Campaign to Defend the Constitution

Campaign to Defend the Constitution (DefCon) was an American online organization founded in September 2005 to support the separation of church and state and to oppose what it perceived as the growing influence of the religious right. It was a project of the Tides Center, a non-profit organization that funds progressive groups. However, its funding ran out in November 2007, at which time its blog announced the organization was "taking a break."

DefCon described itself on its website as ...

The DefCon advisory board included Bruce Alberts, Francisco J. Ayala, Chip Berlet, Max Blumenthal, Erwin Chemerinsky, Frederick Clarkson, Matt Foreman, Steven Gey, Ira Glasser, Michelle Goldberg, Isaac Kramnick, Lawrence M. Krauss, James M. Lawson Jr., Kate Michelman, Harold Varmus, and Mel White.

After Bible publishing company Tyndale House released the video game version of Tim LaHaye's's Left Behind called Left Behind: Eternal Forces, DefCon asked their members to send emails to Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott to stop selling the game. Wal-Mart stated that it did not intend to comply with the request.

During the stem cell campaign, DefCon ran two full page ads in The New York Times in May^[usurped] and June^[usurped].

They also released a video on YouTube featuring DefCon advisory board member and former NARAL Pro-Choice America President Kate Michelman's personal views on stem cell research.

DefCon ran ads asserting the involvement of conservative political strategist Ralph Reed, evangelist Lou Sheldon, and Focus on the Family's James Dobson in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal. Dobson has denied any connection to Abramoff, and a DefCon spokesman has conceded that there was no proof of collusion between Dobson and Abramoff. In response to the ads, Dobson characterized DefCon as "a radical leftist organization," and stated:

The last blog post on the organization's website, made in November 2007, read:

• Dominionism
• TheocracyWatch
• Americans United for Separation of Church and State

• DefConAmerica.org^[usurped] (no longer functioning)
• DefConBlog.org (no longer functioning)
• Tides Center