Bill Berkowitz
December 22, 2006

Jason Christy's mission

Is the twenty-first century evangelical entrepreneur ready for prime time?

The recent announcement by Joel Hunter, the senior pastor of the nondenominational Longwood, Florida-based Northland Church, also known as Northland A Church Distributed, and a founder of both Christian Citizen and the Alliance for the Distributed Church, that he would not be assuming the presidency of the Christian Coalition in early January -- brought Jason Christy back into the news.

Commenting on the Hunter situation, Christy, who in September 2005 had been named executive director of the organization only to resign a month later, said that it was clear that the Coalition had "picked the wrong captain for the wrong ship." He told the Washington Post that the title of Hunter's book -- "Right Wing, Wrong Bird: Why the Tactics of the Religious Right Won't Fly With Most Conservative Christians" -- "alone tells me that they did not do their due diligence."

When Christy was appointed the organization's executive director, Roberta Combs, the Coalition's post-Pat Robertson president, sang his praises: "The Coalition has always relied on leadership with a solid understanding of America's Christian community and the public policy issues that impact it," said Combs. "Jason Christy has demonstrated that understanding, as well as the ability to inspire and encourage people of faith to action. I look forward to working with him."

According to a story posted at the Coalition's website, Christy and the Coalition received congratulations from "several leaders Christy has worked closely with as a Christian publisher," including Paul Crouch, Jr., Vice President of Administration for Trinity Broadcasting Network. "All of us here at TBN want to congratulate Jason on his new position as Executive Director of the Christian Coalition of America," said Crouch in a statement. "We are excited about the synergies between the two organizations and anticipate God's blessings as we work together. Jason is the right man at the right time for Christian grassroots activism."

John Charles, Executive Director of Media Relations for the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California, said that "The Church needs strong leadership to make an effective impact in the public arena. Jason will certainly be at the forefront of that leadership over the next few years."

Those words became moot when Christy had second thoughts about taking on the post that was once held by the now Jack Abramoff-tarred Ralph Reed.

Christy told Word News that he didn't think he could run the Coalition and continue running his other business ventures at the same time.

Christy also pointed out that he was "in talks with CNN to create a religion program," that he was "in the middle of purchasing a website that promotes Church-related products and landed a deal to have his magazine syndicated on Bible.com, a site he says receives 1 million visitors a month," and that he was "in talks to create a Christian trade show in 2007."

Jason Christy, the head of the Scottsdale, Arizona-based Christy Media (website) and the publisher and editor-in-chief of The Church Report (website), a national news and business journal for pastors and Christian leaders -- which claims a monthly circulation of 40,000 -- is one of a new breed of conservative evangelical Christians who have many irons in the fire.

In January 2003, when Church Executive magazine's Steve Kane announced that Christy -- the founder of the publication -- was moving on, it was so that Christy could "follow his entrepreneurial muse." Kane pointed out that Christy "has created a new business called Reaction Media and has a number of projects in the works."

Impact America PAC

In March of this year, tired of "America's families, churches, schools and children [being]...under attack," Christy launched his own political action committee called Impact America (website).

The new PAC, according to Spero News, intends to "educate Christian conservatives across the country by reaching in to their hearts and minds as well as into their churches with voter guides, candidate information and issue-oriented tours across America."

"It has become apparent to me that America's families, churches, schools and children are under attack. From religious freedom to school prayer as well as other groups looking to make America a Christian-free zone, I believe the time has come for the Christ-based, family value voter to step up and be heard," Christy says.

"The critical element will be focusing the energies of people all over the country who deeply believe in making America a better place," Christy says, adding that "by focusing on issues such as same sex marriage, immigration, healthcare reform, pornography, bio medical research and religious freedom, with faith and family, we can make America a stronger country."

The love connection

Also in March, Christy announced that The Church Report had partnered with Seeking and Finding to create CR Connections, a new Christian online companion service. "I am very excited to offer this new service on our site in a few weeks. As a Christian single myself, CR Connections offers Christians a choice, in finding a quality companion. I am confident that the unique surveys and technology offered through CR Connections will help Christian singles find quality mates, accountability partners, and new friends to share Bible study with similar values."

Christy plays hardball

While some of the younger set of Christian evangelical pastors are moving along a kinder gentler path of reconciliation and occasionally across political lines to build allies around specific issues, Christy appears to be bucking that trend, preferring hardball rhetoric, prickly sound-bites, and partisan politics.

And, while he isn't in the same league as Rick Warren, the author of the mega-best selling book, "The Purpose Driven Life," and the pastor of the Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, who has expanded the evangelical agenda to include AIDS, the environment and poverty issues, or has the rock-star appeal of Joel Osteen, the Senior Pastor of the non-denominational Houston, Texas-based Lakewood Church -- which draws tens of thousands of people to its weekly services and is, according to Forbes.com and Outreach magazine, the largest and fastest growing congregation in America -- and whose weekly television broadcasts are seen on a number of national cable networks, including Discovery, USA Network, ABC Family, Trinity Broadcasting and the Daystar Television Network, Christy is nevertheless carving out his own niche.

And while he's never at a loss for generating publicity-seeking commentary, it's not clear if anyone within the evangelical community is paying him much mind. Perhaps his most outrageous heat-seeking missile was a recent column titled "David Kuo: An Addition to the Axis of Evil." In the piece, Christy claimed that the former deputy in the White House Office on Faith-Based and Community Initiatives -- whose recently published book, "Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction" has become a best seller -- was moved "to author a masterpiece when he feels like an unimportant, disgruntled former employee and needs to make a few dollars":

Kuo has a penchant for penning thrillers as a disgruntled former employee. Being lured by the riches of the dot com industry, Kuo and his wife both went to work for a dot com company called, Value America. After living the dot com dream, sure enough, the literary bug bit Kuo and he authored a tell-all entitled Dot Bomb. Perhaps Kuo, who has also been called naïve and an idealist, has been conflicted all along. Aside from the timing of the release of this book, Kuo has also written for various liberal websites and worked for several Kennedys, additionally, writes for another liberal Christian website.

Don't be fooled by Kuo; he is someone who has been described as a 'wolf in sheep's clothing.' Don't let his smarmy tones and pouty eyes fool you. Having done campaign work for several Kennedys, having contradicted himself and his own letters, Kuo is being used to try and prop up the liberal left, to breathe life into lifeless campaigns and his master literary work is a mere smokescreen. Questioning the faith and motivation of this administration is wrong. Millions of dollars are being given to faith-based groups, religious charities are being treated equally under the law and each day the armies of compassion move forward with the agenda that the Bush-lead White House outlined in 2001.

In a blog post dated October 23, Christy recounted a recent conversation he had with former Speaker of the House and Church Report contributor, Newt Gingrich, about his new book, "Rediscovering God in America." Christy concluded that Gingrich's book has "allowed him to combine his firm Christian faith and his historical acumen to remind us of how our faith has had an integral role in the development of our nation."

Gingrich's book, wrote Christy, "walks the reader through Washington, DC from the National Archives through the various monuments that clearly support what Christians have long believed, 'that from day one in our country's history, the author of freedom was neither that state nor even the Founding Fathers.'"

A few days before his confab with Gingrich, Christy blogged about how honored he was to have just met with former Attorney General John Ashcroft.

Christy's post-election commentary noted that "it was a disappointing day for conservative Christians across the country. Like lemmings, too many people took the bait and voted against the Iraq War."

And, apparently dissatisfied by Time magazine's list of "The 25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America," Christy came up with his own lists. In January of this year The Church Report announced this year's list of "The 50 Most Influential Christians in America," while in July, the magazine focused on the "50 Most Influential Churches."

For all his blather, and a never-ending series of project ideas, Christy has not yet become a significant player in evangelical circles. He may have been better served by staying with the sinking Christian Coalition. At least then he would have achieved one of his main goals -- being in the news.