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IFAS | Freedom Writer | October/November 1993 | juggernaut.html

Neither a juggernaut nor a joke

By Frederick Clarkson

For years, the Christian Right was treated as a joke. Jim and Tammy Bakker,
not to mention Jimmy Swaggart, Jerry Falwell, and Pat Robertson were (and
still are) the stuff of late-night TV comedy. Those of us who cover the
Christian Right faced skepticism that this was a movement of political
consequence. Since the 1992 Republican convention, however, everyone is
writing and talking about the Christian Right, its growth and its political
power. Largely unreported however, are its problems. The "stealth" tactics
used by the Christian Right over the past few years worked well to conceal
hidden strengths, but they also concealed its weaknesses.

More moderate than though (for now)

The political strategy of the Christian Right rightly assumes that the vast
majority of the electorate is unsympathetic. This is why their strategy has
a major "stealth" component. It is also why when this, and other reporters,
exposed the theocratic views, covert modus operandi, and militarist
language of Pat Robertson and the Christian Coalition, the Coalition hired
a public relations firm to reshape not its program, but its image. The
coalition's executive director, Ralph Reed, now scurries between TV and
radio talk shows, and newspaper interviews, broadcasting his claim that the
Christian Coalition really does respect religious pluralism, and is
reaching out to "the mainstream," or "casting a wider net." Reed is
emphasizing Republican "pocketbook issues" because the Christian Right
social issues don't have a wide enough appeal.

Martin Mawyer, president of the Christian Action Network, recognizes the
hypocrisy in this. Writing in the Washington Post recently, he suggested
that Reed may have "become a slave to public opinion polls and statistics."

This split between the ideologue and the political operatives is an
inherent weakness in this movement. By appealing to the mainstream, they
risk alienating their conservative religious base. But there are limits to
expansion without allies, which so far, are few and tentative.

The Coalition's ballyhooed (and virtually nonexistent) outreach to blacks,
for example, has produced little beyond their alliance of convenience with
the opportunistic Roy Innis of CORE, whose collaboration with the
neo-fascist and anti-Semitic Lyndon LaRouche discredited Innis with most of
the black community.

Concern about how few blacks were present at the 1992 Coalition national
conference was even raised from the floor. Gary Bauer (of the Family
Research Council, who was at the podium) said he hoped that the 1993
conference would include "a third or a fourth, or a fifth of this audience
being our black brothers and sisters." However, there was about the same
number of blacks as 1992, (about a dozen) while the number of whites
increased by about a thousand.

There will undoubtedly be few black siblings in the Christian Coalition
family as long as Billy McCormack (a longtime supporter of ex-Nazi,
ex-Klansman David Duke) remains one of the only four directors of the
Christian Coalition — along with Pat Robertson, his son Gordon, and Dick
Weinhold of the Texas Christian Coalition.

Legal limbo

Robertson just completed his multi- million dollar law school building at
the sprawling Regent University campus. Besides the 350 law students, the
state- of-the-art facility houses the American Center for Law and Justice,
Robertson's answer to the ACLU.

Regent Law has a provisional accreditation from the American Bar
Association. However, problems have broken out which may sink the school's
chances for full accreditation.

Robertson wants to groom a generation of"Christian" lawyers to litigate and
legislate their way to theocracy. It is worth recalling that the school
changed its name from CBN University to Regent in the 1980s, to better
reflect its mission. Robertson said at the time that a "regent" is one who
governs in the absence of a sovereign."

"One day, if we read the Bible correctly," he predicted, "we will rule and
reign along with our sovereign, Jesus Christ. So this is a kingdom
institution to teach people how they may enter into the privilege that they
have as God's representatives on the face of the earth."

Herb Titus, the founding dean, was recently fired in an apparent effort to
make the school appear more mainstream to the ABA. Titus taught common law
and constitutional law — alongside the works of R. J. Rushdoony, the
progenitor of Christian Reconstructionism who advocates replacing the
"heresy of democracy" with biblical law.

However, the firing has led to concern about the stability of the school.
In a rare action, eight of Regent's 14 full-time professors have filed a
complaint with the ABA. The Virginian-Pilot reported that when Robertson
announced Titus' replacement, he publicly warned faculty and students
against"ongoing rebellion." In a draconian measure, campus security guards
received orders to collar any students seen wearing "Reunite us with Titus"
T-shirts. This is, of course, the standard response of an autocrat whose
views or actions are questioned, and exactly why the faculty and the ABA
are concerned about standards of tenure and academic freedom at Regent Law.

Titus, meanwhile, is considering a lawsuit. Marilyn Titus, Herb's wife,
told the Freedom Writer that her husband is trying to iron out the
disagreement "according to Matthew 18," a biblical pattern to resolve
conflicts, but Robertson is unwilling to talk. A suit appears imminent.

A pattern of abuse?

Meanwhile, the Robertson empire may be in jeopardy of losing tax-exempt
status held by its core organizations, and lead to its ultimate collapse.

The IRS, along with a Congressional committee, is currently investigating
19 television ministries including CBN.

Recently, the Virginian-Pilot reported that a for-profit business jointly
owned by Pat Robertson and the nonprofit CBN is under scrutiny because of
possible conflict of interest between the charitable role of CBN and
Robertson's pecuniary interests. Robertson reportedly ordered the use of
CBN personnel in dealing with a problem with the business. This may be an
example of what the commissioner of the IRS recently told Congress of a
"pattern of abuse" in the non-profit tax status of TV ministries "that
cause us concern." The problem is the misuse of the resources of tax-exempt
charitable organizations by "insiders" for private, personal benefit.

Another example that might fit a pattern of abuse was when, in the 1980s,
CBN funneled millions of dollars into Robertson's non-profit, tax-exempt
Freedom Council, which in turn used the money to further his presidential
ambitions. The Freedom Council shut down in the face of federal
investigations.

The Robertson organization often functions as an integrated unit, carrying
out a common mission, without regard to the rules by which the rest of
society plays.

Robertson wants his law school to be accredited by the ABA, but apparently
ignores or interprets away its standards when they are inconvenient.

Robertson wants tax exemptions for his organizations, but appears to be
unwilling or unable to adhere to the rules by which everyone else is
required to play. In fact, when I attended the Christian Coalition's first
two Road to Victory conferences, it was apparent to me that the coalition
was flaunting its provisional non-profit 501 (c)(4) tax status by
functioning as a blatantly electoral entity. The IRS is investigating the
coalition as well.

Robertson claims that evangelical Christians are persecuted, victims of
religious discrimination. Yet Robertson's hotel, the Founders Inn, adjacent
to CBN studios and Regent U, practices religious discrimination with a
policy of hiring born-again Christians only.

The numbers game

The Christian Coalition routinely uses inflated statistics and makes
unsubstantiated claims about itself. Sources inside the Christian Coalition
have informed the Freedom Writer, for example, that the chapter and
membership figures are inflated. While the Coalition's growth has been
genuinely impressive, there is absolutely no evidence to support its claims
of 10,000 new members a week — nor that there are 850 chapters, or, as the
Christian Science Monitor unquestioningly reported, "450,000 dues-paying
members." In New York state, for example, a number of chapters have fallen
apart or are moribund. These are not, of course, the kinds of things the
Coalition issues in the form of press releases.

At the 1992 Road to Victory conference in Virginia Beach, Reed declared
that they would have 3,000 delegates at the 1993 conference in Washington,
DC. They got about 2,200 unimpressive for a group claiming 10,000 new
members a week. What's more, attendance was determined by whomever had the
time and money to come, rather than as elected representatives of a larger
body, as the term delegate implies.

While it is important to take the Christian Right seriously, it is as
important to avoid exaggeration as it is to avoid underestimation. While
unique in many respects, the Christian Right suffers the same kinds of
problems as any other political movement — burnout, deaths, children, jobs,
members moving away, internal conflicts, hypocrisy, failures of leadership,
and inability to live up to its own propaganda.

The days of the religious right as a joke are mostly gone. It's also time
to dispel the myth of the religious right as a juggernaut.