Kennedy's activities are just starting to get media attention.
A recent Centre 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 Centre proclaims," Kennedy
refused to divulge the information, saying that "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 CRF was set up by Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church when Rev.
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 organisations, 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 colourful
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 programme, 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 programme 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
warm up 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 sermonised 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 Centre for Reclaiming America's Dr. Gary Cass to recently unveil
four new and ambitious initiatives aimed at expanding the impact of
the Centre'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.
http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/interna.asp?idnews=28218
Crusader for a Christian Nation
Bill Berkowitz
OAKLAND, California, Apr 8 (IPS) -
In all the hullabaloo raised 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 Programme for
2004 by the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB); and "The Coral
Ridge Hour" was named the NRB's 2003 Television Programme 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 mobilise 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 Centre runs several projects, including the Statesmanship
Institute, a seven-month programme "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 "recognises one outstanding public
leader" each year.
---
http://www.ElmerFudd.US/ http://www.notserver.com/
Scientology crooks: http://sf.irk.ru/www/ot3/otiii-gif.html
Scientology murder: http://PerkinsTragedy.org
Improving the herd: http://www.rightard.org/
http://www.religiousfreedomwatch.org/extremists/ricef.html
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