). ... The creation-evolution controversy (also termed the creation vs. ... ... This article is about biological evolution. ... The term Moral Majority refers to the concept that there are often informal subgroups within many larger nations that pursue a strict moral agenda, usually based upon a deep belief in a religion, such as Christianity, Islam, or Judaism. ...

Criticism and controversy

Americans United for the Separation of Church and State (AUSCS), a religious freedom advocacy group, has criticized Kennedy's founding of Center for Reclaiming America for being "just another Religious Right outfit obsessed with opposing legal abortion and gay rights and bashing public education."[4] AUSCS also says that "Kennedy's ministry has always promoted right-wing politics," and "it isn't uncommon to tune in to "The Coral Ridge Hour" and hear him railing against legal abortion, anti-discrimination protections for gays or the teaching of evolution in public schools." AUSCS also criticized Kennedy and his ministry for "frequently sends out lurid fund-raising appeals." such as, "One recent letter begged for funds to stop PBS stations from airing a 'homosexual-propaganda program' called It's Elementary." Americans United for Separation of Church and State (Americans United or AU for short) is an advocacy group in the United States which promotes the separation of church and state, a legal doctrine derived from the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. ... This article is about discrimination in the social science sense. ... Homosexuality is a sexual orientation characterized by esthetic attraction, romantic love, or sexual desire exclusively for another of the same sex. ... The peacock – a classic example of morphological development through sexual selection in the theory of evolution In biology, evolution is the change in the heritable traits of a population over successive generations, as determined by shifts in the allele frequencies of genes. ...

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has severely criticized[5] the neo-creationist documentary produced by the Coral Ridge Ministries "Darwin's Deadly Legacy,"[6] which attempts to link the theory of evolution to Hitler: "This is an outrageous and shoddy attempt by D. James Kennedy to trivialize the horrors of the Holocaust. Hitler did not need Darwin to devise his heinous plan to exterminate the Jewish people. Trivializing the Holocaust comes from either ignorance at best or, at worst, a mendacious attempt to score political points in the culture war on the backs of six million Jewish victims and others who died at the hands of the Nazis." The ADL further denounced Kennedy as "a leader among the distinct group of 'Christian Supremacists' who seek to 'reclaim America for Christ' and turn the U.S. into a Christian nation guided by their strange notions of biblical law." Coral Ridge Ministries described the ADL's criticisms in a press release[7] as "harsh" and "unfounded" while reiterating points made in the documentary, along with citing British evolutionist Sir Arthur Keith who the center cites as saying in the 1940's, "The German Führer, as I have consistently maintained, is an evolutionist. He has consciously sought to make the practice of Germany conform to the theory of evolution". Furthermore, Daniel Lapin, a Jewish Orthodox rabbi, issued a statement [8] criticizing the ADL for what he claims was a miscategorization of Jewish opinion, and said "...the ADL, though filled with good intent, is utterly, compleatly clueless.". Also, the center released a statement[9] concerning the ADL statement's accusations that a Dr. Francis Collins was misled in the documentary, saying that he signed a "Talent release", giving the center rights to use his statements, and denying that Collins had "NO knowledge that Coral Ridge Ministries was planning a TV special on Darwin and Hitler" as the ADL put it. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Neo-creationism is a movement whose goal is to restate creationism in terms more likely to be well received by the public, policy makers, educators, and the scientific community. ... This article is about biological evolution. ... Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945, standard German pronunciation in the IPA) was the Führer (leader) of the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazi Party) and of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. ... Sir Arthur Keith (February 5, 1866—January 7, 1955) was a Scottish anatomist and anthropologist, and was a leading figure in the study of Human fossils. ... Daniel Lapin (born 1950?) is an American Orthodox rabbi living in Mercer Island, Washington, and the founder of Toward Tradition (a conservative Jewish-Christian organization). ... Orthodox Judaism is the formulation of Judaism that adheres to a relatively strict interpretation and application of the laws and ethics first canonized in the Talmudic texts (The Oral Law). Various Gaonim, Rishonim, and Acharonim expounded upon these same Talmudic texts. ... This article needs to be wikified. ...

Quotes

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

James Kennedy (televangelist)

• "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."^[7]
• "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."^[8]
• "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."^[9]
• "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." ^[10]
• "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'..."^[5]

Image File history File links Wikiquote-logo-en. ... Wikiquote logo Wikiquote is a sister project of Wikipedia, using the same MediaWiki software. ... Invasion is a military action consisting of troops entering a foreign land (a nation or territory, or part of that), often resulting in the invading power occupying the area, whether briefly or for a long period. ...

References

1. ^ "The Rise of the Religious Right in the Republican Party", TheocracyWatch, Last updated: December 2005; URL accessed May 25, 2006.
2. ^ Council on Higher Education Accreditation
3. ^ [1]
4. ^ http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Land_letter
5. ^ ^a b Dr. Kennedy Calls for Constitutional "Firewall" to Protect Marriage Center for Reclaiming America for Christ, November 19, 2003
6. ^ August 2005, Impact Newsletter [2]
7. ^ James Kennedy, Reclaiming America for Christ Conference, 2005.
8. ^ "Education: Public Problems and Private Solutions," Coral Ridge Ministries, 1993. [3]
9. ^ "Reclaiming America for Christ" conference February, 2005
10. ^ Character & Destiny: A Nation In Search of Its Soul D. James Kennedy, Zondervan Publishing House, 1997, p. 80

May 25 is the 145th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (146th in leap years). ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

Official

• Bio of Kennedy From the Coral Ridge Website
• James Kennedy's ProCon.org Biography
• Truths that Transform website
• Center for Reclaiming America for Christ Kennedy's Political Action Center
• Truths That Transform daily radio broadcast on OnePlace.com
• IMDb Entry

Critical

• D. James Kennedy: General Teachings/Activities (critical)
• D. James Kennedy: Who is He? From the Americans United for the Separation of Church and State
• Theocracy Watch (critical)