Christian Right Leaders: America Can Only Be 'Reclaimed' by Religious Revival

At the first major conclave of Religious Right foot soldiers since the 2006 elections, a sense of solemnity pervaded the sanctuary of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, also known as the pulpit of D. James Kennedy, the ailing televangelist pastor whose multi-million-dollar religious enterprise is based in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. Gathered together on March 2-3 for the annual "Reclaiming America for Christ" conference, participants heard from a range of speakers, by turns inward-looking, triumphalist or bellicose.

Hospitalized since a near-fatal heart attack on Dec. 28, Kennedy was absent from the conference, over which he has presided almost every year since the first one in 1995. The roster, however, was filled with speakers who made frequent use of the buzzwords reflective of Kennedy's ministry, particularly the use of the terms "salt" and "light," derived from the Gospel of Matthew, to denote the two ways in which Kennedy asserts Christians must act in the world: as "salt" -- to arrest the decay of society -- and "light" -- to reveal the path to everlasting life through the born-again Christian experience.

The conference is the product of the Center for Reclaiming America, one of several distinct components that are part of Coral Ridge Ministries, which took in some $38 million in 2005, according to the organization's own tax filings. While great pains appear to have been taken to demonstrate adherence to the letter, if not the spirit, of the law that grants exemption from federal taxes to non-partisan religious institutions, the political underpinnings of the event were apparent in the resumes of the speakers.

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, is a former GOP representative in the state legislature of Louisiana; Richard Land, chair of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, reportedly speaks weekly with White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove on an advisory conference call; Phyllis Schlafly helped launch the Republican right via Barry Goldwater's 1964 presidential campaign; Brad Bright worked as an aide to GOP Senator William Armstrong (Colo.); Rick Green of Wallbuilders served as a Republican representative in the Texas legislature; and Barbara Collier, national field director for the Center for Reclaiming America, served as the Broward County co-chair for the 2004 Bush-Cheney ticket.

If there was an overarching theme to this year's event, it was that America cannot be "reclaimed" from the grip of the evil forces that now engulf it until religious revival sweeps the land. Several speakers seemed to berate the faithful for not being holy enough.

"Demons in the holes of hell know more scripture" than many Christians, said Brian Fisher, executive vice president of Coral Ridge Ministries. The Southern Baptist Convention's Land fingered divorce as a culprit.

"We've become more like the culture," Land said, "than the culture has become like us.... God is not going to send revival, God is not going to send an awakening, as long as the divorce rate inside the church is the same as the divorce rate outside the church -- and it is. What do we have to say to the world when we get divorced as often as the world does?"

At the same time, Land -- who penned a 2002 letter to President George W. Bush signed by D. James Kennedy and other Religious Right leaders that urged the invasion of Iraq -- exhorted believers not to retreat from the world.

"We're to be close enough to the world that they can see the light and feel the heat," Land said. "There's no room in being obedient to the command to be salt and light for us to withdraw from the world and say, 'Oh, we're not going to get involved in that stuff, we're not going to get involved in public policy, we're not going to get involved in politics; that's dirty worldly stuff. We're just gonna, we're just gonna, we're just gonna withdraw and have a closed meeting of the saints and sorta go into a spiritual holding pattern until it's time to go up and be with Jesus.' That is not what the Lord had in mind...."