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The former Jean Villaneuva, who became Steve Case's second wife four years ago, graduated from Westminster Academy in 1978. Two years later, she moved to Washington, D.C. as a Republican Congressional aide. Her conservative bias is inherent in some of the policies she created as AOL's chief communications officer. Since she became publicly involved with Steve Case while both were married to others, her devotion to born-again family values presumably has limits, but her support for one of America's nastiest enclaves of old-time religion arouses concern.

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$7 million of her $8.35 million gift to Westminster Academy will support construction of a new high school; $500,000 is earmarked for needy students who might otherwise miss being steeped in creationism, bigotry, pro-life zealotry, and militant prudishness. Founded in 1971 by Rev. D. James Kennedy, the 1200-student parochial day school stands adjacent to Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church and shares many of its facilities and personnel. All faculty members are church members; children of church members rate preferred admission.

Classes extend from kindergarten through grade 12. Westminster's administrative Statement of Faith states that "schooling must use the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the infallible basis and interpreter for all teaching and learning;" that "Christian schooling is a Biblical mandate;" and that Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church is "the rounding and governing church of the school."

Westminster Academy operates the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church radio station, WAFG-FM, whose call letters stand for Westminster Academy for God. WAFG originates Christian programming that is widely syndicated throughout the country. Kennedy himself produces short radio commentaries, a daily program called "Truths That Transform," and a weekly hour-long TV show called "The Coral Ridge Hour."

Kennedy, who holds a doctorate from NYU, is an adherent of a Presbyterian fundamentalist splinter group. His career as a moral purity fanatic dates back 40 years. In 1980, he was hand-picked by Jerry Falwell and right-wing power broker Paul Weyrich to serve on the founding board of directors of the Moral Majority. He has ties to the Colorado-based Coalition on Revival, a network of reactionary Christian ministries. In 1989 he founded the archfundamentalist Knox Theological Seminary.

Coral Ridge Ministries (CRM) spreads intolerance through Kennedy's "Evangelism Explosion" agenda, and maintains a program called Worthy Creations, "a way out of the gay lifestyle." In the mid-'90s, CRM spewed forth anti-gay propaganda videos so vile that they alienated many members of the ex-gay ministries they were intended to promote. "Honestly... would you want your son, daughter, or grandchild sharing a shower, foxhole, or blood with a homosexual?" asks a typical CRM fundraising letter.

Another CRM project, the Center for Reclaiming America, organized the 1998 "Truth in Love" campaign that placed full-page ads in major newspapers nationwide touting the virtues of renouncing homosexuality. The best-known ads featured the Exodus International ex-gay poster boy John Paulk (recently a patron of a drag bar in DC; see The Guide, November 2000) and his ex-lesbian wife. A 1999 ad series thanked football star Reggie White and Mississippi Senator Trent Lott for their homophobic public pronouncements.

Perhaps the most troubling aspect of D. James Kennedy's agenda is its relationship to Christian Reconstructionism, or "dominion theology," a doctrine stating that true believers in Christ have an obligation to seize the reins of government and rule according to Biblical law. Its chief proponent, elderly crackpot theologian R.J. Rushdoony, would enforce the standards of Leviticus, requiring the death penalty for, among other offenses, blasphemy, adultery, and homosexual acts.

Kennedy, a popular orator who has adressed gatherings of National Religious Broadcasters and the Christian Coalition, employs the rhetoric of dominion theology in his speeches and writings. Coral Ridge's theocratic propaganda has described the constitutional separation of church and state as "fictional." Rushdoony and other Reconstructionists have made repeated guest appearances on the Coral Ridge Hour.

In AOL's current smorgasbord of religious options, Christian content is provided by links to both Christianity Today, which has been sharply critical of Coral Ridge, and Beliefnet, whose message boards present exposés of the Satanic Harry Potter books alongside homophobic rants that would warm the heart of Reverend Kennedy.