Leaders of The Interfaith Alliance took the coincidence of Easter and Passover occurring during the conclusion of the first hundred days of the 104th Congress to examine the Contract With America and urge a fundamental re-examination of America's moral direction.

Speaking at a briefing at the National Press Club which was aired repeatedly by C-SPAN, TIA board members declared that the radical religious right_in league with certain political leaders_is leading America in the wrong direction. Board member Dr. Joan Brown Campbell described the board's motivation for speaking out against theContract with America: "As people of faith and particularly as religious leaders, we are here today to meet our moral obligation to speak out on behalf of the millions of ordinary Americans who seem to have been forgotten. It seems very clear to me that the seeds of discord the religious right has sown_against the poor, against immigrants, against working women, against people of color_are coming to fruition in the last 100 days. Indeed, much of what we have seen over the last hundred days is the embodiment of many of the most selfish and mean-spirited impulses of our body politic."

Dr. Herb Valentine, chair of TIA's board of directors, evaluating the 104th Congress's first one hundred days in the following way: "there was very little of the Jewish and Christian values of brotherly love. Instead we saw politicians' moral compasses being directed by special interest groups, polling numbers, and evening news headlines. . . . The last 100 days proved that special interests and the radical religious right have effectively influenced the political process in this country. . . . [W]e find it disturbing that a well-organized minority of people with extreme political views not only reshaped the Congress, but have since succeeded is redefining the debate about family values and the moral obligations of our government from a perspective that is alien and contradictory to many people with deeply held religious views."

Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg criticized the "Orwellian" language of the Christian Coalition. According to Hertzberg, "setting one group against another is called unity; taking from the poor to make the rich richer is called support of family values; sharpening the tensions between religious communities is promoted as restoring religion to its true place in American life. . . . The Christian Coalition says to the hundreds of thousands of white collar workers and the factory hands who are being cut from their jobs by multinational corporations that they should ignore the issue of justice in American society. The rich will get richer through lowered taxes in a revival of 'trickle down' economics, and the sinking middle class will be told that persecuting gays, or unwed mothers, will satisfy their hungers."

Board members also expressed concerns about the effects of the Christian Coalition's rhetoric on efforts to aid the poor. Bishop Francis P. Murphy stated that "[When] I listen to pastoral workers among the poor and those whose lives are devoted to care for the homeless, the families with children on welfare, and others, I have a profound fear that the easy solution and the sound bites of our modern culture are disguising the true reality. . . . As we continue the public debate on proper governance and how to achieve the common good, we must go beyond slogans and simplistic solutions to grapple with the full complexity of the social issues facing our nation. Our current lengthy list of human problems and moral issues far exceeds the limited few of the Christian Coalition and calls into question their interpretation of where God's favor lies."

The Reverend Amos Brown of the National Baptist Convention expressed similar concerns about the Contract's impact on the disadvantaged: "Given the identification of Jesus with the humblest among us, it's hard to see how anyone professing to walk in the footsteps of the Son of Man would scapegoat the poor, blaming them for the common pains of a changing economy. It's hard to understand how anyone claiming to follow Jesus could blame the victims by cutting back on milk, education, and student loans. . . . Yet the Christian Coalition has spent over a million dollars to support the Contract With America, a document brimming with mean-spirited proposals antithetical to the spirit of Jesus."

On May 17, 1995, TIA's Board of Directors Chair Dr. Herb Valentine joined other members of the Coalition for the Preservation of Religious Liberty to speak out about the Christian Coalition's Contract with the American Family. Dr. Herb Valentine called the Contract anattempt to "use spiritual and political intimidation to silence their opponents and, in thename of religion, promote their own partisan political agenda", while Rabbi ArthurHertzberg stated that "the problems of teen pregnancy, of educating our nation's children and encouraging renewal in our families and communities are far too important to be trivialized by well-packaged political gimmicks and lavish lobbying schemes."

Other TIA leaders were also critical of the divisive nature of the Christian Coalition's tactics. Dr. Amos C. Brown remarked that "The Christian Coalition plays a lethal version of the old game of divide and rule. . . . [They are] diverting us from the real issues, the issues that the prophets and Jesus faced up to." Dr. Joan Brown Campbell agreed that the Christian Coalition's proposals do not address the most pressing issues of our time: "Any contract with the American family that fails to address the issues of poverty, race, and the special strains those issues put on family life dare not claim to speak for all families."