The Reform Party candidate, Mr Pat Buchanan, has used the Bob Jones University to launch his presidential campaign in which he is denouncing homosexuality and threatening to expel UN headquarters from the US.
The former Republican Party activist, who defected to the Reform Party last year, is hoping to attract conservative voters away from Governor George W. Bush. The latter appeared yesterday on the Oprah Winfrey Show, hoping to extend his appeal to women voters who at present favour his rival, Vice-President Al Gore.
Mr Buchanan said: "We may not succeed but I believe that we need a new fighting conservative, traditionalist party in America. I hope that one day we can take America back. That is why we are building this Gideon's army and heading for Armageddon to do battle for the Lord."
Mr Buchanan is a fervent Catholic, but this did not prevent him from choosing the university which has awarded a doctorate to the Rev Ian Paisley and has been noted for its anti-Catholic utterances. Mr Bush was strongly criticised when he spoke at the university during his primary campaign without distancing himself from its anti-Catholicism and its ban on inter-racial dating which has since been revoked.
Addressing an enthusiastic audience of some 1,500 students and local residents in Greenville, South Carolina, Mr Buchanan attacked "cultural Marxism".
The president of the university, Mr Bob Jones III, praised Mr Buchanan's address as the work of "a lonely man bravely enunciating the truth". He said: "Americans will probably not survive another election as a free people if the Democrats get back into power".
Mr Buchanan was making his first public appearance since receiving $12.6 million in federal funding for his campaign based on votes which the Reform Party founder, Mr Ross Perot, received in the last election.
Mr Buchanan is recovering from a serious gall bladder operation which has kept him from campaigning since the turbulent convention last month which resulted in a rival faction breaking away and unsuccessfully claiming the federal funds.
Mr Buchanan said he had chosen to speak at the university because "people are going to take note of it". He dissociated himself from the university's anti-Catholicism but defended its former dating policy, although he disagreed with its interpretation of biblical teaching.
He warned that the courts and the media elite "are abolishing America. They are deconstructing our country. They have dethroned our God".
He said gay rights proponents had dominated television and films. He claimed homosexuality "always has been associated with social decadence and national decline".
Mr Buchanan said if elected he would take the US out of the World Trade Organisation and the International Monetary Fund. He would withdraw US troops from Europe and the Middle East and station them on the border with Mexico to halt illegal immigration.
He is appealing to the courts against a ruling that he cannot take part in the election debates between Mr Gore and Mr Bush.