The D. James Kennedy Center for Christian Statesmanship, founded 29 years ago, has named a 33-year-old “recovering Capitol hill staffer” and former Trump administration aide as its new executive director.
“I’m excited to engage with both elected officials and Hill staffers in a deep, meaningful way,” said William Russell, who has been knocking on doors for Republicans since he was 18.
William Russell
“I look forward to helping them live out their faith through their work, walking with them through the challenges Capitol Hill brings, as well as bringing much-needed encouragement to people in Congress,” he said.
The Center for Christian Statesmanship is an outreach of Coral Ridge Ministries, also known as D. James Kennedy Ministries, which was founded in 1974 by Kennedy, the former pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, a Presbyterian Church in America congregation in Fort Lauderdale. Kennedy, who also was known for creating “Evangelism Explosion,” died in 2007. He founded the center out of concern that America’s “Christian” roots were dying out.
“Our country was, indeed, conceived and birthed largely by Christian statesmen,” he said. “Today I am afraid that it is choking and dying at the hands of mere politicians, and I think it is vital that we rekindle the flame of Christian statesmanship in this country.”
Unlike bigger evangelical groups, such as the Family Research Council, Russell says the center’s purpose is not lobbying for legislation but educating legislators and their staffers about connecting their values to their legislative work and votes.
“We speak to a lot of staffers on the Hill who are Christians and have a biblical worldview but struggle with how to best apply that in real-world terms,” Russell said, adding the way things work in D.C. are “very different from what you hear on Sundays. Education can help build a ‘bridge between Sundays and the rest of your week.’”
Center programs took a hit during the COVID pandemic and haven’t yet returned to pre-COVID level, but Russell foresees educational forums and panels featuring legislators and experts and covering everything from abortion to budgets, national defense, immigration and on down the list.
“It would be great to have a chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee come in and speak about how the Bible shows how God used armies to defend his country and his people in different biblical scenarios,” he said. “Or what does God say about balanced budgets and debt, and how do we fix that?”
“It would be great to have a chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee come in and speak about how the Bible shows how God used armies to defend his country and his people in different biblical scenarios.”
Kennedy said evangelism was at the center of his Center for Christian Statesmanship’s mission. “The center exists on Capitol Hill for the purposes of training and equipping present and future political leaders in the areas of evangelism and statesmanship,” says the organization’s website.
“Join us in sharing the gospel on Capitol Hill,” says the Center’s brochure, which describes its workers as “missionaries in ‘modern Rome.’”
Evangelism may have been a priority in the past, but moving forward, Russell says education on issues will play a greater role than evangelizing the Christian faith.
The Center for Christian Statesmanship says it seeks to uphold spiritual standards of behavior that make for a righteous leader:
“A Christian statesman is a man or woman whose life is governed by bedrock principles over which they will not compromise for personal or political gain … Distinguished Christian statesmen serve as shining examples of what it means to live a life of faith, integrity and service to others. They provide a powerful witness to the gospel’s transformative power. … A Christian statesman endeavors to live out their Christian faith in public life, upholding those principles that exalt rather than debase the nation.”
Each year the center presents its Distinguished Christian Statesman Award to a GOP leader. Recent recipients include:
- Tim Scott (South Carolina)
- Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears (Virginia)
- Vicki Hartzler (Missouri)
- Bob McEwen (Ohio)
- Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos
- Jim Inhofe (Oklahoma)
- Mark Meadows (North Carolina).
Past recipients include Vice President Mike Pence and 10 Commandments Judge Roy Moore of Alabama.
Robert J. Pacienza
Russell served as deputy director of presidential advance and trip director at the White House under President Donald Trump. His curent boss, Rob Pacienza, is a senior fellow in the Center for the American Dream at Donald Trump’s think tank, the America First Policy Institute. Pacienza is president of Coral Ridge Ministries and senior pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church.
Asked if Trump exemplifies the center’s model of Christian statesmanship, Russell answered after a long pause: “I don’t know the answer to that question. No one can know a person’s heart.”
Russell said Trump “has done incredible things to protect religious freedoms, appointed judges to the bench at all levels … and has done a phenomenal job of encouraging Christians to succeed in the realm of politics by putting people in places to succeed.”
Coral Ridge Ministries also includes D. James Kennedy Ministries, which oversees Kennedy’s intellectual property and his “Truths That Transform” broadcasts, and Providence Forum, created to preserve, defend and advance the “Judeo-Christian values of our nation’s founding.”
Coral Ridge Ministries had income of nearly $5 million in 2022, down from $8 million in 2021.
The ministry waged an unsuccessful legal battle to halt the Southern Poverty Law Center from calling it a hate group. The U.S. Supreme Court denied CRM’s efforts to overturn lower court rulings.
CRM claimed its teaching that homosexuality is sinful does not make it anti-LGBTQ or hateful. SPLC applies the term to CRM because it “maligns the LGBTQ community, portraying it as perverted and a threat to the nation.” Kennedy and others at CRM have called homosexuality “vile,” “shameful” and “an abomination.”