This undated image provided by Rocky Mountain Pictures, shows an undated film clip from "2016: Obama's America". Hollywood may have run out of summer hits, but an anti-Obama documentary is helping fill the gap. "2016: Obama's America"was expanded from limited to nationwide release and took in $6.2 million to finish at No. 8,Sunday, Aug. 26, 2012. (AP Photo/Rocky Mountain Pictures)
NEW YORK (AP) — The conservative scholar behind a high-grossing film that condemns President Barack Obama resigned Thursday as head of an evangelical college following a report about his engagement to a woman while still legally married to his wife.
The board of The King’s College announced school president Dinesh D’Souza was stepping down immediately after their discussion with him during a marathon meeting to decide his future.
D’Souza, director of the anti-Obama documentary “2016: Obama’s America,” has said he’s done nothing wrong. He could not be immediately reached for comment Thursday.
The resignation was announced two days after the evangelical magazine WORLD reported that D’Souza spoke at a Christian values event in South Carolina and brought along his fiancee. Organizers said they confronted D’Souza after concluding that he and his fiancee had shared a hotel room while attending the gathering.
D’Souza said he did not share the room. In a brief interview Tuesday with The Associated Press, D’Souza said he and his wife, Dixie, had been separated since 2010. D’Souza filed for divorce in California a few days after the South Carolina conference, according to court records.
D’Souza told the AP he had called off his engagement.
The King’s College, which was located in the Empire State Building before moving this year to lower Manhattan, aims to shape young Christians as future leaders in all sectors of society.
“After careful consultation with the board and with Dinesh, we have accepted his resignation to allow him to attend to his personal and family needs,” the board said in its statement. Board chairman Andy Mills will take over as interim president while a search begins for D’Souza’s successor.
“God has a mighty future for Dinesh, but there are some things he has to go through first,” Mills told students Thursday, according to The Empire State Tribune, The King’s College newspaper.
D’Souza is a former policy analyst under President Ronald Reagan and a prolific author known most recently for his critical works on Obama. His film was condemned by many critics, including Newsday’s Rafer Guzman, who called it an “attempt at character assassination.” Still, it has become one of the most successful political documentaries ever released, grossing more than $32 million to date.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.
