THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 11, 1996 TAG: 9602110194
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ESTHER DISKIN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DES MOINES LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines
It was a long time coming, but a backlash against the conservative Christian agenda is growing in Iowa. The people leading it are imitating some strategies they've learned from groups like the Christian Coalition.
``Moderate Republicans have been criticized for sitting on their duffs too long,'' said Alicia Claypool, a member of a new church-based group. ``Wake up! The Christian Right is in your back yard.''
Moderates got the alarm this fall, when a school board election taught them how far Christian conservatives would go to stamp out ideas that contradict their morals.
Jonathan Wilson, who had been on the board a dozen years, announced that he is gay. He did this in the middle of a debate - which grew most heated on drive-time talk radio shows - over a proposal to teach public school students tolerance of homosexuality.
Christian conservative groups, including the Iowa Christian Coalition, vowed to kick him out. They backed a candidate who supported creationism and government-funded vouchers for private school.
In an election which broke records for turnout at the polls, Wilson lost to the conservative's top choice. Moderates and liberals shook themselves awake.
Claypool joined a moderate interfaith group called FORWARD, which stands for ``Fellowship of Religions Working for American Reconciliation Amid Diversity.'' It's an ambitious title which befits their difficult task in fighting conservatives' clout.
``Sure, it's all uphill, because they're organized,'' said the Rev. William Cotton of the 1,500-member Grace United Methodist Church, one of the group's leaders.
Last Sunday, the group held an educational event in a church, to teach people about how to participate in the presidential caucuses. About 350 people showed up. Cotton estimates that half of them were Republicans.
``Republicans are worried to death about their political party,'' he said. ``They feel it is being taken over by a group which is outside the American norm.''
Burt Day, a moderate Republican who was ousted from the state GOP Central Committee when conservatives took over, said party leaders didn't recognize conservatives' growing strength because the Christian Coalition worked through churches rather than traditional party structures.
``We did not know what was going on with (Pat) Robertson and Ralph Reed Jr. We didn't put much credence in it,'' he said. ``They were able to operate in a vacuum, with no organized opponents.''
Wilson, whose defeat caused this awakening, is also working through churches. He gives workshops on the Bible's approach to homosexuality and a range of other social issues. He says Christian conservatives are selective in targeting minority groups for their moral outrage.
``Where is the furor against divorced people?'' he asks. ``Jesus Christ had a lot to say about divorce, he didn't have anything to say about gender orientation. Where is the energy about firing our divorced teachers?''
This election season, some national groups are trying to give moderates a boost. People for the American Way, a liberal watchdog group based in Washington, has opened offices in Des Moines and Manchester, N.H. for its new campaign, ``Expose the Right!''
``We feel the country is in trouble because extreme right wing forces have seized control of the political dialogue,'' said Tom Andrews, president of People for the American Way. ``They are using family rhetoric to cloak the right wing agenda.''
As Republican presidential hopefuls tour Iowa, Andrews' group is getting local volunteers to stand up at campaign events and ask staff-written questions about issues at the top of conservatives' agenda.
The goal, Andrews said, is to show how far Republican candidates have departed from the American mainstream to win conservatives' support.
William Johnson, a retired teacher who is volunteering for the group, said that he's convinced that many Iowans don't understand the ultimate intentions of Christian conservatives.
``People don't really look beyond the surface when conservatives use phrases like `family values,' which means the father is king and the woman has no rights,'' Johnson said. ``How long does it take for people to wake up? How much does it have to hurt before people respond? I don't know.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
After Iowa school board member Jonathan Wilson announced he is gay,
Christian conservative groups targeted him for replacement with a
candidate more suited to their views. That candidate's victory
spurred moderates and liberals to organize groups such as FORWARD -
``Fellowship of Religions Working for American Reconciliation Amid
Diversity.''
KEYWORDS: IOWA CAUCUS CHRISTIAN COALITION REPUBLICAN
PARTY by CNB