Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, September 9, 1995 TAG: 9509110097
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ESTHER DISKIN LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The list of speakers is evidence of their bragging right. Five Republican candidates for president - including front-runners Sens. Bob Dole and Phil Gramm - have lined up for the chance to make a pitch.
Their appearances are a public recognition of the power of evangelical Christians at the grass roots. The state Republican parties of 18 states, mainly in the Southeast and Northwest, are dominated by Christian conservatives, and they exercise heavy influence in 13 other states, according to the magazine Campaigns & Elections.
The Chesapeake-based Christian Coalition, with a mailing list of 1.7 million donors, is in a position that it only dreamed about a year ago when it was rallying activists for a Republican victory in Congress.
Once viewed as an irritating guest who crashed the Republicans' party, the Christian Coalition and the people it represents are issuing the invitations now.
But success brings new challenges for the coalition's executive director, Ralph Reed. He must keep his core group of Christian conservatives enthusiastic, while trying to show the American public his group's ideas aren't outside the mainstream.
``You're no longer outside the political system, throwing rocks at a glass house. You're now inside,'' observes Reed, who regularly consults with Republican legislators. ``You have a responsibility to propose things that are good, not only for your community, but for the entire country.''
Reed envisions making the coalition a fixture on America's political landscape. By the end of the decade, he believes the coalition can expand its outreach and raise more money than ``any political organization in the country, including the national political parties.''
Some experts on the Christian conservative movement say that dream is a long shot.
``I don't see how they will rival a national political party,'' said Mark Rozell, a professor at Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg who has studied evangelical voting patterns. ``There is a limit to how large a segment of the population they can tap into. I don't see any time in the future that they will be accepted as a centrist organization.''
In recent months, Reed has pushed to position the coalition as a moderate voice, with appeal beyond evangelicals and fundamentalists. He refers to the movement as ``pro-family,'' not specifically Christian, and has plans to form a Catholic alliance. Promotional material for the ``Road to Victory '95'' conference headlines speakers on Jewish-Christian unity.
The coalition spent $1 million to promote the Republican ``Contract With America,'' in an effort to demonstrate that it could be a team player. In May, when it released its legislative agenda on social issues, ``The Contract with the American Family,'' House Speaker Newt Gingrich promised a vote on every issue.
The coalition's contract is a primer on its efforts to be moderate, experts say. It focuses on child-related issues, which experts say are the new hot button for middle-class voters.
Those goals include a constitutional amendment to expand prayer in schools and other public places, government-funded vouchers to offset tuition at private and parochial schools, and laws to protect children from pornography on the Internet and cable television.
Opposition to abortion, once the rallying cry for evangelicals, takes a back seat: The contract calls for limits only on late-term abortions.
Elliot Mincberg, who heads People for the American Way, a 330,000-member liberal group, says Reed is trying to mask the coalition's vision for Christian-oriented policies with a speech that appeals to a wide segment of the electorate. Part of that strategy, Mincberg and other coalition opponents say, is letting Reed do the talking while the coalition's founder and president, evangelist and businessman Pat Robertson, moves to the sidelines.
Robertson was not mentioned in the coalition's paperback version of its ``Contract with the American Family,'' though Reed has said that he talks to him nearly every day. While Robertson gave the keynote address on the first day of this weekend's convention, he said in a May interview with Time magazine that he has ``moved more into the elder statesman's role.''
While Reed does the circuit of network and radio talk shows, Robertson rouses followers mainly through his weekday news and spiritual program, ``The 700 Club.''
``Reed is conciliatory, and Robertson is more hard core, the red meat talk for the constituency,'' said Randall Balmer, a professor of religion at Barnard College in New York.
Among some in the coalition, Reed gets more attention than Robertson. Linda Cruciano, a mother of three from Virginia Beach, said she listens to Christian talk radio more often than she catches Robertson's program. She says Reed is ``an extremely intelligent man,'' with a ``gift to verbalize what he is thinking.''
Cruciano says her Christianity guides her political activity. She says she is going to the coalition's convention to hear the speakers and learn what she can do to put people in office who share her views.
``There is a [Bible] verse that says, `When the wicked are in control, the people groan; when the righteous are in control, the people rejoice.' That's true,'' she said. ``I see everything black and white. There's a whole group of people who see things as gray. The Bible tells us right and wrong. I want to have people of like minds in positions of authority.''
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB