Opposition to Health-Care Reform Revives Christian Right By Jacqueline L. Salmon
Washington Post Staff Writer <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/08/AR2009090802985.html>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/08/AR2009090802985.html The Christian right, facing questions before the presidential election about its continuing potency as a force for cultural and political change, has found new life with Barack Obama in office, particularly around health care. As the president prepares to address a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night to press for health-care reform, conservative Christian leaders are rallying their troops to oppose him, with online town hall meetings, church gatherings, fundraising appeals, and e-mail and social networking campaigns. FRC Action, the lobbying arm of the Family Research Council, has scheduled a webcast Thursday night for tens of thousands of supporters in which House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and other speakers will respond to the president's health-care address. "Movements do better when they have something to oppose," said D. Michael Lindsay, a sociology professor at Rice University who studies evangelicals. "It's easier to fundraise in those kinds of situations. It's easier to mobilize volunteers because you have an us versus them mentality, and that plays very well right now for the Christian right." After seeing their bread-and-butter issue of abortion take a back seat during the election last year, the Christian right has been a prime force in moving it back to the front row by focusing on it as a potential part of health-care reform. "It's a busy time," said Tom Minnery, senior vice president of Focus on the Family Action, the lobbying arm of Focus on the Family. He said donations to Focus Action have climbed beyond expectations, although he declined to say by how much. Experts say the resurgent interest is proving that predictions of the death of the Christian right -- widespread before the election -- were again premature. But they say the recent flurry of activity does nothing to solve the underlying challenges facing the movement -- the lack of younger leaders to replace aging ones and ways to engage younger evangelicals who want the movement to embrace a wider range of issues. But, for the moment, conservative Christian leaders are riding high on opposing health-care reform. "Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid and Henry Waxman have done more to energize Christian conservatives than any conservative leader could have done with this health-care package," said Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. "I, who never believed that we were dead, did not believe that it would happen this quickly." Polls show that the health-care packages on the Hill are widely unpopular among evangelicals. More than seven in 10 white evangelical Protestants in the most recent Washington Post-ABC News poll said they are dissatisfied or angry about the Democratic reform proposals. A coalition of three dozen conservative Christian organizations, representing 5 million people and calling itself the Freedom Federation, announced its formation last month. It has taken on opposition to health-care reform as its first issue. "We're not having to build a grand new organization. We're using the strengths of other organizations that understand the needs of their particular constituencies," said Mathew Staver, dean of the Liberty University School of Law and an organizer of the Freedom Federation. Christian right leaders say it is too soon to tell whether health-care reform will trigger a flood of donations, but they are encouraged by the response they are seeing in other ways. Gary Bauer, who heads the socially conservative group American Values, said that the list of addresses to which he sends his daily e-mail alerts was down to 170,000 and that he was getting only 50 requests a week to sign up for it before the election. Now, he said, the e-mail list is up to 225,000, and he is getting 1,000 or more requests a week asking to be added. "The passion that was so evident in the Obama campaign right now, at least, has shifted to our side," he said. Laura Olson, professor of politics at Clemson University, said health-care reform has been a way to rally Christian conservatives and get them back into the national conversation. "It has the potential to remind people in that sector. . . of the American electorate that, 'This is really one of our core concerns, and here's a new manifestation of it,' " Olson said. "It puts a whole new coat of paint on it and makes it even more useful strategically." Polling director Jon Cohen contributed to this report. © 2009 The Washington Post Company <http://blog.au.org/2009/09/09/venomous-visitors-religious-right-leaders-had-run-of-bush-white-house/>http://blog.au.org/2009/09/09/venomous-visitors-religious-right-leaders-had-run-of-bush-white-house/ Venomous Visitors: Religious Right Leaders Had Run Of Bush White House September 9, 2009 Religious Right leaders with a deeply divisive and politically extreme agenda were making themselves right at home in the Bush White House. It is hardly a secret that the Religious Right helped elect President George W. Bush and exercised extraordinary influence with his administration. But if we need more evidence, it's just been put on the table. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Government (CREW) has just released a report tallying visits to the Bush White House by major Religious Right players. CREW filed a request for visitor records that coughed up the information. According to a Sept. 4 CREW press release, the count looks something like this: * For the period April 2001 through June 2006, Focus on the Family Founder and Chairman Emeritus James Dobson visited the White House 24 times; 10 of those visits were to President Bush. * Andrea Sheldon Lafferty, executive director of the Traditional Values Coalition, made an astonishing 50 visits to the White House starting on Feb. 1, 2001, and continuing through March 16, 2008. Six of those visits were to President Bush. * Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America, made 43 visits to the White House between May 2001 and August 2006. Four of those visits were to President Bush. * Gary Bauer, president of American Values, made 10 visits to the White House, starting with a Jan. 6, 2003, visit to Vice President Cheney and ending with a July 20, 2006, visit to President Bush. * The late Jerry Falwell, of Jerry Falwell Ministries, made eight visits to the White House between May 2001 and September 2004. Three of those visits were to President Bush. * Tony Perkins, president of Family Research Council, visited the White House 14 times between February 2001 and June 2006, including two visits to President Bush. * The Rev. Louis Sheldon, chairman of the Traditional Values Coalition, made 19 visits to the White House between March 2001 and September 2006, including two visits to President Bush. * The late Paul Weyrich, founder of Free Congress Foundation, made 17 visits to the White House between May 2001 and July 2005, including six visits to President Bush and one to Karl Rove. * The Rev. Donald Wildmon, founder of the American Family Association, made three visits to the White House between July 2001 and March 2003, including one visit to President Bush. Pretty appalling, huh? Religious Right leaders with a deeply divisive and politically extreme agenda were making themselves right at home in the White House. A few of them practically lived at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue! (Did Andrea Lafferty leave her toothbrush and makeup case there?) Fortunately, this crowd has much less influence with the Obama administration. But they are still waging an intense campaign to influence public policy. The Religious Right today is relentlessly bashing President Barack Obama and aiming its most intense lobbying at Congress and the state legislatures where elected officials are more susceptible to theocratic pressures. The Washington Post reports that Perkins, Dobson, Bauer and their cronies have set their sights on defeating health care reform. The tactics are the same as always: demonizing Obama and top congressional Democrats and inflaming public debate, all in the name of their version of Christianity. This may be bad for democracy and bad for the integrity of authentic religion, but it brings new recruits to the crusade and new dollars to the Religious Right's coffers. It also refutes claims that the movement is dead. Less powerful, happily - but far from dead. "Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Henry Waxman have done more to energize Christian conservatives than any conservative leader could have done with this health-care package," Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptists' Ethics and Religious Liberty [sic] Commission, told The Post. "I, who never believed that we were dead, did not believe that it would happen this quickly." Look for more of the sorry same from the Religious Right in upcoming months. By Joseph L. 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