How Pastor D James Kennedy & Congregation OVERCAME ALL OBSTACLES!

1936 – The Kennedy family moves to Chicago, settling in an apartment just 50 yards from Lake Michigan.

1945 – The family relocates once more to Tampa, Florida.

1952 – Arthur Murray Dance instructor Jim Kennedy meets Anne Lewis and signs her up for six months of dance instructions.

1953 – Sleeping late on a Sunday morning, Jim Kennedy hears the Gospel for the very first time from a radio preacher. Shortly thereafter he professes faith in Christ.

December 3, 1955 – After fighting God’s call to full-time ministry for nearly a year, Jim Kennedy, with great trepidation, quits his job as a dance studio manager.

December 3, 1955 – Jim Kennedy and Anne Lewis become engaged.

December 4, 1955 – Jim is given the chance to preach at a local Presbyterian church and, to his surprise, is employed as the interim minister the same day.

August 25, 1956 – Jim and Anne are married at First Presbyterian Church of Lakeland, Florida.

Fall 1956 – Jim Kennedy begins seminary training at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia.

May 11, 1959 – Days before his seminary graduation, Jim receives a letter from the Home Missions Committee of the Everglades Presbytery inviting him to consider pastoring a new church to be started in Fort Lauderdale.

June 21, 1959 – The first Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church worship service is held at McNab Elementary School, led by D. James Kennedy.

July 21, 1959 –Rev. D. James Kennedy is ordained.

1960 – Rev. Kennedy tells his fledgling congregation: “You know what? I believe we can change the world!”

July 31, 1960 – Rev. D. James Kennedy is installed as minister of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church.

1962 – Rev. Kennedy begins to train church members to share Christ using the techniques learned from Rev. Kennedy Smart.

March 16, 1962 – Jennifer is born and adopted into the Kennedy family.

March 18, 1962 – A new church building seating 500 on Commercial Boulevard is dedicated.

February 20, 1967 – The first Evangelism Explosion clinic is held with 36 people in attendance.

Summer 1967 – Tragedy strikes when Anne undergoes cancer surgery. Rev. Kennedy later describes God’s provision during that dark time in his message, “Songs in the Night.”

1970 – Evangelism Explosion, the first of more than 65 books by Dr. Kennedy is published by Tyndale. More than 1.5 million copies have been sold.

1970 – Like A Mighty Army, a dramatic motion picture depicting the story of Evangelism Explosion, is produced by Gospel Films.

August 28, 1970 – Lay Evangelism, Inc., later changed to Evangelism Explosion III International, Inc., is organized.

April 11, 1971 (Easter Sunday) – Groundbreaking for new church on Federal Highway.

August 1971 – Classes begin at Westminster Academy® with 300 students enrolled.

February 3, 1974 – The new church building on Federal Highway is dedicated. Dr. Billy Graham addresses the 11,000 people in attendance, some on benches outside the church, and 597 decision for Christ are recorded.

October 1, 1974 – Radio station WAFG (90.3 FM) is licensed as a non-commercial educational station.

October 3, 1976 – Church membership reaches 5,000 people.

January 8, 1978 – Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church votes to leave the Presbyterian Church (U.S.) and unites with the Presbyterian Church in America (P.C.A.).

September 17, 1978 – First television broadcast of worship service.

February 1979 – Dr. Kennedy receives his Ph.D. from New York University, completing his list of degrees as follows: A.B., M.Div. (cum laude), M.Th. (summa cum laude), D.D., D.Sac.Lit., Ph.D., Litt.D., D.Sac.Theol., and D.Humane Lit.

November 30, 1980 – Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church celebrates its 20th anniversary.

May 29, 1990 – George Kennedy, Dr. Kennedy’s brother, dies. Dr. Kennedy learns after his death that George, who had long resisted the Gospel, was led to Christ on his death bed by a young hospital chaplain.

1984 – Truths That Transform, Dr. Kennedy’s daily radio program begins.

November 24, 1985 – Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church celebrates its 25th anniversary.

1988 - With Evangelism Explosion in only 66 nations, Dr. Kennedy challenged the organization’s vice presidents to take the lay-evangelism training program to every nation by 1995.

March 14, 1989 – The Session of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church establishes Knox Theological Seminary and appoints Dr. Kennedy Chancellor.

March 30-April 1, 1990 – Coral Ridge Church marks its 30th Anniversary during a “Celebrate the Dream” weekend celebration.

September 1990 – Knox Theological Seminary begins classes to train pastors and laymen in a graduate school of theology.

1992 – The Kennedy Commentary, a daily 90-second radio commentary, is launched.

May 21, 1994 – Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church celebrates Dr. Kennedy’s 35th year in Gospel ministry.

September 14, 1995 – Dr. Kennedy dedicates the D. James Kennedy Center for Christian Statesmanship in Washington, D.C.

February 23, 1996 – Evangelism Explosion International becomes the first Christian organization in history to establish its ministry in all 211 nations of the world.

March 7, 1999 – Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church celebrates its 40th anniversary.

June 10, 2000 – Daughter Jennifer marries Charles D. “Chip” Cassidy in Newport Beach, California.

December 2000 – Along with Dean Jones, Dr. Kennedy co-hosts Who Is This Jesus, a one-hour documentary viewed by some 12 million people nationwide.

February 15, 2005 – Dr. Kennedy is inducted into the National Religious Broadcasters Hall of Fame.

October 2005 – After Hurricane Wilma rips off the church roof and drenches the sanctuary, Dr. Kennedy encourages the congregation, telling them this is “our finest hour.”

December 9, 2005 – Dr. Kennedy is feted at a surprise 75th birthday celebration.

August 25, 2006 – Dr. and Mrs. Kennedy celebrate 50 years of marriage.

2006 – Nearly five million people profess faith in Jesus Christ through Evangelism Explosion.

September 5, 2007 – Dr. Kennedy enters into the presence of God in Heaven.

Although he's not nearly as well known as other religious broadcasters such as James Dobson and Pat Robertson, D. James Kennedy is working to amass a Religious Right empire that could one day rival Focus on the Family or the Christian Broadcasting Network.

Born on Nov. 3, 1930, in Augusta, Ga., Kennedy is a one-time Arthur Murray Studios dance instructor who turned to the ministry. He graduated with honors from Columbia Theological Seminary in 1959 and assumed the pastorate that same year of Ft. Lauderdale's Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, a congregation affiliated with the ultraconservative Presbyterian Church in America. (Kennedy holds a number of other degrees as well, including a Ph.D. from New York University.)

Coral Ridge has grown rapidly under Kennedy's oversight, and the church now claims just under 10,000 members. He began broadcasting on television in 1974 and today reaches millions all over the country with a regular Sunday morning program, "The Coral Ridge Hour," which is carried by more than 500 TV stations.

In addition, Kennedy has a radio program, "Truths That Transform," heard daily on more than 500 stations. A second daily Kennedy program, the 90-second "Kennedy Commentary," is heard on more than 300 radio stations. He is the author of several books.

According to the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, Kennedy's TV ministry, Coral Ridge Ministries Media, Inc., had a total income of $24,555,110 as of Dec. 31, 1996, the last year for which figures are available. In addition, Kennedy's Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, which is incorporated separately, had an income of $16,586,074 for the same period.

In 1996 Kennedy founded the Center for Reclaiming America as an arm of his TV ministry. Directed by Janet Folger, a former anti-abortion lobbyist from Ohio, the Ft. Lauderdale-based Center says its mission is to provide "non-partisan, inter-denominational information, training, and support to enable Christians to have a positive role in developing a biblical virtues-based culture in their communities and in our nation."

The rhetoric may sound lofty, but in reality the Center is just another Religious Right outfit obsessed with opposing legal abortion and gay rights and bashing public education. Under Folger, the Center has focused chiefly on fighting the "homosexual agenda," and she has played a lead role in bringing "ex-gays" into the public eye.

Kennedy has a Washington presence through the Center for Christian Statesmanship, which is also a project of his television ministry. Located on Capitol Hill, the Center, which opened in 1995, sponsors Bible studies and other evangelical activities for members of Congress and their staffs.

Its weekly fax newsletter, Compass, is designed to "help today's leaders apply the principles of God's Word to their official duties." The Center also runs newspaper ads "that present the Gospel and challenge today's leaders to become modern-day Christian statesmen." Its director is Dr. Frank Wright.

Coral Ridge runs a K-12 school in Ft. Lauderdale called Westminster Academy that serves about 1,000 students. It also sponsors Knox Theological Seminary and owns a radio station, WAFG-FM.

Kennedy's ministry has always promoted right-wing politics. 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. The ministry frequently sends out lurid fund-raising appeals. One recent letter begged for funds to stop PBS stations from airing a "homosexual-propaganda program" called "It's Elementary."

Three years ago Kennedy told an evangelical magazine that it has become "increasingly difficult for a genuine Christian to support" the Democratic Party.

What does Kennedy think about the separation of church and state? He doesn't like it. Kennedy's 1994 book, Character & Destiny:

A Nation In Search of Its Soul, is riddled with attacks on the constitutional principle. Among other things, Kennedy calls church-state separation "diabolical," a "false doctrine" and "a lie" propagated by Thomas Jefferson.

Kennedy also lapses into Red-baiting, writing, "This phrase does not appear in the United States Constitution at all, but in Article 52 of the Constitution of the Soviet Union -- now the Soviet disunion. Defunct, because they tried to get rid of God."

A 1996 Kennedy tome, The Gates of Hell Shall Not Prevail: The Attack On Christianity And What You Need To Know To Combat It, coauthored with Jerry Newcombe, calls the wall of separation a "great deception [that] has been used to destroy much of the religious freedom and liberty this country has enjoyed since its inception."

Kennedy asserts that although the United States was once a "Christian nation," that is no longer the case because today "the hostile barrage from atheists, agnostics, and other secular humanists has begun to take a serious toll on that heritage.

In recent years, they have built up their forces and even increased their assault upon all our Christian institutions, and they have been enormously successful in taking over the 'public square.' Public education, the media, the government, the courts, and even the church in many places, now belong to them."

Elsewhere in the book, Kennedy writes, "Our job is to reclaim America for Christ, whatever the cost." Kennedy's triumphalist rhetoric has led to speculation that he may be sympathetic to "Christian Reconstructionism," an extreme Religious Right movement that seeks a theocracy in America based on the Old Testament's harsh legal code.

Kennedy has denied being a Reconstructionist, but in May of 1996 he addressed a banquet held by American Vision, a Reconstructionist group based in Georgia. The group's newsletter, A.V. Report, noted that, "American Vision has enjoyed a wonderful friendship and working relationship with Dr. Kennedy and others at Coral Ridge for many years."

Are TV preacher D. James Kennedy's views extreme? Judge for yourself. Here is a sampling of opinions taken from his 1994 book, Character & Destiny: A Nation In Search of Its Soul (written with Jim Nelson Black):

The Culture War "Christians did not start the culture war but...we are going to end it. That is a fact, and the Bible assures us of victory." (p. 76)

Deliberately Deceitful Educators "Not all the educators in our public schools and universities are deliberately deceitful, not all of them want to destroy this nation, but many do. The major teachers' unions certainly do." (p. 75)

The United States: A Christian Nation "But the fact is, the United States of America was conceived and brought forth by Christians, and history tells us that story in no uncertain terms....Anyone who reads about the values upon which this nation was founded understands perfectly well that this was, from the start, a Christian nation." (p. 71)

Ten Thousand Communist Professors "Just a few years ago, there were as many as ten thousand Communist professors in American universities. The average person never saw any of them, and many would doubt the truth of that statistic. But I can assure you it is true." (p. 63)

Secular Sinners "Modern secularists and agnostics do not want to admit that the Christian religion is true, because that would mean that they are sinners; and they have no intention of giving up their right to sin." (p. 46)

Public School Immorality "Teachers in many of our public schools have acceded to the policies of the liberal teachers' unions to make sure that students from kindergarten through high school will be stripped of any sense of moral or ethical absolutes. Right and wrong are non-issues in our public schools." (p.260)

Evolution: Into The Slime "Every new advance and every step taken by science confirm not evolution but the Genesis account of creation. Yet evolution still continues to be taught as fact....Thus, the honorable place that had been given to human beings by God is surreptitiously aborted, and they are dragged down into the slime." (p. 178)

Dismantling The Wall Of Separation "If we are committed and involved in taking back the nation for Christian moral values, and if we are willing to risk the scorn of the secular media and the bureaucracy that stand against us, there is no doubt we can witness the dismantling of not just the Berlin Wall but the even more diabolical 'wall of separation' that has led to increasing secularization, godlessness, immorality, and corruption in our country." (p. 126-127)

Engaging The Enemy "God forbid that we who were born into the blessings of a Christian America should let our patrimony slip like sand through our fingers and leave to our children the bleached bones of a godless secular society. But whatever the outcome, one thing is certain: God has called us to engage the enemy in this culture war. That is our challenge today." (p. 91)

No Power On Earth Can Stop Us "This is our land. This is our world. This is our heritage, and with God's help, we shall reclaim this nation for Jesus Christ. And no power on earth can stop us." (p. 85)

Reclaiming America For Christ "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." (p. 80)