Posts on Ken Connor

Ken Conner, former president of the Family Research Council, is blasting Dobson, Perkins, and the like for selling out: "They've enjoyed having a seat at the table for so long that they didn't in many instances stand on principle when they should have, and they've lost credibility with their people."

To ban same-sex marriage. (Ken Connor feeling vindicated?) New Mexico cited.

Ken Connor rips “tort reform,” attorneys firing.

In a column mulling the role of Evangelicals in the 2008 election, Bishop Harry Jackson claims that in recent years, they “voted their values” based on “gay marriage and pro-life concerns” – an assumption contradicted by the Center for American Values poll – but that now the Evangelical movement is undergoing a “political makeover.” One might guess that Jackson was referring to the dispute between the National Association of Evangelicals and religious-right activists (including Jackson) led by James Dobson over whether talking about climate change and torture distracts from the core mission of Christians. Instead, Jackson – who is a frequent Religious Right spokesman – sees that debate as part of a liberal conspiracy to undermine “the historic passion that the ‘moral majority’ has had for the issues of protection of life and guarding the traditional family”:

During this transformation from caterpillar to butterfly, a host of enemies are attempting to prevent an evangelical resurrection. A sophisticated, pincer strategy is being waged against them by two groups--–liberal Christians and the liberal press. Both groups fear that the sleeping giant will awaken with an attitude.

Of course, this concern by the Dobson group that outreach on alternate issues would distract from gay marriage, abortion, and abstinence education was not voiced during and after the last election, as the Religious Right’s definition of core issues of so-called “values voters” rapidly expanded to encompass most of the Republican Party platform, from the War on Terror to tax cuts and Social Security to a fear of “socialized medicine.”

So it is that the religious-right activists most closely aligned with partisan campaigns have made discrediting the National Association of Evangelicals a priority. One more example comes from Mark Tooley of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, a group founded in the early 1980s to counter criticism of Reagan Administration policies in Central America by the National Council of Churches and to create an ideological “renewal” in mainline protestant churches by painting the NCC as Communist sympathizers. Tooley invokes the IRD’s defining campaign against the National Council of Churches in describing the National Association of Evangelicals:

Catholic League head complains. More on stem cells from CWA, ex-FRC head Connor, FRC, Focus, Illinois Federation for Right to Life, and Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity.

In the weeks leading up to the midterm elections, religious-right leaders incorporated more and more of the Republican Party platform into their definition of the “values voter,” beyond their traditional wedge issues to tax and pension policy and strategies for the war on terror. But at least one movement stalwart has been increasingly critical of religious-right activists’ dedication to partisan politics.

While James Dobson, head of Focus on the Family and founder of the Family Research Council, has apparently abandoned his threat to hold back on support for Republicans this year, his former lieutenant Ken Connor is still warning that the base may “stay at home.” Connor, the former president of FRC who now heads his own Center for a Just Society, writes that “Christian conservatives” were “in no small part” to thank for the election of George W. Bush, but now—despite a recent politically-timed effort to vote on socially-charged bills—  they ask, “‘What have you done for me lately?’”

A review of the recent record leaves them chagrined.  Notwithstanding the party's lip service, and aside from the confirmation of two promising (yet untested) Supreme Court justices, little real progress has been made in the last two years toward advancing the values agenda.  Planned Parenthood has not been prevented from receiving hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.  The federal courts' jurisdiction has not been trimmed to limit its ability to hear cases involving abortion or same-sex marriage. And the Republican-controlled Congress is outspending its liberal Democratic predecessors.

No doubt, the Republicans would point to the vote on the Marriage Protection Amendment as a testament to their commitment to values voters' priorities.  It was, however, little more than a cynical ploy.  Republican leaders knew the measure had no chance of passage and did precious little to make it pass. That they couldn't even muster majority support in the Republican-controlled Senate is evidence of just how anemic their efforts really were.  Eyewash is not a substitute for the real thing.

In truth, the Republican Party in the last two years has done what it regarded as the absolute minimum necessary to pacify its values voter base.  Sadly, that pacification has come cheap.  Meanwhile, the party has worked hard to advance the agenda of the moneyed and business interests that finance its campaigns.  The unmistakable message has been that the party values money over votes.

As the House GOP runs through its last-minute "values agenda"---a series of votes timed for use in midterm campaigns on issues lifted from the Right such as same-sex marriage, flag burning, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms---at least one prominent Religious Right leader is blanching at the blatant pandering of his congressional allies.

Ken Connor is the former president of the Family Research Council and now leads his own Center for a Just Society. He writes:

We are glad these subjects are finally being debated. Nevertheless, few of these issues have been on the radar screen for the last year-and-a-half. Now, however, just before the election they become "priorities." Coincidence or calculation? A cynic might argue that most Republican senators really don't care about these subjects and that they are just doing what needs to be done to win in November. One who is not a cynic might easily come to the same conclusion.

If you are a faithful evangelical or Catholic, the Republican Party has a box they put you in—"values voter". They know that they need a certain number of voters from this box in order to keep their jobs. And they have a game plan: pay lip service to a few subjects that animate "values voters" right before the election and maybe, just maybe, they can win. They know perfectly well that many "values voters" find it difficult to vote for Democrats, so they do the absolute minimum necessary to win us over and then largely forget us until the next campaign season. Part of this is our own fault. Many of us have allowed ourselves to be defined by one or two issues, forgetting that our Christian faith calls us to redeem all things, not just a few.

Connor is also critical of the tactics of right-wing interest groups:

Christians should be no less fed up with national organizations that try to mobilize us every-other year with overheated rhetoric and bombastic letters. Instead of calmly and rationally discussing the issues we face, we are subjected to dramatic emotional appeals that are aimed at manipulation rather than persuasion.

"Did you know that Senator Hilary Clinton wants to make prayer illegal in America? Did you know that the Democratic Party wants to force all pregnant women to have abortions? It's true! SEND US YOUR MONEY NOW!"

Connor left FRC apparently in part because of a disagreement over the value of pursuing a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage that has little or no chance of passage.

It's difficult to say how representative Connor is of the Religious Right voter base, but he concludes by warning: "We have a simple message for the Republican Party: stop 'using' us in an effort to secure our vote. Give us substance, not symbols—or be prepared for disappointment in November."