THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 10, 1995 TAG: 9512100071
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: FROM WIRE REPORTS
DATELINE: BOSTON LENGTH: Medium: 53 lines
The Christian Coalition urged Roman Catholics on Saturday to unite with evangelical Christians in pushing a conservative political agenda.
It's time for the two groups to come together because the ``darkness has become so pervasive and the social pathologies have become so cancerous,'' said Ralph Reed, executive director of the Christian Coalition.
``We can no longer afford to be divided. It is a luxury that is no longer ours,'' Reed told more than 400 people gathered at a hotel.
``The left wants you and I to be divided,'' he said. ``Nothing frightens them more than Christians shattering the barriers of denomination.''
The Christian Coalition, founded by Pat Robertson and based in Chesapeake, said the New England meeting was the first in a series planned around the nation to try to draw support for the coalition's new spinoff, the Catholic Alliance.
The alliance, which has no ties to the Catholic Church, was formed this fall to mobilize Catholics on behalf of the religious right's anti-abortion, anti-homosexual agenda.
Boston's Cardinal Bernard Law has taken no position on the movement. But some critics say the coalition's agenda differs sharply from the Catholic Church's stands on immigration, welfare, health care and other issues.
Reed said the two groups can find common ground in opposing abortion and pornography, supporting school choice and ``believing that the family is the most important unit in society.''
Jennifer MacLeod, 22, and her husband, Bob MacLeod, 21, of Braintree, Mass., said they had heard about the event on a Christian radio station. The Catholic couple said they had come out of a sense of urgency about the moral condition of the country.
``Someday we'll have children,'' Jennifer MacLeod said, ``and I'm afraid to bring them up in this culture where you can't say the name of God in school without being ridiculed.''
Bill Martin, 60, a retired roofer from Ramapo, N.Y., said he drove all night for the meeting. ``I think that Catholics for once are going to think for themselves,'' he said. MEMO: This story was compiled from reports by The Associated Press and The New
York Times.
ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Ralph Reed
by CNB