- by Ken Brooker Langston
-
- · Many people have been wondering about Ralph Reed's recent public "softening" in
regard to the abortion issue, personal attacks on the President, and gay-bashing. Without
being too cynical about all this, we might want to remember that Reed is a political
operative and this is an election year. We might also want to take note of a recent article
in The Washington Post entitled, "Exodus of Mainstream Support Threatens Republican
base in Suburbs." According to this article, "Many suburban voters.... see the Republican
Party as too extreme.... The Republicans' emphasis on social issues and opposition to gun
control have cost them support among moderate voters." Is it any wonder, then, that the
politically astute Reed would conclude, "The religious right must give ground or risk
irrelevance." Remember, this is the same Ralph Reed who said, "I want to be invisible. I
paint my face and travel at night. You don't know it's over until you're in a body bag. You
don't know until election night."
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- Sources: Associated Press, May 21, 1996; Newsweek, May 13, 1996; The Washington
Post, May 5, 1996; May 14, 1996.
-
- · In his new book, Active Faith, Christian Coalition executive director Ralph Reed exhorts
leaders of the "pro-family movement" to manifest a greater degree of "grace and
humility, in speech and deed." When asked about this advice by The New York Times,
Family Research Council executive director Gary Bauer "frowned." He then reminded his
interviewer of an Iowa fund-raising letter, signed by Reed's boss, Pat Robertson which
asserted that feminism "encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children,
practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians." Bauer then went on to say,
"I don't have any objection to the idea of civility. What's objectionable is to be lectured to
by someone who seems to think he is noble in this regard and that everyone else needs
lecturing."
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- Source: The New York Times, July 14, 1996
-
- · In Virginia, religious-political extremists seized control of the Republican Party and
prevented Senator Warner from attending his own party's convention. Following the lead
of controversial Iran-Contra figure Oliver North (who publicly denounced Warner as
"blasphemous"), the convention enthusiastically endorsed Jim Miller as "the only true
conservative." Warner then went on to defeat Miller, 67% to 33%, in the GOP primary.
According to Robert Holworth, a political scientist at Virginia Commonwealth University,
the convention and the primary together had substantiated Warner's claim that "the party
has been hijacked by the extreme right, which is out of touch with the voters."
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- Source: The Washington Post, June 2, 1996; June 12, 1996
-
- · At the recent made-for-television GOP national convention, moderate Republicans
dominated the speaker's podium. Does this mean that mainstream Republicans have
regained control of their party? Not according to the executive director of the Christian
Coalition. When asked about the large number of moderates being displayed to the
general public, Reed responded, "I don't need a lot of rhetorical bones from the podium.
You can only feed your people on that for so long. At some point you've got to have
officeholders; you've go to have state chairmen, county chairmen; you've got to have state
committee members; you've got to have delegates. We've got that, and we don't need as
much rhetorical stroking." Former GOP presidential candidate Pat Buchanan put the
matter more bluntly: "Our rivals may be waving from the podium, but it is our ideas that
now reflect the grassroots of the party, our ideas that are fixed firmly [in the platform]."
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- Sources: The Washington Post, August 13, 1996; and USA Today, August 12, 1996.
-
- · Perhaps the most scathing criticism of religious-political extremists comes from the
former Republican senator from New Hampshire, Warren B. Rudman. According to the
present co-chair of the Concord Coalition, "the so-called Christian right... is neither
Christian nor right." Instead, it is a political coalition of "anti-abortion zealots, would-be
censors, homophobes, bigots, and latter day Elmer Gantry's" who "try to advance social
and cultural conservatism in the garb of Christianity.... Its leaders want to impose their
one-size-fits-all morality on everyone. It won't work. When any group tries to impose its
values on everyone else, the result will inevitably be resentment, hatred, and violence."
Rudman went on to say, "I don't even like the Christian Coalition's name. The millions of
Christians in this country reflect just about every conceivable point of view. For one highly
conservative group to proclaim itself `Christian Coalition' strikes me as decidedly
un-Christian arrogance." His conclusion: "The Republican Party must not join forces with
people whose views are so repugnant to mainstream America."
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- Source: The Washington Post Magazine, April 21, 1996.
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- · On July 30, the Federal Elections Commission sued the Christian Coalition, claiming that
this self-professed "nonpartisan" organization had violated election laws by promoting
particular candidates for public office. According to the FEC's suit, those who received
improper help from Pat Robertson's political organization included former president
George Bush, North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms, Virginia Senate Candidate Oliver
North, and House Speaker Newt Gingrich. For many years, critics have argued that the
Christian Coalition improperly operates as a tax-exempt organization, raising money to
help elect political candidates. With the FEC now making the same charge, the Christian
Coalition may face loss of its tax-exempt status. An investigation by the Internal Revenue
Service is presently underway.
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- Source: Associated Press, July 30, 1996
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- (The views expressed in this section do not necessarily represent those of The Interfaith
Alliance, its Board of Directors, or its staff.)
