KEY POINTS:
The Rev D. James Kennedy, a pioneering megachurch pastor who became one of the US' most prominent Christian broadcasters and a key figure in the rise of the religious right, has died aged 76.
Kennedy took the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale from a congregation of 45 in 1959 to a megachurch of nearly 10,000 members today.
He also founded the Centre for Christian Statesmanship in Washington, organising congressional Bible studies and other events that attracted top government officials and encouraged them "to embrace God's providential purpose for this nation".
In 1974, Kennedy started Coral Ridge Ministries, his radio and TV outreach arm, which now claims a weekly audience of 3.5 million. Kennedy's TV show The Coral Ridge Hour, airs on more than 400 stations and four cable networks and is broadcast to more than 150 countries on the Armed Forces Network. Last year, the National Religious Broadcasters association inducted him into their Hall of Fame.
Kennedy was a close colleague of the Rev Pat Robertson, the Rev Jerry Falwell and other religious broadcasters and was an early board member of the Moral Majority, a lobbying organisation which Falwell formed in 1979 that mushroomed into a conservative Christian empire and influenced American politics.
