A Tribute to Dr. D. James Kennedy

By James Muffett, CTV President

Recently Dr. Kennedy, who profoundly influenced my life—along with countless others—went home to be with the Lord. I would like to take just a few moments to give honor to whom honor is due.

On my wall hangs a picture of Dr. Kennedy, Randy Marcial and myself taken at the First Annual Banquet for the Foundation for Traditional Values in 1993. A few years before that I was privileged to participate in a Christian Heritage Tour of Plymouth and Boston, MA sponsored by Dr. Kennedy. That week changed my life and set me on a mission to spread the word about and uphold the values established in our Judeo-Christian heritage. When it came time to launch the Foundation for Traditional Values, my first choice for a banquet speaker was Dr. Kennedy. After being approached by Betsy DeVos, he graciously agreed to come to Michigan and invest his valuable time in a start up organization. We held two events that year, one in Grand Rapids and one in Dearborn. The money he helped us raise provided the seed that got us going and has now grown to include the Student Statesmanship Institute—a ministry focused on transferring truth to a new generation of Christian leaders. I was thrilled a few years later to be asked to speak for Dr. Kennedy's Reclaiming America Conference in Florida and be able to publicly thank him and share the good things he helped produce. None of this would have come to pass without the powerful ministry and servant heart of Dr. Kennedy. I owe Him, and the Lord he faithfully served, a huge debt of gratitude. He was truly a man with a big vision and a big heart.

My friend Don VanCurler is on the board of Coral Ridge Ministries and he sent me the following statement that Dr. Kennedy made in church one day:

“Now, I know that someday I am going to come to what some people will say is the end of this life. They will probably put me in a box and roll me right down here in front of the church, and some people will gather around, and a few people will cry. But I have told them not to do that because I don't want them to cry. I want them to begin the service with the Doxology and end with the Hallelujah chorus, because I am not going to be there, and I am not going to be dead. I will be more alive than I have ever been in my life, and I will be looking down upon you poor people who are still in the land of dying and have not yet joined me in the land of the living. And I will be alive forevermore, in greater health and vitality and joy than ever I or anyone has known before.”

For those of us who remain, Dr. Kennedy has set the bar high. We have been handed the torch and it is our great joy and privilege to run with it!