Christian involvement in conservative politics today looks radically different from the activism of the eighties.
The morning after last month’s California primary, Traditional Values Coalition (TVC) founder Louis Sheldon was tired, but exultant. He had stayed up much of the night awaiting election returns, and his assessment was simple: “The Christians won.”
The California primary had indeed been a season of unprecedented grassroots mobilization of conservative Christian activists. TVC combined efforts with a powerful regional chapter of the Virginia-based Christian Coalition (CC) and a bevy of well-informed citizens affiliated with groups that included Concerned Women for America, Focus on the Family, Operation Rescue (OR), and Citizens for Excellence in Education. They staffed phone banks, walked precincts, distributed tens of thousands of voter’s guides, volunteered in campaigns, and in many cases, ran for office themselves.
Sheldon and other religious activists say the results of their efforts are undeniable: Hundreds of “prolife, profamily” candidates won at all levels, from school boards to Congress. Eleven out of 13 pro-family candidates in targeted California state assembly races were victorious. Ironically, the biggest victory by the conservative Christians came in a race for the U.S. Senate, where Jewish television commentator Bruce Herschensohn narrowly upset moderate Republican Tom Campbell.
What was at work in California was not Jerry Falwell’s Religious Right. Rather, it was a new generation of well-organized, politically sophisticated Christian activism that is rising up across the country. Its emphasis is a grassroots approach that looks radically different from that of the 1980s.
“There has been a strategic reorientation of the Religious Right,” says University of Maine professor Matthew Moen. “These folks have left the Washington scene and headed out into the hinterlands where they are pursuing different kinds of activities.” Moen is author of the newly released book The Transformation of the Christian Right (University of Alabama).
Gone, for the most part, are the large, Washington-focused headquarters, the spots on “Larry King Live,” and the talk of “defeating Satan” at the ballot box. Instead, the Religious Right has become a local phenomenon, applying savvy new techniques to state and local politics. To be sure, most groups still keep a steady eye on Washington, but the philosophy is now activism from the bottom up, rather than top down.
Observers say this new effort is probably best developed in California, where a traditionally strong conservative base has been clashing sharply with a moderate-to-liberal society. Moen believes several other states are not far behind, including Alabama, Alaska, Washington, and Oklahoma. The CC currently has more than 300 local chapters in 40 states. Many states have independent Christian citizens’ groups similar to TVC, which began in California in 1982. TVC itself is branching out, with new chapters recently begun in ten states. But last month, attention was on California, which many considered a test case for future Religious Right success.
Growing Sophistication
On the Monday afternoon before the election, 34 high-school students from Bethel Baptist Christian School in Garden Grove headed deep into their parents’ voting district to canvass for Republican Rep. Bob Dornan. Armed with detailed precinct maps that clearly marked the homes of prolife Republican voters, the students left “get out the vote” literature at the doors of those likely to support Dornan.
In the final week before the election, hundreds of volunteers across the district participated in similar precinct walks, many coordinated by TVC and CC representatives. Local polls had shown Dornan, a conservative, prolife incumbent, in trouble against his prochoice challenger, Judith Ryan. But in the end, Dornan easily won. Sheldon believes Christians provided the margin of victory.
One of the most crucial aspects of the new conservative movement has been new political know-how. And CC executive director Ralph Reed, an experienced political activist, is one of the masters. Under his direction, the CC is implementing a sophisticated set of techniques designed to deliver maximum political impact. Through a massive set of phone surveys, each CC chapter is developing a computer data base of voters categorized by their party, their position on abortion and other “family issues,” their voting patterns, and their particular issue “burdens.” Direct mail and literature can then be tailored for specific voters. Just prior to elections, volunteers run phone banks, reminding constituents in key races to vote. Absentee ballots are sent to those unable to make it to the polls on election day.
Voter’s guides, first used by the Religious Right in the eighties, have also been updated. Last month, for example, the cc distributed about 500,000 guides statewide, mostly to churches. The group produced guides specific to each congressional district, comparing the positions of all the major Senate and House candidates on several issues: abortion, education vouchers, gay rights, capital punishment, a handgun waiting period, pornography, tax increases, a balanced-budget amendment, federally controlled health care, and federally controlled child care. TVC distributed about 300,000 copies of its voter’s guide, which covered the positions of the presidential, U.S. Senate, House, state senate, and state assembly candidates on similar issues.
At first glance, the guides hardly seem sophisticated; they are little more than simple “yes or no” charts, with no room for explanation or nuance of the issues. But with mass distribution in church bulletins, mailboxes, lobbies, and parking lots, conservative activists say the guides are effective, particularly for those voters who may get no other education about the candidates.
Religious Votes Could Swing Presidential Race
Religious Right activists may be shifting their focus from presidential elections to state and local races, but a new survey suggests they could still be pivotal in deciding who will be sitting in the White House come next January.
“This year, the religious nature of American politics has been somewhat subordinated to other concerns … and yet, [religious voting blocs] may well play a very important role in the outcome of this year’s election, especially in view of the developing three-way nature of the race,” says James Guth, codirector of a new study conducted by the University of Akron’s Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics.
According to the survey, released last month, evangelicals and mainline Protestants could provide the key elements of a Republican coalition that would back the re-election of George Bush over a Democrat. More than 60 percent of all evangelicals and mainline Protestants surveyed said they were likely to vote for Bush in November.
Won By The Gop
Mainline Protestants have traditionally been a core constituency for the Republican party. But Guth says the figures show a significant trend of evangelicals moving away from their Democratic heritage.
“White evangelical Protestants have gone from a group being wooed by the GOP to being one that looks like it has been won by the GOP,” says Guth, chairman of the political science department at Furman University. “In many ways, evangelicals have become much more solidly the base of the Republican vote and Republican identification than mainline Protestants.”
However, the survey also found that the issue of abortion could split the Republican religious voting blocs. More than half of all evangelicals take a prolife stand, while more than half of all mainline Protestants are prochoice. And among highly religious respondents, the differences are even more stark: nearly three-quarters of the “most religious” evangelicals take a strict prolife position, compared to only 44 percent of the most religious mainline Protestants.
On the Democratic side, black Protestants and Jewish voters appear to be firmly committed to their historic partisan roots. Only about 20 percent of each of those groups expressed potential support for Bush.
Catholics could be a swing group in November’s election, says Wheaton College professor Lyman Kellstedt, another survey codirector. Although the majority of Catholics tend to be Democrats, more than half said they were likely to vote for Bush.
A Ross Perot candidacy could make the religious vote even more significant, survey directors say. Although the poll was conducted early this spring, before Perot gained momentum, a surprising 20 percent of all respondents expressed support for an unnamed third candidate, with the strongest interest coming from Catholic voters. Evangelicals were the religious bloc least likely to be interested in an independent candidate.
Still another measure of the movement’s growing political sophistication, according to Sheldon, is its lack of a Christian religious litmus test for those it supports. He points to Christian backing for the Jewish Herschensohn, who is a prolife conservative. “He is much more Christian in his [political] philosophy than many half-baked, so-called Christians,” Sheldon says.
Deeper Involvement
On the night of election Tuesday, Susan Odom formally disbanded the statewide prayer chain she had set up on behalf of U.S. Senate candidate Bill Allen, whose unsuccessful primary challenge of incumbent John Seymour had come to an end. Despite her candidate’s defeat, Odom, a member of First Evangelical Free Church in Fullerton, said many good things came out of his campaign, including unprecedented participation by church people.
“Christians are definitely getting more and more involved in the political process behind the scenes,” she says. Odom, who is also an OR veteran, had supported previous campaigns, but she decided to take a full-time position with Allen’s. “I thought, here is something that could have a great impact on our country.”
A key element in the new Religious Right is its ability to mobilize people who are actually willing to get out and work for a candidate. Says Sheldon, “We see the church as one of the ultimate, local grassroots entities.”
Some in the pews are experienced political operatives, first drawn into the fray in the eighties. Others jumped aboard during Pat Robertson’s ill-fated 1988 run for the White House and decided to stay on. But many new recruits continue to pour in as well, spurred on by a deep concern over society’s move away from what Sheldon calls the “Judeo-Christian ethic.”
“There are a lot of people just like me who are getting into the system in a bigger way than they have ever done,” says Terry Cantrell, administrator of the Bethel Baptist Christian school. “We’re trying to say, ‘Our values are just as important as anybody else’s.’ ” Cantrell was elected to the local Republican committee.
The number of OR activists translating their rescue energies into politics is another surprising development. They cite many reasons for their new political involvement, including a desire to effect more lasting change, disenchantment with the rescue tactic, and concern about the harsh sentences courts are imposing on rescuers.
This grassroots commitment could be pivotal for the movement’s future, according to Calvin College professor Corwin Smidt. “Given the sorry state of affairs for party organization right now, candidates welcome any type of involvement they can get.”
Black Conservatives
On Saturday morning, about 120 kids from several black churches gathered at the Compton Civic Center for a rally and neighborhood walk on behalf of Walter Tucker, the underdog candidate in their district’s Democratic congressional race. The rally was organized by members of the Coalition of Pastors for Christian Empowerment and the Coalition for the Restoration of the Black Family and Society (CRBFS), an organization started by TVC. CRBFS spokesperson Marty Stringer says the churches got behind Tucker because of his “good, conservative, moral views on issues.”
According to Stringer, more and more black churches are becoming frustrated with the liberal positions of many of their politicians. And they are willing to do something about it. “I believe the black churches will be a new paradigm for political involvement,” he says. Three days after the rally, Tucker was the upset winner in the race.
While the Religious Right of the 1980s was almost exclusively a white, middle-class movement, an increasing number of black conservative Christians are joining the new battle. Particularly in California, TVC has been successful in forging a network of black churches to help fight gay rights and distribution of condoms in schools.
One emerging spokesperson is Star Parker, who heads a Christian publishing company called Not Forsaking the Assembling and has worked closely with TVC on a number of projects. She has been especially involved in applying conservative principles to inner-city problems.
“Within the church setting where I came from, all that we were being taught was actually conservative politics, but we sure didn’t call it that,” Parker says. She says her promotion of conservative values has touched a nerve in her community. “Whenever I speak, my phone rings off the wall with people saying, ‘Go ahead, girlfriend, we need to hear it.’ “
Many leaders in the black community are skeptical, and even hostile, about suggestions that huge numbers of African-Americans will join the conservatives. Indeed, statistics show that the overwhelming majority of blacks are Democrats and liberal. But Parker agrees with Stringer that black churches are a potentially strong source of conservative constituents. For her and for others, the question of how open Religious Right groups really are to blacks still lingers. “There is a whole lot of healing that still needs to take place” before trust can be built, she admits. Nevertheless, she is confident the process has begun.
Challenges For The Future
The extent to which the Religious Right can weave together these new elements to become a movement with a national impact remains unclear. Certainly California’s successes last month will provide inspiration to fledgling efforts in other places. However, observers say there are several challenges ahead.
James Guth, professor at Furman University in South Carolina, believes the places where such efforts can be successful may be limited. His research has found that Christian political activism is strongest in areas “where modern issues are clashing with traditional values.” Says Guth emphatically, “That is not everywhere.”
Until now, much of the new Religious Right organizing has been done without scrutiny from the news media, who had proclaimed the movement dead years ago. But success will very likely bring more attention and more opposition from outside groups.
In California, the movement has drawn criticism from those within the Christian community as well. Stephen Monsma, a political science professor at Pepperdine University, says that, as an evangelical, he agrees with many of the moral positions of the Religious Right. However, while he applauds their growing political involvement, he says he is “bothered a great deal” by the triumphalistic overtones of their work. Brian Sellers-Peterson, a Fuller Theological Seminary graduate and Bread for the World leader in California, is more pointed. He says he is often embarrassed by the Religious Right’s presumption to speak for all Christians. “Where is their concern for feeding the hungry, proclaiming liberty, and doing justice?” he asks, indicating issues that are important to him yet largely unaddressed by the Religious Right.
Author Moen believes the new Religious Right may find it difficult to sustain Christian interest across the nation. But if they succeed, he says, this new Right could be “much more of a force to be reckoned with” than was its predecessor of the eighties.
The Christian Coalition’s Reed is less restrained about predicting future success. He believes the Christian impact will be felt after this November’s election. By focusing on the number of feminist women running for office this year, Reed says, “the media are missing it. This isn’t the year of the woman; this is the year of the Lord.”
By Kim A. Lawton in Orange County, California.
