Weird Tract Number 38: "The Spiritual State of the Union '93" by D. James Kennedy

Troy Davis writes:

Mary, Mother Of Jesus, I hated televangelist, New Right leader, and megachurch pastor D. James Kennedy (1930-2007) of the Fort Lauderdale-based Coral Ridge Ministries (now known as D. James Kennedy Ministries) as well as head of the Religious Right group The Center for Reclaiming Christ for America. 

Kennedy was one of the more low profile, personally low-key members of the Religious Right. This 15-page booklet is an example of Kennedy's low-key approach. It proports to examine the "Spiritual State of the Union" for the year 1993 which was Bill Clinton's first year in office. Unlike his colleague Jerry Falwell who was selling salacious $35 VHS tapes claiming Bill and Hillary were drug running and murdering anyone who got in their way, Kennedy's response to the Clinton presidency was this brief jeremiad that decried gays in the military, the then-$4 trillion national debt, and abortion. Bizarro claims: "There are more ex-homosexuals in America than there are practicing homosexuals." and "My friends, I believe that AIDS is unquestionably from the hand of God," 

Kennedy's adopted hometown Fort Lauderdale used to be America's top college spring break destination until the 1980s when bluenoses like Kennedy put pressure on the local government to clean up Ft. Lauderdale's reputation as a hedonistic playground for college students. Kennedy helped  elect Doug Danziger as vice mayor of the city. Danziger wanted to make the city more "family-friendly" and was largely responsible for a police crackdown on college students on spring break (Ft. Lauderdale outlawed parties in 1985); this resulted in an exodus of spring breakers to places like Daytona Beach and Panama City. By the end of the '80s, the spring break population in the city had gone from 350,000 to fewer than 20,000.

Vice Mayor Danziger made his bones with the fundy crowd and was considered a rising political star with the sectarian right until, as luck would have it, he was videotaped having sex with escort Kathy Willits (billed as "America's Favorite Nymphomaniac") and quickly sank into obscurity.

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