GOP: GOD'S OWN PARTY? At the 1994 Republican State Convention in Houston, Texas, "true believers" were seen walking around the convention floor wearing hats saying "GOP: God's Own Party." But Republican Jeffrey Bell (whose long political career includes working with the 1976 Reagan campaign and the 1988 Kemp campaign) thinks that the wedding between the Christian Coalition and the Republican Party is far from consummated. According to Bell, the members of the extreme religious right are growing tired of "operationally pro- choice" candidates like Bob Dole and Phil Gramm assuming the support of religious right- wingers merely because they and other GOP leaders "pat Ralph Reed on the head, from time to time." (Source: Terry Mattingly, Scripps Howard News Service).

WHO'S PATTING WHOM? For his part, Christian Coalition executive director Ralph Reed doesn't seem to mind this "head-patting" - at least, not for now. At the recent Christian Coalition Road to Victory Conference in Washington, DC, he publicly expressed his anxieties about the Christian Coalition being viewed as "a totally owned subsisiary" of the Republican Party; yet he also basked in the glory of having so many Republican celebrities attend the Conference. Informally billed as "the first Republican presidential primary," this Conference included supportive appearances by most of the GOP candidates, all of whom praised Pat Robertson and his followers for their "good work" and "positive contribution" to our nation. When the candidates had all finished their adulatory remarks, Reed's boss, Pat Robertson, spoke. In his exhuberant exhortation to all "true believers," he publicly called upon the members of the Christian Coalition to seize control of the Republican Party in all 50 states - thereby making the Republican Party "a totally owned subsidiary of the Christian Coalition! So perhaps Mr. Reed endures a little "head-patting" while he bides his time.

GINGRICH OPPOSES SCHOOL PRAYER AMENDMENTS. That's Ray Gingrich, Professor of Bible and Church History at Eastern Mennonite College. The professor was one of the experts called upon to testify at the hearings held around the country by Rep. Charles Canady (R-Fl.), chairman of the Constitutional Subcommittee of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee. According to AP, Professor Gingrich said of any school-prayer amendment, "It is not a move toward democracy but toward majority rule; not a nudge toward greater freedom and deeper national spirituality, but a shift toward the potential for religious tyranny." (Source: Tom Strode, Baptist Press).

MIXED MESSAGES? During the Christian Coalition's recent Road To Victory Conference, Ralph Reed exhorted those in attendance to remember whose name they bear and always to act in accordance with the spirit of love and service associated with that name. This eloquent and touching request was made just a few sentences prior to Reed's political statements which lambasted the White House, lampooned various government officials, and extolled the virtues of raw political power. At the same Conference, just before Senator Bob Dole's speech in which he praised Pat Robertson and his followers for their values, Star Parker (who is Reed's co-host on Christian Coalition Live) brought the assembled crowd to its feet several times by calling for the abolition of welfare, the extension of the death penalty, and the dismantling of public education - all in the name of God and values. To the thunderous applause of those in attendance, Ms. Parker loudly and enthusiastically proclaimed that "God is a capitalist," and insisted that, on the basis of her reading of the Bible, this God would say the following to persons receiving welfare: "Get out of my sight, you lazy, good-for-nothing bum." So much for Mr. Reed's opening words.

DUBIOUS CONNECTIONS. One of the more outrageous things that occurred during the Chrisrtian Coalition's recent Road to Victory Conference was Ralph Reed's hypocritical effort to connect Pat Robertson's political organization with the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the civil rights movement of the 1960s. In his opening remarks to the conference, Reed defiantly proclaimed, "We are no longer going to ride in the back of the bus." He then distributed to those attending the conference a "Christian Coalition Pledge Card" which was based on the pledge drafted by Dr. King for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The second point in that pledge is: "Remember always that the movement seeks justice and reconciliation_not victory." How cynical a move to distribute this pledge to this crowd at a Road to Victory Conference! (Dr. King must look down in anguish at those who claim to be his heirs).

NEW KID ON THE BLOCK. Joining such organizations as Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition, Lou Sheldon's Traditional Values Coalition, Beverly LaHaye's Concerned Women of America, and Gary Bauer's Family Research Council, Dr. James Dobson's Center for Christian Statesmanship is opening for business in Washington, DC. According to Rev. Kennedy, the pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, "It is also crucial we establish our Washington center immediately." Why? So he and his followers can "work to achieve the goals of our Family Values Contract - opposing special privileges for homosexuals, taxpayer-funded abortions and pornography, condom distribution in schools, and the so-called 'separation of church and state'." (Source: The Freedom Writer, newspaper of the Institute for First Amendment Studies).