Dennis James Kennedy (November 3, 1930 – September 5, 2007) was an American Presbyterian pastor, evangelist, Christian broadcaster, and author. He was the senior pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, from 1960 until his death in 2007. Kennedy also founded Evangelism Explosion International, Coral Ridge Ministries (now known as D. James Kennedy Ministries), the Westminster Academy in Fort Lauderdale, the Knox Theological Seminary, radio station WAFG-FM, and the Center for Reclaiming America for Christ, a socially conservative political group.
In 1974, he began Coral Ridge Ministries, which produced his weekly religious television program, The Coral Ridge Hour, carried on various networks and syndicated on numerous other stations with a peak audience of three million viewers in 200 countries. He also had a daily radio program, Truths That Transform, from 1984 on. During his lifetime, Coral Ridge Ministries grew to a US$37-million-a-year non-profit corporation.
In 2005, the National Religious Broadcasters Association inducted Kennedy into its Hall of Fame. He last preached at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church on December 24, 2006, suffering a heart attack four days later from which he never fully recovered. His retirement was officially announced at the church on August 26, 2007, and he died at his home ten days later.
D. James Kennedy Quotes
1. “Tolerance is the last virtue of a depraved society. When you have an immoral society that has blatantly, proudly, violated all of the commandments of God, there is one last virtue they insist upon: tolerance for their immorality.”
— D. James Kennedy
2. “What really matters is what happens in us, not to us.”
— D. James Kennedy
3. “We live in an age in which only one prejudice is tolerated – anti-Christian bigotry… Today, the only group you can hold up to public mockery is Christians. Attacks on the Church and Christianity are common.”
— D. James Kennedy
4. “In reading over the Constitutions of all fifty of our states, I discovered something which some of you may not know: there is in all fifty, without exception, an appeal or a prayer to the Almighty God of the universe. Through all fifty state Constitutions, without exception, there runs this same appeal and reference to God who is the Creator of our liberties and the preserver of our freedoms.”
— D. James Kennedy
5. “You cannot say, ‘No, Lord,’ and mean both words; one annuls the other. If you say no to Him, then He is not your Lord.”
— D. James Kennedy
6. “The star of Bethlehem was a star of hope that led the wise men to the fulfillment of their expectations, the success of their expedition. Nothing in this world is more fundamental for success in life than hope, and this star pointed to our only source for true hope: Jesus Christ.”
— D. James Kennedy
7. “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.”
— D. James Kennedy
8. “Anytime you hear the concept of the separation of church and state being talked about these days, it is never in regard to maintaining the restraints on government; instead, it is always talking about what Christians and churches cannot do.”
— D. James Kennedy
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.”
— D. James Kennedy
10. “God loves America. When you consider what He went through to bring our forbearers to this magnificent land, and when you realize what He accomplished in bringing forth a new nation on this continent – a government founded on Christian principles…you have to realize that He had a dramatic vision and purpose for this nation.”
— D. James Kennedy
11. “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 the 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’.”
— D. James Kennedy
12. “Christ, who came meek and mild to save us from pain and suffering, was the One who talked more about hell than any other person in Scripture.
— D. James Kennedy
13. “Christian bashing is alive and well on college and university campuses also. In fact, it’s even more direct and overt because Christianity is not ‘politically correct.’ Never has been. Never will be.”
— D. James Kennedy
14. “The religious foundations of America have been completely expurgated from our history textbooks.”
— D. James Kennedy
15. “That is what we have in revisionist historians. It starts with their own atheism, their own unbelief, and then they go back and attempt to revise and rewrite history in their own image.”
— D. James Kennedy
16. “In France, religion had been considered the enemy of liberty, but in America, as George Washington expressed it, religion and morality were the ‘twin pillars of freedom.”
— D. James Kennedy
17. “As the vice-regents of God, we are to bring His truth and His … dominion … over our neighborhoods, our schools, our government… our entertainment media, our news media, our scientific endeavors – in short, over every aspect and institution of human society.”
— D. James Kennedy
18. “The Supreme Court has said that America is a Christian nation. But to make such a statement today causes reporters, newsmen, and many politicians to go ballistic.”
— D. James Kennedy
19. “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.”
— D. James Kennedy
20. “Communistic evolution, according to the Senate committee that examined it, is responsible for 135 million deaths in peacetime. There’s no religion that has a tiny fraction of that many deaths on its conscience. There are scientists who will admit that there’s not one iota of scientific evidence to support it.”
— D. James Kennedy
21. “No one expects this nation to become a theocracy, where Christianity is the only value, but we do indeed say that the essential values and founding principles of the nation should not be ignored.”
— D. James Kennedy
22. “Christianity teaches that the human race is depraved, fallen, and sinful.”
— D. James Kennedy
23. “The time for letting the Christian bashing go on essentially unchallenged has come to an end… There is a great need for a Christian anti-defamation league. To some degree, there is such an organization emerging on the horizon, the Catholic League… I have had it on my heart for about a decade – and have even expressed the thought – that a Christian anti-defamation league would be helpful.”
— D. James Kennedy
24. “Indeed, there is an attack against things Christian in America. We see it in the movies, on TV, in the schools, in the universities, in the public arena, in the courts, and even within some church circles.”
— D. James Kennedy
25. “To put it simply, no Darwin, no Hitler. Hitler tried to speed up evolution, to help it along, and millions suffered and died in unspeakable ways because of it.”
— D. James Kennedy
26. “In Grimm’s fairy tales, you kiss a frog and in two seconds, it becomes a prince. That is a fairy tale. In evolution, you kiss a frog and in two million years, it becomes a prince.”
— D. James Kennedy
27. “In the major institutions of education, government, science, and the arts, we are witnessing the imposition of a post-Christian view of life. It now dominates in motion pictures, television, and every other form of entertainment.”
— D. James Kennedy
28. “As a result of the assault on Christianity, the Christian faith has been isolated more and more into a tiny private sector of life and removed from the whole public spectrum of America.”
— D. James Kennedy
29. “In modern America, Judeo-Christian beliefs are often held up to ridicule and disdain by the media.”
— D. James Kennedy
30. “Rock and roll has had a powerful anti-Christian subtheme for decades now.”
— D. James Kennedy
