Prepared jointly by The Interfaith Alliance Foundation and Americans United for Separation of Church and State

"We are seeing the Christian Coalition rise to where God intends it to be in this nation, as one of the most powerful political forces that has ever been in the history of America."

--Pat Robertson, President The Christian Coalition EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: This joint report is the most comprehensive analysis to date of the Christian Coalition's organizational, political and legislative activities. It highlights the Christian Coalition's extreme agenda and its efforts to gain control of the Republican Party. This summary provides highlights of the report; the full report is available in print and on disk.

When TV preacher Pat Robertson ran for the Presidency of the United States in 1988 many Americans were alarmed at his extremism, but found it hard to believe that anyone really could take him seriously or that there was ever a real possibility that he would garner enough support to impose his radical views on all Americans. Many religious Americans were angered even more by the fact that he was cloaking his extremist views in the language of religion, stating that his views were the ones endorsed by God.

 

Since the 1988 Presidential election, Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition has become a major force in American politics and now threatens to effect major changes in American public policy, changes that could alter America in fundamental ways. Americans must be apprised of the Christian Coallition's agenda, and the destination to which the their "Road to Victory" conference inexorably leads. This study demonstrates:

 

That the Christian Coalition has been remarkably successful in its efforts to date. They have gained tremendous influence in the Republican Party and succeeded in electing many candidates to offices across America, particularly to the U.S. Congress.

 

They have achieved this success, in large measure, by subverting the spirit of laws designed to ensure that federal elections are both fair and open to public scrutiny. They have avoided compliance with federal election laws that allow public access to financial information and that force federal candidates and committees to comply with the rules overseen by the Federal Election Committee. They have also ignored the purposes of American tax laws that are designed to prevent non-profit organizations from direct involvement in supporting political candidates.

 

As a result of the Christian Coalition's manipulation of these laws, Americans are now directly threatened with the possibility that those electoral successes will be translated into fundamental changes our form of government. The agenda of Pat Robertson is one that demands closer scrutiny by all citizens.

 

PAT ROBERTSON'S RADICALISM: WHAT RALPH REED DOESN'T WANT YOU TO KNOW

 

Pat Robertson has long advocated many extremist, radical and even ludicrous ideas. Froman insistence that only individuals with certain religious beliefs are qualified to hold positions in government, to thinly-veiled Anti-Semitic ideas and divisive and hate-filled rhetoric on a wide variety of issues, Robertson has sought to exclude from positions of power those who fail to share his vision of a "Christian" America.

 

Despite recent attempts to shift attention away from Pat Robertson and his extremist views, there is no doubt that he is still the guiding force of the Christian Coalition.

Robertson serves as president of the Coalition. He is one of four directors who make up the governing board of the organization. (Robertson's son Gordon and close friends Billy McCormack and Dick Weinhold are the other three.)

 

If there was any doubt that Robertson still maintained control, Reed laid it to rest in a recent interview with David Frost. Speaking of Robertson, Frost asked Reed: "Who's the boss, though, you or him?" Reed replied, "He is." (The David Frost Special, PBS, May 19, 1995) Robertson's viewpoint and agenda remain as radical as ever:

 

Robertson believes that the separation of church and state is ". . . a lie of the left, and we're not going to take it anymore." (The State, November 13, 1993)

 

Robertson believes that only Christians should be in positions of public leadership. He said: "I think Christians were intended by God to be the leaders." (700 Club transcript)

Robertson continues to spout Anti-Semitic rhetoric. He said: ". . . Perhaps we can assume that the current wave of anti-Semitism is being allowed by God to force the large number of the chosen people residing in the Soviet Union out of what the Bible calls the land of the north?" (Pat Robertson's Perspective (newsletter), May/June, 1990)

Robertson has suggested that "tax money spent on public education instills atheism in our society." (Federal News Service, Sept. 11, 1992)

 

Robertson believes that women should be subservient to men. "The feminist agenda is notabout equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians." That is what television evangelist Pat Robertson wrote in a recent letter to help raise money to defeat Amendment 1, an Iowa ballot initiative that would extend the protections of the state constitution to women . . . (The Washington Post, August 23, 1992)

 

Pat Robertson calls abortion "a slaughter. A million and a half babies. It rivals - it exceeds - the Holocaust of Adolph Hitler." (August 17, 1992, Larry King Live)

 

STATUS REPORT: THE POLITICAL INFLUENCE OF THE CHRISTIAN COALITION

 

It is difficult to gauge exactly how large and organized the Christian Coalition has become. Different sources will cite different statistics, but it is clear that it has grown into a formidable force in recent years, no longer discounted by anyone involved in public policy debate.

 

Those troops, according to the Associated Press, now number 1.7 million, with over 1,425 local chapters and they armed with an arsenal of a $25 million. (Washington Times, September 5, 1995)

 

A Campaigns and Elections survey taken in the summer of 1994 revealed that the Radical Religious Right asserts "dominant strength" in 18 state Republican parties, with a combined electoral college vote total of 239. While in 13 other states, accounting for an additional 117 electoral votes, their strength has been determined to be "substantial." There is no evidence to suggest that their stranglehold has in any way diminished since this survey was conducted last summer.

 

The Christian Coalition has been a major force in countless other campaigns for election to a wide variety of public offices at all levels of state, local and national government. The most recent and alarming, however, was in the 1994 national elections.

 

In 1994, the Christian Coalition s grassroots network disseminated 35 million voter guides, 17 million Congressional Scorecards and phoned 3 million voters. The Christian Coalition reports that their constituency of religious conservatives accounted for 33 percent of the national vote on November 8, with their voters contributing a net vote gain of roughly 6 percent for Republican candidates.

 

Of the 48 newly elected Republicans in the House, they claim 38 won while embracing religious conservative themes and religious conservative activists. In addition to the 38 freshmen Congressman the Coalition takes credit for the election of eight freshman Senators and seven new Governors because of their endorsement of the "pro-family/pro- life" agenda. (Christian Coalition Report, "Religious Conservatives Increase Influence in National Election Data, Pro-Family/Pro-Life Candidates Account for Most of GOP Gains," November 8, 1994)

 

Of those sitting Congressmen and Senators with a 100 percent Christian Coalition ratings on their "non-partisan" voter scorecards, every one returned to Congress. Thirty-four others who received a 93% rating also won re-election.

 

PRESIDENTIAL PANDERING

 

The Christian Coalition has demonstrated its power to manipulate the entire Presidential selection process by demanding obeisance from whomever runs and by threatening to back a fringe candidate if the front runners fail to toe the line. The leading candidates for the GOP nomination have all received the message loud and clear and are avidly seeking approval from the radical Religious Right. Senator Bob Dole

 

There is no candidate who has demonstrated the power of the Christian Coalition to affect public debate more than Senator Bob Dole. Serving in Congress for 35 years, Dole compiled an extensive record that included support for federal programs to help the disabled, a willingness to cut the budget deficit through both spending cuts and tax increases, championing the compromise that got the Voting Rights Act renewed in 1982 and providing leadership on the creation and funding of a number of social programs including the school lunch program.

 

Now, however, Dole has been forced to reverse course to shore up his relationship with religious conservatives. The Kansas Republican has taken both symbolic and substantive steps to win the movement's approval.

 

Dole has named Judy Haynes, former Christian Coalition deputy executive director, as deputy political director of his election bid. In addition, Steve Scheffler, former director of the Iowa Christian Coalition, has been chosen to serve as the Dole campaign's liaison to religious conservatives. (Scheffler was wooed unsuccessfully by candidates Gramm and Buchanan.)

 

Dole has abandoned many of his longstanding positions, embracing, and even championing in the U.S. Senate, many of the issues long advocated by the Christian Coalition, including: repeal of affirmative action law, adopting English as the official language of the country, enacting punative measures toward the children of unwed mothers, and abandoning his support of equal rights for lesbians and gays. Senator Phil Gramm

 

Gramm has worked feverishly to win favor with the radical Religious Right. On May 6, Gramm gave the commencement address at the Rev. Jerry Falwell's Liberty University, where he combined fiscal conservatism with social issues such school prayer, a ban on gays in the military and opposition to abortion. In a second speech devoted to social issues at a Heritage Foundation dinner May 9, Gramm reiterated those themes.

 

To further bolster Religious Right support Gramm has hired Georgia Christian Coalition Chairman Pat Gartland to serve as his deputy national field director. Meanwhile, in Iowa, a key early presidential caucus state, Gramm has lined up many radical right evangelical supporters, perhaps accounting for his surprise tie with Dole in the August 19 Ames straw poll. Pat Buchanan

 

There is no one who agrees more with the Christian Coalition agenda than Pat Buchanan, and he has become a willing tool of Robertson in his efforts to move the debate to the right. He will be given a prominent position among the speakers at this year's "Road to Victory" conference and the message to the other Presidential candidates will be heard loud and clear: fall in line or we will go with Pat.

 

LEGISLATIVE AGENDA IN THE 104TH CONGRESS

 

Since 1994, the Christian Coalition and its allies have succeeded in electing scores of Congressmen and Senators who seem more than willing to measure their legislative agenda against the desires of the Christian Coalition.

 

An alarming 165 Members of the House and 33 Senators are willing to support the Christian Coalition at least 86% of the time!

 

While many of these issues may not be overtly championed by Christian Coalition leaders, it is this agenda that is the direct result of Pat Robertson s electoral successes. Clearly many of these ideas are part of a larger conservative agenda, but many of these ideas had never received the sincere and wide-spread support that has resulted from the election to Congress of so many legislators who owe their jobs to the radical-right activism perfected by the Christian Coalition. Pat Robertson's supporters, in the 104th Congress have proposed:

 

That the U.S. Constitution be amended to fundamentally eviscerate the First Amendment's church-state separation provision.

 

That the Departments of Education, Commerce, Housing and Urban Development and Energy as well as the office of the Surgeon General and the National Endowment for the Arts be shut down.

 

That all abortions be criminalized and that federal funding for abortions be denied.

 

That the assault weapons ban be gutted or repealed.

 

That citizenship be denied to those born in the U.S. to non-citizen mothers.

 

That a host of social programs be abolished including welfare, medical aid, food stamps, school lunches, higher and secondary education assistance and emergency food and shelter programs.

 

That English be declared the official language of the U.S., requiring the use of English by federal employees dealing with citizens and repealing bilingual education programs and bilingual voting assistance.

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