"The Center for Reclaiming America has closed, halting its conservative activism and throwing the future of its signature annual conference in doubt," the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports. "An undisclosed number of employees were laid off on Thursday at the center's headquarters in Fort Lauderdale and its congressional chaplaincy office in Washington, D.C., in what its parent organization, Coral Ridge Ministries, called a 'streamlining.' ... [A spokesman] said the actions were unrelated to the long convalescence of [founder D. James] Kennedy, who had a cardiac arrest in December. [The spokesman] also denied money problems forced the layoffs, saying revenues have changed little for at least eight years."

Go ahead and use this as the lead example in your "end of the Religious Right" article or blog post. Those are always entertaining. As are the "resurgence of the Religious Right" stories that follow, then the "takeover of the Religious Right," then the "end of the Religious Right" again.

[UPDATE: I didn't expect Cal Thomas to be first out of the gate. At least first outside the blogosphere.]

Posted by Ted Olsen on May 1, 2007 2:27PM