Early years and family life

D. James Kennedy was born in Augusta, Georgia, but moved to Chicago, Illinois, in childhood. His father was a glass salesman and his parents were United Methodists. Kennedy joined the Boy Scouts and later moved with his family to Tampa, Florida, where he graduated from Henry B. Plant High School in 1948 and then began studying English at the University of Tampa. After two years, he dropped out of college and began working as a dance instructor at the Arthur Murray Dance Studio in Tampa, winning first prize in a nationwide dance contest. On August 25, 1956, he married Anne Lewis, whom he met while giving her dance lessons at Arthur Murray. They had one daughter, Jennifer, born in 1962.

Education

Kennedy became a Christian in 1953 after hearing a radio preacher present the Gospel, which Kennedy later said he had never heard up to that point. In December 1955, Kennedy decided to quit his Arthur Murray job to enter the ministry. He resumed his studies at the University of Tampa (graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1958) and began preaching at the small Bethel Presbyterian Church in nearby Clearwater, Florida. The following year, Kennedy entered Columbia Theological Seminary, receiving a Master of Divinity degree. After his ordination in 1959, Kennedy became the pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, where he remained until his death. In the 1970s he earned a Master of Theology summa cum laude from the Chicago Graduate School of Theology, and in 1979 a doctorate in religious education from New York University. His doctoral dissertation was on the history of an evangelism program he founded. Kennedy said that he earned a Ph D. "to dispel the idea there is an inconsistency between evangelism and education...evangelical ministers [need] to be thoroughly educated and equipped to meet on equal terms anyone with whom they come in contact".

Ministry and theology

Initially ordained in 1959 by the Presbyterian Church in the United States, Kennedy later became an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church in America, after he and his church left the PCUS in 1978. Espousing a traditional Calvinist theology, Kennedy's theological works include Why I Believe, What If Jesus Had Never Been Born, Skeptics Answered, and Truths That Transform. In 1971, he founded the Westminster Academy in Ft. Lauderdale and, in 1989, Knox Theological Seminary.

Kennedy was a conservative evangelical minister who was often involved in political activities within the Christian right. He wrote What if America Were a Christian Nation Again? and frequently preached messages arguing that the United States was founded as a Christian nation. Kennedy started the Center for Christian Statesmanship, an evangelical ministry on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. The Center, closed in 2007 by Coral Ridge Ministries but quickly reopened under the auspices of Evangelism Explosion International, awards a "Distinguished Christian Statesman Award" annually to high profile Christian political leaders. Award recipients include Tom DeLay, Sam Brownback, and John Ashcroft. He was called by critics a leader of the Dominionism movement.

In 2006, the National Religious Broadcasters association inducted Kennedy into its Hall of Fame.

Founding of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church

Kennedy founded the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida in 1960. Beginning with 45 persons attending a typical Sunday service, it became the fastest-growing Presbyterian church in the U.S. in the 1960s and had 1,366 members by 1968. Kennedy developed the Evangelism Explosion ("EE") method of evangelism in the 1960s, which emphasizes the training of church laypeople to share their faith by home visitation in the community. A film, Like a Mighty Army, was produced in 1970 and starred actor Chris Robinson as Kennedy, portraying the Evangelism Explosion story at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church. In 1978, Kennedy began the weekly Coral Ridge Hour on national television, which at its peak had a weekly audience of three million viewers in 200 countries and was aired on more than 400 stations and four cable networks, including the Trinity Broadcasting Network, The Inspiration Network and the NRB Network, as well as broadcast to more than 150 countries on the Armed Forces Network. By the 1980s, the church's membership had grown to almost 10,000 persons.. As of 2009, the church has 2,200 members and weekly attendance averages 1,800 persons.

Retirement and death

On the evening of December 28, 2006, Kennedy experienced prolonged ventricular tachycardia at his Ft. Lauderdale home, leading to cardiac arrest which deprived his brain of adequate oxygen for six to eight minutes. As a result, he sustained a loss of short-term memory and speech impairment. Despite several months of rehabilitation and convalescence, he was unable to resume preaching and his retirement was announced on Sunday, August 26, 2007, at the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church by his daughter, Jennifer Kennedy Cassidy.

In a statement following news of Kennedy's retirement, the church announced the development of the D. James Kennedy Legacy website in tribute to the life of the Christian evangelist.

Kennedy died in his sleep at home in the early morning hours of September 5, 2007. Dr. D. James Kennedy dead at age 76 retrieved 2007-09-05 The White House issued a statement the following day, saying that U.S. President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush were "deeply saddened" by Kennedy's death, calling the Florida-based televangelist and author "a man of great vision, faith, and integrity ... Dr. Kennedy's message of love and hope inspired millions through the institutions he founded...". Kennedy is buried at Lauderdale Memorial Park Cemetery in Ft. Lauderdale Shortly after Kennedy's Kennedy’s heart attack, Coral Ridge Ministries reduced The Coral Ridge Hour syndication and shortened the program from an hour to 30 minutes . Kennedy's daughter, Jennifer, stated on the program in February 2008 that viewers' donations to the broadcast ministry had declined significantly in the wake of the founding pastor's death. The Coral Ridge Hour, featuring taped messages of Kennedy’s sermons and newly produced news and interview segments, continues to air nationwide on the Inspiration Network, The Church Channel, Daystar, NRB Network, CTN, and other local stations. The Center for Reclaiming America for Christ, Coral Ridge Ministries' Christian social action group, folded shortly after Kennedy's heart attack.

Americans United for the Separation of Church and State (AUSCS, "Americans United" or simply AU) 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." 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 preach against legal abortion, anti-discrimination protections for gays or the teaching of evolution in public schools." AUSCS also criticized Kennedy and his ministry for that it "frequently sends out fund-raising appeals." such as, "One recent letter asked for funds to stop PBS stations from airing a 'homosexual-propaganda program' called It's Elementary."

Though Kennedy has hosted Christian Reconstructionists Rousas John Rushdoony and Gary North on his program in the 1980s he has rejected attempts to link him to Reconstructionist or Dominionism movements. “I am not advocating a theocracy,” Kennedy states in How Would Jesus Vote: A Christian Perspective on the Issues. “I would not have America reinstitute the Old Testament civil and legal systems to replace our governmental legislation.” He denounced in the late 1980s any attempts to link him to Reconstructionist or Dominionism movement as a McCarthyist technique of guilt by association, and said he does not approve of their theology. Critic Frederick Clarkson argues that despite his denial, Kennedy meets Clarkson's criteria for being a dominionist. In an interview with NPR's Terry Gross, host of the program "Fresh Air," Kennedy cast his objectives within a democratic framework. Asked whether he wanted all public office holders to be Christians, Kennedy answered, "We have people who are secular and humanist and unbelievers who are constantly supporting in every way possible other people who share those views. And I don't object to that. That's their privilege. And I think that Christians should be allowed the same privilege to vote for people whom they believe share their views about life and government. And that's all I'm talking about."

Darwin's Deadly Legacy

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) issued a press release in 2006 strongly criticizing Darwin's Deadly Legacy, a neo-creationist documentary produced by the Coral Ridge Ministries, which attempts to link evolution to Adolf Hitler:

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." The ADL's response also quotes Christian geneticist Francis Collins, who was interviewed for the program, repudiating it, saying he was "absolutely appalled by what Coral Ridge Ministries is doing. I had NO knowledge that Coral Ridge Ministries was planning a TV special on Darwin and Hitler, and I find the thesis of Dr. Kennedy's program utterly misguided and inflammatory,".

Coral Ridge Ministries answered the ADL's criticisms in an August 22, 2006 press release stating that “ADL National Director Abe Foxman, who has not viewed our television program ignores the historical fact that Adolf Hitler was an evolutionist.” The release cited three sources for the assertion of a Darwin-Hitler connection. First, historian Richard Weikart, who said,

The release also cited a Hitler contemporary, Scottish anatomist and anthropologist Sir Arthur Keith, who wrote in the 1940s,

Finally, the release claimed that evolutionist Niles Eldredge “freely admits the link between Darwin and Hitler.” The release quoted Eldredge, a curator at the American Museum of Natural History, who wrote:

In a second release, Coral Ridge Ministries rejected the statement attributed to Francis Collins that he was misled and had "NO knowledge that Coral Ridge Ministries was planning a TV special on Darwin and Hitler":

According to the Coral Ridge press release, Collins had signed a "Talent release," giving "Coral Ridge Ministries the right to use his interview 'without limitation in all perpetuity.'"

Official

• Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church website
• Coral Ridge Ministries website
• D. James Kennedy's Memorial Tribute website
• Center for Reclaiming America for Christ Kennedy's Political Action Center
• Truths That Transform daily radio broadcast on OnePlace.com
• D. James Kennedy legacy website

Critical

• D. James Kennedy: General Teachings/Activities from Biblical Discernment Ministries
• D. James Kennedy: Who is He? From the Americans United for the Separation of Church and State

Other

• PastorBlog compilation of links to tributes and more

James KennedyD. James Kennedy