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Tim LaHaye
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===Political activism=== {{Conservatism US|activists}} LaHaye started numerous groups to promote his views, having become involved in politics at the [[Christian Voice (USA)|Christian Voice]] during the late 1970s and early 1980s.<ref name=":2" />{{Rp|pages=93β94}} In 1979, he founded Californians for Biblical Morality, which has been described as "in many ways...the genesis of the Christian right."<ref name="dreyfuss" /> The same year, LaHaye encouraged [[Jerry Falwell]] to found the [[Moral Majority]] and was among its three directors.<ref name="dreyfuss">{{cite magazine |author=Dreyfuss |first=Robert |date=January 28, 2004 |title=Reverend Doomsday: According to Tim LaHaye, the Apocalypse is now |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/5939999/reverend_doomsday/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070806102443/http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/5939999/reverend_doomsday/ |archive-date=August 6, 2007 |access-date=September 16, 2017 |magazine=Rolling Stone}}</ref><ref name="goldberg">{{cite news |author=Goldberg |first=Michelle |date=July 29, 2002 |title=Fundamentally Unsound |url=http://dir.salon.com/story/books/feature/2002/07/29/left_behind/index.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071214062956/http://dir.salon.com/story/books/feature/2002/07/29/left_behind/index.html |archive-date=December 14, 2007 |work=Salon}}</ref> LaHaye was a member of and speaker for the [[John Birch Society]] (JBS), a conservative, [[Anti-communism|anti-communist]] group; scholar Celestini Carmen argues that LaHaye used the JBS's [[culture war]] methods and rhetoric of "fear, apocalyptic thought and conspiracy" to forge the Moral Majority, with "fear, anger, and disgust as essential ingredients." His book ''Rapture Under Attack'' describes his time in the JBS and relationship to its leader, [[Robert W. Welch Jr.]]<ref>{{Cite thesis |last=Celestini |first=Carmen |title=God, Country, and Christian Conservatives: The National Association of Manufacturers, the John Birch Society, and the Rise of the Christian Right |date=2018 |access-date=September 20, 2024 |publisher=[[University of Waterloo]] |url=https://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/bitstream/handle/10012/13361/Celestini_Carmen.pdf |pages=37, 283, 300}}</ref><ref name="dreyfuss" /> Also in 1979, LaHaye's wife, [[Beverly LaHaye|Beverly]], founded [[Concerned Women for America]], a conservative [[Christianity|Christian]] women's activist group.<ref name="Christian Examiner">{{cite news |last=Arnold |first=Lori |date=December 20, 2009 |title=Beverly LaHaye marks three decades of promoting traditional values through CWA |url=http://www.christianexaminer.com/Articles/Articles%20Dec09/Art_Dec09_06.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130919182256/http://www.christianexaminer.com/Articles/Articles%20Dec09/Art_Dec09_06.html |archive-date=September 19, 2013 |access-date=September 14, 2013 |work=Christian Examiner}}</ref> Then in 1981, he left the pulpit to concentrate his time on politics and writing.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Unger |first=Craig |date=December 2005 |title=American Rapture |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2005/12/rapture200512 |access-date=March 12, 2024 |magazine=[[Vanity Fair (magazine)|Vanity Fair]]}}</ref> That year, he helped found the [[Council for National Policy]] (CNP), a policy making [[think tank]]<ref>{{cite book |author=Williams |first=Daniel K. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lqf3KBaqgI8C&q=God's%20Own%20Party&pg=PA194 |title=God's Own Party: The Making of the Christian Right |date=July 12, 2012 |publisher=Oxford University Press USA |isbn=9780199929061 |page=194 |access-date=July 29, 2016 |via=Google Books}}</ref> in which membership is only available through invitation. ABC News called it "the most powerful [[Conservatism in the United States|conservative]] organization in America you've never heard of".<ref>{{cite web |last=Ambinder |first=Marc J. |date=May 2, 2002 |title=ABCNEWS.com: Inside the Council for National Policy |url=http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/DailyNews/council_020501.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021202132338/http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/DailyNews/council_020501.html |archive-date=December 2, 2002 |access-date=July 29, 2016 |website=ABC News}}</ref> In the 1980s he was criticized by the evangelical community for accepting money from [[Bo Hi Pak]], a longtime [[Sun Myung Moon]] operative.<ref name="Paul R 2004, page 272">{{Cite book |last1=Forrest |first1=Barbara |author-link1=Barbara Forrest |title=[[Creationism's Trojan Horse|Creationism's Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design]] |last2=Gross |first2=Paul R. |author-link2=Paul R. Gross |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2004 |isbn=9780195157420 |pages=272}}</ref> He was additionally criticized for joining Moon's Council for Religious Freedom, which was founded to protest Moon's 1984 imprisonment.<ref name="Paul R 2004, page 272"/> In 1996, LaHaye's wife spoke at an event sponsored by Moon.<ref name="Paul R 2004, page 272"/> In the 1980s, LaHaye founded the [[American Coalition for Traditional Values]] and the [[Coalition for Religious Freedom]]. He founded the Pre-Trib Research Center along with [[Thomas Ice]] in 1993.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last=Boyer |first=Paul |date=Spring 2005 |title=Give Me that End-Time Religion: The Politicization of Prophetic Belief in Contemporary America |url=https://reflections.yale.edu/article/end-times-and-end-gamesis-scripture-being-left-behind/give-me-end-time-religion |journal=Reflections |publisher=Yale}}</ref> The center is dedicated to producing material that supports a [[Dispensationalism|dispensationalist]], [[Rapture|pre-tribulation]] interpretation of the Bible.<ref name="dreyfuss" /> LaHaye also took more direct roles in presidential politics. He supported [[Ronald Reagan]]'s elections as [[President of the United States|United States president]].<ref name="HagertyWSJ"/> He was a co-chairman of [[Jack Kemp]]'s 1988 presidential bid but was removed from the campaign after four days when his [[anti-Catholicism|anti-Catholic]] views became known.<ref name="dreyfuss"/><ref name="NYTMC"/> LaHaye played a significant role in getting the [[Christian right|Religious Right]] to support [[George W. Bush]] for the presidency in [[2000 U.S. presidential election|2000]].<ref name="dreyfuss"/><ref name="goldberg"/> In 2007, he endorsed [[Mike Huckabee]] during the [[Republican Party presidential primaries, 2008|primaries]]<ref name="chafets">{{cite news |author=Chafets |first=Zev |date=December 12, 2007 |title=The Huckabee Factor |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/12/magazine/16huckabee.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170208113642/http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/12/magazine/16huckabee.html |archive-date=February 8, 2017 |access-date=February 23, 2017 |work=The New York Times Magazine}}</ref> and served as his spiritual advisor.<ref name="BanksDispatch"/>
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