Christian Coalition

Today, The 700 Club ran a segment on the attempt by Muslims to build a new Islamic Center in Murfreesboro, Tennessee that was nothing more than a collection of baseless insinuations that funding for the development was coming from overseas and that Murfreesboro was being targeted by Muslims because it is such a strongly Christian community:

Mosque officials say the money was raised in the community. But local journalist Rebecca Bynum said she isn't convinced.

"In other mosques, like in Boston and other areas where there's been huge mosques built, the funding did come from overseas, principally from Saudi Arabia, rich individuals from countries like Saudi Arabia and the UAE," she said.

Murfreesboro is not alone. two more mega-mosques are now being planned for Tennessee--one in Memphis and another the town of Antioch, near Nashville.

"It does seem to be part of a larger strategy to build mosques in rural areas and create Islamic communities--large Islamic communities--in rural areas for some larger purpose," said Bynum, a columnist for the New English Review

 

Cardoza-Moore believes the purpose is clear in middle Tennessee.

"You have Bible book publishers, you have Christian book publishers, you have Christian music headquartered here," she said. "So this is where the Gospel message goes out. And the radical Islamic extremists have stated that they're still fighting the Crusaders--and they see this as the capital of the Crusaders."

But nothing quite captures the absurdity of this piece like the fact that, at the end, Pat Robertson claiming that Muslims are bribing local officials in order to build these sorts of complexes while warning that Muslims are going to move into this sorts of communities in order to take over city councils so that they can turn their religious views into law. 

That, by the way, was the exact purpose of the Christian Coalition, which Robertson himself founded:

• FRC needs donations to fight ENDA, which is "the pot of gold at the end of the homosexual 'rights' rainbow ... the end of moral opposition to counterfeit marriage, homosexuals in the military, the indoctrination of school children, the rest of the homosexual rights agenda, and the lottery for trial lawyers."
• The Christian Coalition takes credit for stopping the DISCLOSE Act.
• Phyllis Schlafly has endorsed Todd Tiahrt.
• Benny Hinn needs $2 million and insists he's not in a relationship with fellow evangelist Paula White.
• The Liberty Counsel stands alone in supporting the court decision striking down Arizona's anti-immigrant law.
• The Western Center for Law & Policy has released a "Voters Guide for the Serious Christian" [PDF].
• Gary Bauer support efforts to boost development and production of electric cars, but wants it known that he's not going "whacko green."

As we’ve noted before, religious right leaders are desperate to jump aboard the Tea Party bandwagon. Now Tea Party backed candidate Sharron Angle is returning the favor, networking with Christian Coalition founder Ralph Reed and attributing her political success to God.

The Tea Party movement is better-known for its alignment with libertarian, anti-Washington sentiment than for its ties to social conservatism. But in an effort to build as broad a coalition as possible in her effort to unseat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Tea Party favorite Sharron Angle is checking all the boxes.

Over the weekend, Angle participated in an interview with Ralph Reed, the longtime conservative activist, founder of the Christian Coalition, and the man once deemed the "right hand of god" by Time Magazine. And in the course of answering a question about her rise from relative obscurity, the Nevada Republican made a rather bold declaration. Her path to victory, she said, was God's plan.

Imagine that you were the president of a Religious Right organization that was, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, among the most influential political operations in the nation.  Since then, the organization has drastically constricted and lost nearly all of its relevance.  As such, as president of said organization, you are constantly on the lookout for ways to make an impact and announce to the world that you are, in fact, still a group to be reckoned with. 

How would you go about trying to do that?

Well, if you are Roberta Combs of the Christian Coalition, you do so by announcing that you want to see the Twilight series banned because the books are luring the nation's teens into the occult: 

Meanwhile, conservative Christian organizations that sought to ban the Harry Potter books because they're about wizards and witches are divided about criticizing Twilight.

Roberta Combs, president of the Christian Coalition of America, which called for a ban on the Potter series, says she's considering a similar campaign against Twilight because even though it's pro-abstinence, it's also pro-vampires.

She says vampires are definitely not good role models, and she blames Hollywood.

"We can let our voices be heard, and anytime you do that you have an effect one way or another," Combs says. "These Twilight books are very disturbing books for family values. Teen marriage is not the standard, but the part that is more troubling is the vampire. It's just not normal for young people to idolize a vampire."

If Combs' mission is to ensure that the Christian Coalition remains a laughingstock ... well, mission accomplished.

Yesterday, we wrote a post about a shadowy group called The New Sons of Liberty which was poised to spend a $1 million on anti-gambling ads tied to Alabama's primary election.  The group exempted Roy Moore from its attacks on the grounds that he is the only candidate opposed to all forms of gambling, but nobody has been able to figure out who was behind the group or where the money was coming from.

And now the planned ad buy has been canceled:

A mysterious new political group canceled $1 million of TV advertising time for the last week of Alabama's primary elec­tion, leaving stations to scramble for new advertisers to replace what would have been a blockbuster buy.

Station sales managers said they re­ceived an e-mail shortly after 1 p.m. Thurs­day saying the ad buy for the New Sons of Liberty was being called off.

"We ask that you please cancel all buys related to this client. A spot will not be able to be made, nor will the checks be sent out," the e-mail said.

Nobody seems to be sure if this ad buy was real or a hoax or what, though Randy Brinson, president of the Christian Coalition of Alabama, said that he knows the out-of-state interests who were behind the group but cannot reveal that information because it will compromise the identity of the person who revealed it to him.

I think it is safe to assume that Ralph Reed's underhanded work exploiting his Religious Right allies for the benefit of Jack Abramoff's clients' gambling interests has been completely forgiven by various leaders of the very movement he sought to exploit.  

In recent weeks, Reed has used his Faith and Freedom Coalition to host meetings that included the likes of Richard Land and Rep. Marsha Blackburn and rub shoulders with Rep. Michele Bachmann, as he travels the country presenting his plans to gain control of House, Senate, and state legislatures though his new, more strident "Christian Coalition on steroids".

And this effort appears to be chugging along, as he was just in Texas, Pennsylvania, and Missouri where he picked up the support of Phyllis Schlafly, Rick Santorum, and Sen. Jim Talent: 

Nobody really pays much attention to the Christian Coalition any more because, frankly, they don't seem to do very much ... which is too bad because it would be really great for my blogging if they'd send out more absurdly over-the-top statements like this one:

In addition to the three previous days of infamy in American history, Sunday, March 21, 2010 will go down in history as a very infamous day full of betrayal and deceit. Japan conducted a sneak attack on America at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The United States Supreme Court in its Roe v. Wade decision on January 22, 1973 legalized abortion resulting in the brutal deaths of 50 million unborn children up to the present time. Islamic terrorists attacked America in September 11, 2001 resulting in the deaths of over 3,000 innocent souls.

This past Sunday, a day which will live in infamy -- the Lord's Day of all days -- the Democrat Party attacked the foundations of the United States of America and established the beginning of European-style socialism (and worse) in America by its vote in the United States House of Representatives ... The only good thing about Sunday's day of infamy is that unlike the attacks on America on December 7, 1941 and September 11, 2001, what the Democrat Party did to attack America -- by defying the will of the great majority of the American people and imposing ObamaCare upon them -- can be, and will be, undone by the American people. They will begin to do so on Election Day, November 2nd.

You know, it really is amazing that comparing Democrats to terrorists and traitors and Nazis has become so common among the Right that nobody even bats an eye any more. 

Religion Dispatches' Sarah Posner has a really good article on Ralph Reed and his miraculous resurrection through his Faith and Freedom Coalition which contains a lot of useful information, a lot of which I was totally unaware of, like the fact that Tim Phillips, which whom Reed c0-founded Century Strategies after leaving the Christian Coalition, is now the president of Tea Party activist firm Americans for Prosperity and that Reed's new organization is apparently cannibalizing his previous organization to create his new organization:

Reed’s FFC is essentially a retread of the Christian Coalition which, under Reed’s leadership, was investigated by Congress, the Federal Election Commission, and ultimately (after Reed’s departure) had its tax-exempt status denied over its engagement in electoral politicking. But Reed, who has managed to survive the Christian Coalition meltdown, his two-timing of evangelicals through his business association with Abramoff, and his 2006 loss in the Republican primary for lieutenant governor of Georgia, is sifting the remnants of the Christian Coalition infrastructure to build FFC.

O'Neal Dozier, pastor of the Worldwide Christian Church in Pompano Beach, Florida, and a Christian Coalition of Florida board member, said that the board voted last year to “come under the umbrella of” the FFC. For an organization that was low on funds, said Dozier, it was “a great opportunity that we felt we couldn’t pass up.”

Now Dozier also serves on the FFC board, and says that the affiliation brings “more fundraising capabilities. With Faith and Freedom and with Ralph being known as he is, we can get more conservatives involved and coming to functions that we have in order to raise funds,” both locally and nationally. “It costs a lot of money to print voter guides,” he chuckled.

Also rather amazing is the fact that nobody in the movement is particularly concerned about Reed's Jack Abramoff-related double-dealings:

Yet Reed continues to elicit effusive praise from fellow evangelicals. The Christian Broadcasting Network’s David Brody claims FFC “is indeed poised to be a major player in the 2010 and 2012 elections.” About Reed’s association with Abramoff, [Iowa Christian Alliance president Steve] Scheffler told RD, “if you look at the whole explanation it was a nonissue, it was the press that made something out of nothing that was there.” He added that Iowa activists were “excited” that Reed was the master of ceremonies for the Iowa Christian Alliance’s fundraiser this week, at which Rick Santorum was the keynote speaker.

Cindy Costa, the Republican National Committeewoman for South Carolina and former Christian Coalition activist, told RD that Reed is a “fine gentleman” and “helpful to the conservative movement.” After an FFC organizing event in Tennessee last week, Richard Land, head of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, called the FFC “one of the most important forces for sound public policy in America in the coming years.” And GOP operative Chip Saltsman, forced to pull out of the race for Republican National Committee chair last year after he distributed a “Barack the Magic Negro” CD, added that FFC “has already been effective in identifying and turning out conservative voters and we’re pleased to bring it to Tennessee.”

But rest assured that even though Reed might be seeking to tie his current activism to the Tea Party movement, he isn't abandoning his Religious Right foundation:

Reed went on to claim that not running the country on a Judeo-Christian moral code is actually contrary to democracy. “So really, when you really get right down to it, James,” he said, “democracy doesn’t really work at all unless there is a citizenry animated by a moral code that derives from their faith in God. That’s what makes the whole thing work because otherwise, the government has to tell everybody what to do.”

I encourage you to read the whole thing.

It looks like Ralph Reed has decided not to run for Congress in order to focus on growing the influence of this Faith and Freedom Coalition:

Dear Friend:

I wanted you to be among the first to know of my decision regarding running for Congress in the Seventh District of Georgia. The following statement will be released to the public shortly but I wanted you to have it first:

"After much thought and prayer, I have decided not to be a candidate for Congress in Georgia's Seventh district in 2010. I believe I can best advance conservative principles by continuing to serve as CEO of Century Strategies, LLC, and founding chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition. Century's voter contact subsidiary and grassroots team will be involved in a number of races in 2010. FFC is growing rapidly, with over 150,000 members and supporters already, currently adding one new state chapter a week and 1,000 new members a day.

In 2010 and 2012, FFC will register an estimated one million new faith-based voters and make tens of millions of voter contacts in what may be the largest conservative get-out-the-vote effort in modern political history. These nationwide efforts offer a much better prospect for changing the direction of the country than winning a Congressional race myself. In the end, I concluded I cannot run for Congress and carry out the plans I have for Century Strategies and Faith and Freedom Coalition at the same time. I had to make a choice. I believe electing 50 to 100 men and women of character and conservative beliefs to Congress and statewide office over the next two election cycles is a more efficacious way to advance the conservative agenda than seeking public office myself in 2010.

Should that door open in the future, perhaps I will arrive at a different decision, but I know this is the right decision at this time for me and the Reed family. Jo Anne and I have been deeply moved and encouraged by the expressions of support we have received from so many. We are proud to call Georgia our home and we look forward to continuing to be involved in the civic life of our state and the nation. God bless you as we work together for an historic victory in 2010."

Actually, it seemed pretty clear that Reed was going to pass on running for office after he showed up in Iowa yesterday and vowed that, with a half-million dollars, his Faith and Freedom Coalition would help conservatives completely take over the state:

Ralph Reed, the former head of the Christian Coalition and a veteran Republican strategist, told a Des Moines crowd Tuesday night that he was helping establish an Iowa-based Christian political organization, and if he could raise $500,000, Hawkeye State politics would be changed for the better.

With that money, Reed said his organization — the Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition — can promise results like the nation saw in the gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey, as well as the U.S. Senate campaign in Massachusetts. Reed said the national version of his organization was highly involved in those campaigns, each of which saw Republican victories on Election Night.

“We need to raise about a half a million dollars to execute that program,” he said. “The program that I just described to you that made history in Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts, if you want to see it happen in Iowa we need to raise a half a million dollars.”

Reed, who was speaking at an Iowa Christian Alliance event, then instructed staff to pass buckets around for people to donate money, promising that any funds raised Tuesday night will be matched by his national organization.

“Tonight, when you give, we’re not a PAC and we’re not a candidate,” he said. “Therefore, there is no limit to what you give here tonight.”

...

“We’re not going to leave the express advocacy during an election to the radical left, MoveOn.org and labor unions anymore,” he said. “We’re going to do it, and we’re going to get people who share our values elected to office, from governor all the way down to the statehouse and school boards all across the state of Iowa.”