Christian right leader Kennedy dies
MIAMI – The Rev. D. James Kennedy, a pioneering Christian broadcaster and megachurch pastor whose fiercely conservative worldview helped fuel the rise of the religious right in American politics, died Wednesday. He was 76.
Kennedy died at his home in Fort Lauderdale, said Kristin Cole, a spokeswoman for Kennedy’s Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church. The cause of death has not been determined, but Kennedy had not been seen publicly he suffered cardiac arrest Dec. 28. His retirement was announced last month.
Kennedy’s voice and face were known to millions through radio and television broadcasts, urging Christians to evangelize in their daily lives, while condemning homosexuality and abortion as assaults on the traditional family. His also preached on the major policy issues of the day, rejecting evolution and global warming.
Kennedy was influential in the founding of the religious right, but did so more often from behind the scenes, as attention focused on his allies, the Revs. Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell.
“He was never in the front ranks of evangelical leaders that were also political leaders, but he was active at every stage of the Christian right,” said John Green, a senior fellow at the Pew Forum for Religion & Public Life who specializes in religion and politics.
Kennedy was a founding board member of the Moral Majority, which Falwell formed in 1979. In 1996, Kennedy created Coral Ridge’s political arm, called the Center for Reclaiming America for Christ, to mobilize conservative Christians against gay marriage, pornography and what he called “judicial tyranny,” among other issues.
Kennedy also founded the Center for Christian Statesmanship, which organized Capitol Hill Bible studies and other events that attracted top government officials. He encouraged them “to embrace God’s providential purpose for this nation.”
“The Bible says, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and have dominion over the earth,’ ” Kennedy said in a 1996 interview with the Los Angeles Times. “God should be in every sphere of life: economics, business, education, government, art and science.”
In 1959, the pastor started his congregation with about 45 members, eventually expanding into a megachurch that claims 10,000 members today.
In the 1960s, when many conservative Christians were still debating how much to engage the broader culture, Kennedy jumped in and created Evangelism Explosion International, which trained Christians to share their beliefs with others.
“That simple goal is now widely adopted in evangelical churches and widely accepted, but at the time he started it, it wasn’t,” said Frank Wright, president of the National Religious Broadcasters association.